I wasn't paying attention while the radio was playing, & I'd swear I heard some guy at a rally say something like "the Democrats say they want to keep guns away from the mentally ill, but they support homosexual marriage, so how can anyone let THEM decide who's crazy?" apparently to support the God-given rights of severely unhinged people to carry firearms.
It made my head hurt. Part of me wants to find out where that clip came from, part of me wants to pretend it never happened.
Spork, I really do agree with most of what you say. I mean, I've been all over the spectrum. The first time I voted was 1976, & I happily voted for Gerald Ford, in part because his opponent was backed by a bunch of grinning creeps calling themselves The Moral Majority.
At state & local levels, I voted mostly Democrat with some leftie minor parties tossed in. I supported Reagan's first term because I
really wanted to believe in the "social safety net" stuff he kept promising. After THAT set of lies, & the ever-increasing use of outright
doublespeak in EVERYTHING said by EVERY representative of the GOP, I gave up completely on the Right.
And I gave up on the Libertarian Party when I realized they were practically parroting
The John Birch Society that had been so active in rural Minnesota when I was a kid.
FWIW: one of the founders of the JBS was Fred Koch, whose sons are, well, just a
little active in financially supporting the spread of Rightist memes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers
So, after hearing that little snippet on the radio, I realized we (as a nation) are hosed.
Mike Malloy once called Bill Clinton "the best Republican president we've ever had," because Bill is only a step or less Leftward of (say) Barry Goldwater:
By the 1980s, the increasing influence of the Christian right on the Republican Party so conflicted with Goldwater's views that he became a vocal opponent of the religious right on issues such as abortion, gay rights, and the role of religion in public life.
"When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye."
He endorsed Democrat Karan English in an Arizona congressional race, urged Republicans to lay off Bill Clinton over the Whitewater scandal, and criticized the military's ban on homosexuals: "Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar." He also said, "You don't need to be 'straight' to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight."
A few years before his death he addressed establishment Republicans by saying, "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."
The thing is, thanks to the Nixon-era Southern Strategy, & then rapidly accelerating during Reagan, discourse & even thinking have been bulldozed so far Rightward that the current "center" would've been considered Moderate Conservative fifty years ago. And I feel as though Hillary Clinton is a step or two Rightward from Bill.
But there's certainly nobody in the GOP horserace who's going to say ANYTHING nice about homosexuals, much less sociosexual deviants such as ourselves. And their economic program is just a bad
Resident Evil ripoff -- call it
Reagonomiics III: The Mutation.
As for Bernie supporting bigger government... no. Just no. For instance, Vermont's income tax rates are about average for the Northeast -- CNN Money ranks them 31st (& 39th on sales/excise taxes). As taxes are
necessary to support a bloated bureaucracy, I'd have to infer that maybe if Bernie can't do it in li'l ol' Vermont, maybe an entire nation is safe.
Okay, so let's consider how he'd treat Big Business. I'll pull up a chart from the "objective" Tax Foundation (a major recipient of Koch Bothers money).
http://taxfoundation.org/article/2015-state-business-tax-climate-index
Therein, Vermont does indeed fall (at #46) into their
10 Worst Business Tax Climates.
...as do California (#48), New York (#49), & Kasich's Ohio (#44). If the TF is saying that business flees these places, then someone really ought to inform (say) Silicon Valley.
Regulation of businesses -- or rather
reregulation -- is easier by the moment. Polluters can be monitored via commercial satellite, & video drones make site inspections a snap.
Taxes? All the hoopla over capital flight & "brain drain" is largely arm-waving nonsense. Let's recall that the Revenue Act of 1935 hit the wealthy for up to 75%.
And then there was 1942, which nailed corporations for 24%, & 31% over $25,000, as well as a surtax (10%-22%). Funny, ain't it, how those who invoke The Good Old Days always seem to forget about these little details?
Bernie's about as Communist as FDR. Socialism is not Communism, the former being an economic philosophy, the latter a politocal ideology. Socialism supports state ownership or control or oversight, but cooperative (usually local) control.
On the other side of the aisle, Fascism believes that a society should be ruled by a tiny minority of the self-perpetuating uber-wealthy. "Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society." Of course, if The People are swayed to "elect" the biggest, loudest, meanest bully in the room, then likelihood of armed revolt is reduced, at least for a while. Hey, has anyone else read
It Can't Happen Here...?
