The current situation in Congress is EXACTLY what the Kochs, Mercers, etc. have been spending many millions of dollars of campaign and conservative think tank contributions over decades to achieve, i.e., the end of effective democratic government. Since an effective democracy is the only thing that stands in the way of them hoarding ever…
The current situation in Congress is EXACTLY what the Kochs, Mercers, etc. have been spending many millions of dollars of campaign and conservative think tank contributions over decades to achieve, i.e., the end of effective democratic government. Since an effective democracy is the only thing that stands in the way of them hoarding ever more of the nation's wealth for themselves and leaving the rest of us to beg for crumbs from their tables, they see democracy as their enemy and want to kill it. As many have pointed out, their interests are more aligned with Russian oligarchs, kleptocratic dictators, oil sheiks, etc. than with their fellow Americans, and they are finally seeing some real return on their investment.
The GoP is quite happy to NOT govern. This is what the big donors pay them for, the results that they want.
Governing means that things get done, problems might get solved, people might receive assistance (or protections) that would ameliorate the dominance of the corps and the plutocrats.
People think and worry all the time (especially on the Right) about the tyranny of the government, but they do not worry about tyranny by anyone else.
I am far more afraid of the plutocrats/corporations and the threats that THEY pose to my liberty than I am of the government.
Either is bad--and it gets worse when one does not stand in the way of the other.
And we already have billionaires interfering with foreign as well as domestic policy! And I'm not even talking about Trump really! Musk. Bezos. Google Guy. Etc. Out in the open. Corporate and Billionaire Tyranny is alive and well on all sides of the aisle.
Exactly. The "starve the beast" mentality to rightwing governance via defunding the federal government and obstructing any attempts to congress tackling problems with money is what brought us here.
If MAGA had their way, the federal government would have limited jurisdiction to do all of exactly three things: have a "strong" military (that can't beat illiterate heroin farmers in Afghanistan with 20 years of federal blank checks), have a border wall, and investigate the Clintons and Bidens. Other than that, their version of government would not try to solve problems or collect the taxes necessary to solve problems other than the aforementioned three.
Grover Norquist ran the GOP for years (unofficiallly) with the slogan of downsizing the govt to the point of being able to "drown it in a bathtub." Those days are here! And Trumpists (never Trump as he was never in charge of anything -- not competent, not interested) made huge headway toward that end, dismantling every agency they got their hands on. Watch for that to continue. Luckily, Biden probably won't sign those bills even if the Senate sent them. But he also can't apparently undo the damage done the past five years. (DeJoy is still at the USPS and still taking it apart.)
Club for Growth, a Koch group, got McCarthy to agree to not have his House PAC "interfere" (my quotes) in primaries. Apparently, this PAC was supporting more moderate candidates.
AMEN. This whole situation didn't arise by accident. Peter Thiel et al spent a lot of money to get this result.
The days of the moneyed class pooling their resources to support a political candidate are gone. This is the age of the oligarchs, where one nut who sells pillows can overthrow democracy. No longer do millionaires have to find other millionaires to agree with them to put McKinley in the White House. Why, everyone you know can tell you that you're wrong and ignorant and dangerous, and you can still buy Twitter or the Wall Street Journal and a few congresspeople and gum up the works for a decade. You don't even have to be American! It works better if you aren't!
The current situation in Congress is EXACTLY what the Kochs, Mercers, etc. have been spending many millions of dollars of campaign and conservative think tank contributions over decades to achieve, i.e., the end of effective democratic government. Since an effective democracy is the only thing that stands in the way of them hoarding ever more of the nation's wealth for themselves and leaving the rest of us to beg for crumbs from their tables, they see democracy as their enemy and want to kill it. As many have pointed out, their interests are more aligned with Russian oligarchs, kleptocratic dictators, oil sheiks, etc. than with their fellow Americans, and they are finally seeing some real return on their investment.
The GoP is quite happy to NOT govern. This is what the big donors pay them for, the results that they want.
Governing means that things get done, problems might get solved, people might receive assistance (or protections) that would ameliorate the dominance of the corps and the plutocrats.
People think and worry all the time (especially on the Right) about the tyranny of the government, but they do not worry about tyranny by anyone else.
I am far more afraid of the plutocrats/corporations and the threats that THEY pose to my liberty than I am of the government.
Either is bad--and it gets worse when one does not stand in the way of the other.
And we already have billionaires interfering with foreign as well as domestic policy! And I'm not even talking about Trump really! Musk. Bezos. Google Guy. Etc. Out in the open. Corporate and Billionaire Tyranny is alive and well on all sides of the aisle.
Exactly. The "starve the beast" mentality to rightwing governance via defunding the federal government and obstructing any attempts to congress tackling problems with money is what brought us here.
If MAGA had their way, the federal government would have limited jurisdiction to do all of exactly three things: have a "strong" military (that can't beat illiterate heroin farmers in Afghanistan with 20 years of federal blank checks), have a border wall, and investigate the Clintons and Bidens. Other than that, their version of government would not try to solve problems or collect the taxes necessary to solve problems other than the aforementioned three.
Grover Norquist ran the GOP for years (unofficiallly) with the slogan of downsizing the govt to the point of being able to "drown it in a bathtub." Those days are here! And Trumpists (never Trump as he was never in charge of anything -- not competent, not interested) made huge headway toward that end, dismantling every agency they got their hands on. Watch for that to continue. Luckily, Biden probably won't sign those bills even if the Senate sent them. But he also can't apparently undo the damage done the past five years. (DeJoy is still at the USPS and still taking it apart.)
Club for Growth, a Koch group, got McCarthy to agree to not have his House PAC "interfere" (my quotes) in primaries. Apparently, this PAC was supporting more moderate candidates.
AMEN. This whole situation didn't arise by accident. Peter Thiel et al spent a lot of money to get this result.
The days of the moneyed class pooling their resources to support a political candidate are gone. This is the age of the oligarchs, where one nut who sells pillows can overthrow democracy. No longer do millionaires have to find other millionaires to agree with them to put McKinley in the White House. Why, everyone you know can tell you that you're wrong and ignorant and dangerous, and you can still buy Twitter or the Wall Street Journal and a few congresspeople and gum up the works for a decade. You don't even have to be American! It works better if you aren't!