Republican Politicians Want Government To NOT Work For You — That’s A Problem

The latest US midterm is over — or nearly over — and Democratic candidates had a record wave of support from voters, but there’s still plenty of misunderstanding to clear up. We’ve gone through decades of misinformation campaigns, gaslighting, and political dystrophy. One blue wave doesn’t mean we’ve got everything in order.

One topic I was recently inspired to address is a simple one, but one that seems to skate under the radar of public consciousness.

Republicans have had full control of the federal government for 2 years. What have they done to improve the government in that time?

Honestly, consider it for a moment, what have they done to improve the government?

As far as I’ve seen, nothing. But that’s not surprising. They actually aren’t eager to have the government working better. As long as the government is doing a crappy job of something, they can more convincingly advocate that government programs or policies be cut. It doesn’t really matter to voters if the root problem is Republicans kneecapping the government’s ability to do the job well — voters don’t typically track the source of the issues that far.

The unfortunate problem — well, one of them — is that many people rally behind the idea of “deregulation” as if it means gold will all of a sudden flow from the rivers and cliffs. We’ve all had times when we were annoyed by seemingly unnecessary paperwork, time-consuming bureaucracy, and perhaps small business roadblocks if we’ve been a little entrepreneurial. But clearing away unnecessary paperwork and red tape is not at all the same as what the Republican Party has done while in control of the US government.

Putting an oil industry shill in charge of the EPA — and next a coal company shill — and giving them the go-ahead to roll back protections against toxic chemicals, regional haze, mercury and other toxic substances from fossil power plants, ozone/smog, coal ash, offshore oil spills, hydrofluorocarbons, plastic pollution, catastrophic climate change, and much more does not make things better for many Americans. It makes things much, much worse for us. This kind of deregulation is not what the country needs. It’s simply a way for oil, gas, coal, and other industrial billionaires and millionaires to stuff a bit more money into their Cayman Island bank accounts at the expense of US citizen health and well being.

But what really enables this obsession with deregulation? What really enables this blind faith in deregulation that leads people to think that oil and coal lackeys should honestly be running the EPA? What makes them think that putting the pollution foxes in charge of the air & water hen house isn’t an American health crisis?

It is a weird belief that the government is somehow a problem across the board.

Remember, we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people — in theory. To protect ourselves from corporate abuse is something that we not only can do; doing such a thing is baked into the fundamental ideology of this country! We are supposed to use the reigns of government control in order to improve our lives overall. We are supposed to use the reigns of government control to ensure that we don’t create kings and princes that benefit from the work of serfs, but rather, that we make sure that a large portion of society benefits from innovation, progress, and our democratic framework.

Politicians and political actors who want regulations pulled that were put in place to protect common Americans are not working in the interest of the general public. They are working in the interest of a tiny number of rich individuals who gain from the deregulation.

Republicans have not retained dozens of useful regulations or implemented new government regulations meant to protect Americans because they — for some reason or another — believe corporations should be allowed to do anything they want, even if that means health crises and premature deaths for fellow Americans, fellow humans. A normal American would not say that makes sense, but if they have been trained to think “government = bad” and “regulations = bad,” then they will cheer on the Republican politicians and swampy federal appointees who are tearing down those regulations at our own expense.

It is ironic: We have a supposed billionaire in office who has never before demonstrated an interest in working on behalf of the average American, or even paying his workers! He has helped out his billionaire and millionaire buddies in oil, coal, gas, and Wall Street skyscrapers. Yet common Americans being harmed by the same policies continue to cheer on the baseball-hat-wearing showman. Why?

Honestly, aside from attacks on US democracy and our position in the world abroad, all Donald T. and Republicans in Congress have done for common Americans is weaken the government that is meant to protect us and cut taxes on the super wealthy.

Republicans want government to not work for you, but why have you been convinced that a non-functional government is a good thing in a society of the people, by the people, and for the people?