Thom Hartmann for BuzzFlash: Will GOP Voter Suppression Efforts Be Enough to Block the Tens of Millions of Americans Who Have Discovered That Trump and the Republicans Don’t Give a Damn About Them?
October 5, 2020
By Thom Hartmann
In a stunning proof that he doesn’t care about anybody’s life except his own, a sick and infectious Donald Trump ordered two Secret Service agents to join him in “The Beast,“ the presidential limousine, which is “hermetically sealed against chemical attacks“ so it has absolutely no fresh air. The #ProudBoys and other white supremacist groups had gathered outside Walter Reed, and Trump had to go out and wave to his adoring cult members.
Meanwhile, news reports tell us that people who work for this administration are in full-blown panic because Trump doesn’t give a damn about their lives, as Mark Meadows, the Chief of Staff, has failed to provide guidance or even instructions on what they should be doing and how they should protect themselves from the virus that seems to be spreading rapidly through the White House.
While the Trump show is playing out on television, Trump’s senior officials, who don’t give a damn about our lives, are continuing to sell off our public lands, destroy our national parks, increase the pollution of our air and water, and destroy the credibility of historic organizations like the Centers for Disease Control.
This GOP administration is still preventing military and government employees from making their Social Security contributions this year because Republicans don’t give a damn about the lives or retirements of military and government employees. Trump promises to make this permanent if he gets reelected, meaning the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted and dead for all the rest of us in three years.
At the Supreme Court, the Republican lawsuit by 20 states and the Trump administration, arguing that Americans should no longer have any protections against pre-existing conditions and 20 million Americans should lose Obamacare, proceeds because these Republican governors and Trump don’t give a damn if anybody gets sick, unless it’s themselves or their own families.
Mitch McConnell continues to oversee the defunding of police and fire departments all across the country, as he refuses to consider legislation passed by the House that would backstop state and local government’s budgets, now that they’re being wiped out by the loss of sales tax and other revenues because of the Trump virus. This is all, of course, because Mitch McConnell and the Republican party don’t give a damn about average people, particularly those who live in cities and vote predominantly Democratic.
And, having thrown away the Pandemic Playbooks worked out by both the Bush and Obama administrations, there’s no Federal plan to do anything meaningful about this pandemic.
In fact, it’s the opposite. States run by Trump-humpers like Ron DeSantis in Florida are actively encouraging their citizens to get infected and spread the infection, because a sociopathic lack of care for American citizens is now the trademark and brand of today’s Republican Party.
This Republican disregard for average Americans begin with the Reagan administration destroying unions and initiating the process of shipping jobs overseas. Every Republican administration since has built on that, and Trump, although bizarre, is merely the logical end point of 40 years of Reaganism.
While Trump repeatedly tells us that he’s bringing jobs back home, his deal with Mexico gives American companies a huge tax incentive to continue exporting jobs, and many have. Our trade deficit with China is worse than it’s ever been.
Polls suggest Republicans are going to lose in a landslide unless their voter suppression efforts are as successful as they were four years ago. No matter what, though, the majority of the American people seem to have figured out this scam.
The question now is whether tricks like purging voting rolls and only putting one ballot drop-box in the entire city of Houston will be enough to help the Republicans hang onto power and continue proving they don’t give a damn about the average American while they are disassembling and destroying America.
Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of the War on Voting and more than 30 other books in print. His most recent project is a science podcast called The Science Revolution. He is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute.
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