These people are not just stupid, insensitive or misguided; they are dangerous to all living things.
You gotta’ give them their
props. The Right has been diligently and systematically working on their
draconian strategy for over 30 years. Setbacks occur but it presses on.
Occasionally, it will boldly announce its moves as if it knows its opponents
are powerless to response with a serious and sustained fight-back. It’s like a
cat knocking a mouse around with no plan for a quick kill but delighting in
ensuring the mouse’s slow and deliberate death.
Ever since the GOP and
their foaming-at-the-mouth Tea Party pals swept state legislatures and the
Congress in midterm elections, they’ve been in lockstep on voter suppression,
jobs annihilation, abortion restrictions, health care crush and the biggy -
making Obama a one-term prez.
For the 33rd time, the
GOP-controlled the House of Representatives repealed the Affordable (Health)
Care Act. Since it was first passed in 2010, Republicans have wasted our tax
dollars 33 times, knowing the Democratically-controlled Senate would beat it
back. They’re poised to repeal it another 33 times.
According to a CBS News
report, these repeal charades have costs taxpayers nearly $50 million dollars. Thinkprogress.org took the debacle
a step further by costing out what could have been done with that kind of money.
It could have provided “subsidies for about 4,500 families of four in the
exchanges, or one year of food stamps for 31,131 people.”
Since the High Court’s
ruling, some Republican governors have shouted to the rooftops that they will
not implement the ACA. The sad and sick part of this is that it’s coming from
the governors with the poorest and least healthy citizens such as Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Florida,
etc.
The conservatives in this
country are anything but conservative, except when it comes to visionary
thinking and humane policies. They love to talk about the beloved U.S.
Constitution until they want to disregard it as they have effectively done with
expansive abortion restrictions, making it hard to tell that Roe v. Wade is
supposed to be the law of the land. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to open the
floodgates of unfettered and undisclosed cash into campaign elections was a-ok.
But when that same Court upheld the ACA, they were accused of everything from
being anti-American to being an activist court. Chief Justice John Roberts was
publicly vilified.
Rep. David Dreier (R-CA)
testified during the repeal hearings that a person with a brain tumor should
not be covered by the ACA. Foster Friess, a billionaire investor and supporter
of Rick Santorum's super PAC, said that Bayer aspirin was effective for birth
control; gals can just “put it between their knees.” Former GOP presidential
candidate, Newt Gingrich, said that poor children had no work ethic and needed
to become janitors to avoid being "future pimps and prostitutes."
Indiana Republican Rep. Bob Morris said the Girl Scouts are “bent on
Communism, lesbianism and destroying America.” And who could forget the
infamous words of Rush Limbaugh who called Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and
a “prostitute” for expressing her views on reproductive rights.
These people are not just stupid, insensitive or misguided; they are dangerous to all living things.
The Right has amped up its
racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic rants and transformed them into
policy and legislation. Congressmen Emanuel Cleaver was spat upon by an angry white
Tea Party protestor as he ascended the steps to the Capitol. Narrow definitions
of marriage have been imposed on us. A record number of laws have been passed
to curtail access to affordable and safe abortions, abortion doctors have been
threatened or killed and abortion clinics have been bombed and de-funded. And
can we say Sharia Law?
It’s very clear to me and
I hope to most fair-minded people that these people are not just stupid,
insensitive or misguided; they are dangerous to all living things. They are in
positions of power that influence or that directly impact the lives of everyday
people. The 99% aka the Mighty Majority must escalate our efforts to educate,
agitate and organize our base. This is not just a numbers game; this is a war
between democracy and plutocracy, a struggle between righteousness and
savagery. The Mighty Majority must re-affirm our collective strength, wisdom
and power. We must win.
BlackCommentator.com Editorial
Board member and Columnist, Jamala Rogers, is the leader of the Organization for Black
Struggle in St. Louis
and the Black
Radical Congress National Organizer. Additionally, she is an Alston-Bannerman
Fellow. She is the author of The
Best of the Way I See It – A Chronicle of Struggle. Click
here to contact Ms. Rogers.
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