- Joined
- Apr 18, 2013
- Messages
- 93,583
- Reaction score
- 81,661
- Location
- Barsoom
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
The MAGA phenomenon has never been about economics
They don't even try to hide their "working-class" hypocrisy anymore. Republicans represent the wealthy, corporations, and segregationist whites longing for a return to Jim Crow America.
Right now in Washington Republicans are voting against stimulus checks, funding for vaccine's, funding for COVID tests, school reopenings, small businesses, and unemployment checks for millions of jobless Americans.
They'll fly to sunny Cancun while their constituents are without heat, electricity, and water. They don't even try to hide their elitist agenda anymore.
3/5/21
Republicans like to bill themselves as a “working-class” party. But just as their refusal to take seriously the real threat behind the deaths and injuries of law enforcement personnel on Jan. 6 strips them of the pretense of being “pro police” or defenders of “law and order,” so too does their economic agenda dispense with the fiction that they are attuned to the interests of working- and middle-class Americans. The New York Times gives the GOP too much credit when it declares that “Republicans have offered very little to advance the economic interests of blue-collar workers.” The phrase “offered very little” suggests they have been trying but just haven’t managed to come up with something. Let’s review: Republicans backed a tax cut under the last administration that primarily benefited the rich and corporations; attempted to strip health-care coverage from tens of millions of Americans by repealing the Affordable Care Act; and insisted that front-line workers, the elderly and others prioritize the “economy” (i.e. the stock market) over their own health while downplaying the pandemic that has disproportionately affected lower-wage workers. (examples include rolling back labor regulations to deprive millions of workers of overtime pay.) It is not simply that Republicans have fallen short; they have acted in ways directly contrary to the interests of those they claim to represent.
Since President Biden’s inauguration, Republicans have picked up where they left off. They opposed giving middle- and lower-class workers $1,400 checks, raising the unemployment subsidy, providing millions with food subsidies, and supporting states and localities that employ police, firefighters, teachers and other middle and working-class employees. Pretending that Republicans actually mean what they say — the party of the working class! — has proven a trap for mainstream media, affording Republicans the presumption of good faith they have not earned. And let us be clear: The MAGA phenomenon was never about economic dislocation. The Republican Party has never represented the interests of working-class American. What is the GOP’s “agenda” now? Voter suppression to deter minorities from voting, angry memes that tell the base that elites have contempt for them and Jan. 6 denial. None of this has to do with working-class “interests.” It is about white supremacy. The media should stop acting surprised when the GOP’s populist results are negligible. Republicans use White grievance to rile their base while pursuing economic interests that benefit the wealthy donor class. It is not an anomaly; it is standard operating procedure for the party of White grievance.
They don't even try to hide their "working-class" hypocrisy anymore. Republicans represent the wealthy, corporations, and segregationist whites longing for a return to Jim Crow America.
Right now in Washington Republicans are voting against stimulus checks, funding for vaccine's, funding for COVID tests, school reopenings, small businesses, and unemployment checks for millions of jobless Americans.
They'll fly to sunny Cancun while their constituents are without heat, electricity, and water. They don't even try to hide their elitist agenda anymore.