Republican callousness and cruelty is not a bug in the Republican party, it’s the signature credo.
The Don, who is about to be anointed the Republican candidate for president, sets the tone. He has made fun of a disabled reporter, has suggested at some of his rallies that people use violence and has perpetrated sexual violence on women (remember the Access Hollywood video?). He has already been found guilty of sexually assaulting E. Jean Carrol and now owes her almost 90 million dollars for two separate civil trials for defamation.
He orchestrated an insurrection at the Capitol building to try to stay in power. During the violent attack on the Capitol he watched for hours and did nothing to stop it. He must have found the entire event, where police were brutalized and lawmakers feared for their lives, entertaining! He also maligned his vice president to the point that his violent followers brought a noose to the festivities; he suggested Mike Pence deserved what was coming to him for refusing to do his bidding to help him overturn the results of the election.
He dehumanizes people from “shit hole” countries and promises on Day 1 of his presidency to round up hundreds of thousand immigrants and put them in internment camps. He dehumanizes people of color who he refers to as “vermin” and stated they were poisoning the blood of true Americans. Those were the same words Hitler used to justify the extermination of 6 million Jews.
He vows on Day 1 of his presidency to get retribution on those who betrayed and/or opposed him. His belief that he should have immunity from any action he took (or would take in a second term), including having his own military take out his enemies is terrifying. All to say, that he is a malignant narcissist who feels nothing for others, which allows him to use any means necessary to get what he wants. His world is one in which cruelty is second nature.
Let’s be real here. America is a violent country. It is founded on a genocide of indigenous people and the subjugation and dehumanization of black people. The Don is not the inventor of American violence and cruelty, but his own behavior, condoning and advocating violence, is embraced by millions of Americans (Don’t forget he received 70 million votes in 2020 and only lost states electoral votes by slim margins!)
Children die from mass shootings and Republicans refuse to pass reasonable control regulation. Better to have a gun, than to do something that could make it harder for people to easily access automatic weapons. It is frankly insane and cruel that the need to protect gun rights trumps the need to protect innocent lives. Republicans’ refusal to address this is cynical and cruel.
In some Republican states, women are forced to take pregnancies to term even when the mother’s life is in danger. Doctor’s fear going to jail for providing essential healthcare.
Members of the LGBTQ community are maligned and their presence, in the fantasy of White Christian America, is seen as evidence of the moral decline of America.
The ultra conservative Supreme Court will be deciding a case that would neuter the government’s capacity to regulate. The current case is about fishermen in Rhode Island challenging regulations that monitor overfishing. If the court rules in favor of the fishermen, it will open a pandora’s box, creating challenges to the E.P.A’s ability to regulate businesses, like oil companies, from continuing to destroy the environment. Republicans attempt to deregulate is always about choosing money over lives.
The American Rescue Plan, which was enacted in 2021 during the Covid Pandemic to help families living below the poverty line was wildly successful. By the time it ended, the cash payments received by families was keeping 3.7 million children out of poverty, a 30 percent reduction in the monthly child poverty rate. The hope was that these results would lead to an extension of the program but Republican lawmakers balked and the many families were once again living in poverty. Who gives a shit about those people. .
And then we have the “Let them Eat Cake” moment, minus the cake! More than eight million children in 15 states will be shut out of a new federal food assistance program intended to help needy families during the summer months.
The new program, set to begin this summer, provides low-income families with $120 for each eligible child, which can be used to purchase food at grocery stores, farmers’ markets or other approved retailers when such assistance is not available in schools. Gov Kim “Cruella” Reynolds of Iowa had this to say about feeding the children of Iowa. “An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.” This statement bears repeating. “AN EBT CARD DOES NOTHING TO PROMOTE NUTRITION AT A TIME WHEN CHILDHOOD OBESITY HAS BECOME AN EPIDEMIC.”
Luke Elzinga, policy and advocacy manager with the Des Moines Area Religious Council and board member of the Iowa Hunger Coalition had this to say about Reynolds statement: “Starvation is not a legitimate strategy to reduce childhood obesity,” adding that the opposite is true, that “an abundance of academic research has made clear the link between food insecurity and obesity in the United States.”
Marie Antoinette told the hungry people of France, who were were protesting that they had no bread,: “Let them Eat Cake.” And with that callous remark, the queen became a hated symbol of the decadent monarchy and fueled the French Revolution which ultimately led to the people chanting “Off with her head.”
We need a revolution here as well. We need to chop of the head of the cruelty of the Republican Party and let empathy and kindness reign. If we can find a way to do that we will descend into a soulless darkness that we may not recover from.
The Grand Offal Party 