This is one of my writing projects. This is very much an early draft, and only a few thousand words, at that. I hope to get it to full book size, instead of its current ‘article’ size.
PREFACE
I am a liberal. What is a liberal? We are also called ‘Leftists’. Either one is accurate enough. Here goes:
A ‘Leftist’ (or liberal, or socialist, or whatever you want to call it) has some typical characteristics:
A ‘leftist’ means anybody who has any compassion for poor people.
A ‘leftist’ is someone who doesn’t want to see rich people get away with murder, literally.
A ‘leftist’ is someone who would like to see a legal system based on something other than ‘money talks’.
A ‘leftist’ is someone who doesn’t want to live in a world where 99.9% the wealth is in the hands of the top 0.1%.
A ‘leftist’ is someone who can look at the world presented in Hunger Games and recognize that that would not be a utopia. I personally prefer the socialist world of the Federation in Star Trek.
A ‘leftist’ is someone who doesn’t want to see his friends die from easily treatable illnesses because they weren’t rich.
A ‘leftist’ is someone who generally isn’t a psychopath, while all conservatives are psychopathic.
A ‘leftist’ is someone who isn’t a fan of child labor, dangerous working conditions, and seventy-hour work weeks.
A ‘leftist’ is someone who would prefer to live in a world where his value as a human being is not based on his bank account.
None of this applies to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is far right, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America. I am closer to being a straight up Socialist. It is difficult to categorize myself, since I like to form my own opinions.
Why ANOTHER political rant? Aren′t there enough of those already? Aren′t there too many of them? Is this too many questions to start a book with? I have an unusual mix of styles, which I hope you find entertaining. My writing is informed by a combination of white-hot anger, seething hatred, and a whimsical sense of humor. Quite the odd mix, eh?
I don′t expect to change anyone′s mind. That is not my purpose. Often, I get Republicans who try to tell me I shouldn′t hate them. Well, that’s too fucking bad. Furthermore, if you are Republican, and not wealthy, you don′t have a mind to change. On second thought, that might be a bit harsh. Thirty years ago, I was hardcore Libertarian, then I joined the human race, and now I identify as Libertarian Socialist. That means I want maximum freedom, but have a level playing field.
I have replied to hundreds of Republicans on Facebook, Quora, and suchlike. And then I became a writer(1). So I decided I wanted to just refer them to a book. I don′t expect to win anyone over, but I would like to let them know why I hate them so much.
First off, my take on some of the most common political leanings. Note that this is not completely serious – humor is the primary way of dealing with pain.
Republicans: We are going to take care of our rich donors, leave the rest of you to die on the street, and make you like it.
Democrats: We are going to take care of our rich donors, leave the rest of you to die on the street, but we pretend to feel bad about it.
Libertarians: You′re on your own. It′s every man for himself. This is a great ideology, if you are a virus. Humans are social animals, hence conservatives do not qualify as human.
Socialists: Maybe it′d be nice to have a world where we take care of each other, instead of giving putting a dollar sign in front of everything. Maybe it′d be nice to have a world where my value as a human being isn′t based on my bank account. Maybe it′d be nice to have a world where we don′t sacrifice our humanity on the altar of unfettered capitalism. Maybe it′d be nice to have a world where we don′t transfer all the wealth to the top 0.1%, and leave the rest of us to fight over the scraps. Maybe it′d be nice to strive for a future that is like Star Trek, not Hunger Games.
(1) Well, I′ve been a writer for decades; now, I just do it professionally.
ABOUT REPUBLICANS
CHAPTER ONE
What I like about Republicans.
Nothing.
CHAPTER TWO
What I hate about Republicans
It is very common, and quite in vogue, for us to focus on Trump, as though he were the sum total of the sociopathy inherent in the right wing. That is somewhat understandable, as he is obviously a vile madman, and does put an easy to hate face on their ideology. However, Trump is a symptom. The real problem is every Republican voter.
For me, Trump was the last straw, though. If you voted for Trump, and/or support him in any way. I want nothing to do with you. You nauseate me. Even if you think Trump is ‵just OK′, I am very suspicious about what kind of human you are and will watch carefully for other signs of moral bankruptcy.
This next section was copied from a response on Quora: I have attributed it by name to the original poster. I will attempt to contact this person to ask for permission.
FROM QUORA
WHY I SHUN TRUMPSTERS
I know why I shun them, and I think I represent a fair chunk of people who do.
Aside from the fact that it is as infuriating and exasperating to argue with 45 supporters as it is to argue with a Biblical literalist/Creationist, people who support such a vile human being as 45 are okay with who and what he is. That tells me a lot about who they are.
If I met someone who sympathized with an unapologetic child rapist, someone who tried to excuse or justify in any way that criminal’s horrendous behavior, who did not find his behavior repugnant, I would suspect that sympathizer to be as morally bereft as the rapist—perhaps a closet pedophile themselves.
To me, if you are okay with 45’s racism, then you are okay with racism in general—which makes you a racist almost by default.
If you are okay with 45’s lies, cons, and cheating, then you are okay with those negative character traits in general—which makes you untrustworthy.
If you are okay with his bullying, then you are either a bully yourself, or are someone who likes being led by a bully—either way, you are antisocial, and maybe even dangerous to others that you perceive as weaker than yourself.
If 45’s actions to enrich himself and his wealthy cohort at the expense of everyone else doesn’t bother you, then you have a nasty greed streak of your own, even if you don’t directly benefit.
If you agree with 45’s attacks on the First Amendment, then you plainly don’t believe that our democracy depends on it—so you probably don’t fully support the ideals of democracy.
If 45’s efforts to gather power to himself simply makes him look like a “strong leader” to you, and you are happy to follow him, then you favor authoritarianism—and we have all seen the road to horror down which that kind of governance leads.
If 45’s agenda to damage the environment for profit sounds okay with you, then you plainly don’t care about the environment yourself—which makes you a hazard to a healthy environment and everything that depends on it, including us.
If you don’t mind that 45 seems to have no moral center, then you probably don’t have one either—a person with a genuine moral center would find the man intolerably repulsive and dangerous.
Frankly, that last one alone is enough to make me shun you.
I could go on—the man is a bottomless well of dark ideas, bad intentions, and misdeeds, but that would take all day.
So, does that answer your question? This is more than just guilt by association: By supporting 45, you actively side with with the worst in human nature, or at best are apathetic about it.
The only good thing to come from 45’s presidency is the way he has given permission for people to expose their hearts of darkness, bring their ugliness which has been festering in the closet, out into the light for all to see. The disappointment comes when you realize that people whom you thought good, kind, and tolerant turn out to be something other, someone whom you would never have loved or admired had you known their true character. It’s rather like discovering that the love of your life has been cheating on you for years.
Also disappointing is the revelation that the progress we seem to have made as a nation, as inadequate as it was, was not so great as we thought. It actually feels as though we have gone backwards.
Cynthia Olen
From Quora
She said as well as I ever could – or better. However, the evils of Republicanism did not start with Trump. Blaming just him is like writing an analysis of the health effects of McDonald’s ‛food’; and focusing on Ronald McDonald, as though he created it all personally.
HISTORICAL NOTES
Many decades ago, the Republicans were not markedly worse than their Democratic counterparts, which is setting the bar pretty low. By today’s standards. Nixon would be a liberal, and Eisenhower would be downright socialist.
It′s sickeningly funny to hear people go on about ‶the liberal Democratic Party″. By the standards of almost every other country in the world, the Democratic Party is far right, while the Republicans are off the scale.
The Seventies held great promise. The 1960s counterculture hippie movement had not been totally crushed, and there were hesitant steps toward things like renewable energy sources, a lessening on dependence on fossil fuels, and some faltering steps toward a system run for the benefit of all (or at least most), rather than the top one tenth of one percent. I know it’s hard to believe, but, at that time, laws were occasionally passed that benefited those who weren’t huge campaign donors.
The coronation of Ronald Reagan put an end to that (same first name as Ronald McDonald. Coincidence? Maybe). With a Republican congress, he reversed the advances of the previous decade, jacking up the debt, and pouring funds into the already bloated military.
His crowning achievement was breaking the back of organized labor, by firing mass numbers of air traffic controllers. Of course, air travel became more dangerous for many years after that; a small price to pay to increase corporate oligarchy.
This began a decades long consolidation of power. The Democratic Party cooperated gleefully, after discovering the joys of sucking on the milk from corporate teats. There has been a corporate coup d’etat in slow motion, which is now complete. (1)
We now live in a world run solely for the benefit of the super-rich.
That’s the big picture and appears to be the long-term plan. In the meantime, the owners have taken many steps to increase our misery, for their own aggrandizement.
MINIMUM WAGE AND WORK WEEK
If the minimum wage had kept up with production in the USA, and inflation, it would be at least triple what it is now. Instead, all the benefits of increased productivity went to the top 0.1%. This issue is in close lockstep with another issue rarely brought up; the forty-hour workweek.
Consider, a hundred years ago, the standard workweek was something like sixty hours (along with child labor, another heartwarming capitalist innovation). Just about eighty years ago, the workweek was standardized at forty hours. Was this because of a sudden attack of conscience by the uber-rich capitalist owner class? HAHAHAHAHAHA. You′re killingme. Conscience? What’s that? It was mostly due to automation; the replacement of human labor by machines.
The workweek is still at forty hours. Is that because progress in technology stopped in 1940? Based on our workweek, it might as well have. I don’t have exact numbers, but a rough estimate is all that is required for this. I think anyone with an IQ greater than that of warmed-over oatmeal (possibly even Trumpsters) can agree that automation has at least tripled USA productivity since 1940. However, since all the benefits of that go to the top 0.1%; the rest of us might as well still be laboring in factories to build P-51 Mustangs.
HARD WORK AND TAXATION
It′s common for a Republican to advise me to ‵work harder if you want to get somewhere′. Sure, what you do with your life has SOME effect, but nowhere near as much as they want you to think,
Where you end up in life, under the current system, is overwhelmingly determined by your choice of parents. Let′s set up a hypothetical scenario.
Start with two men. Each one works exactly as hard as the other. They have the same talents, the same drive, the same desire to succeed. However, one is the fourth son of a laborer who is living on minimum wage. The other is an only child, the son of a billionaire investment banker. Who is going to be better off in ten years? Even if the banker doesn′t outright give his son a huge amount of money, there are a host of environmental factors at play. The quality of the social circle alone is sufficient to make a profound difference.
We really poor people work just as hard as you “less poor” people (there is no middle class anymore), It’s like we are all in a giant pool, trying to make it to an island, or at least keep our heads above water. The super-rich are cruising by in their yachts. Meanwhile, you poor people are have flotation devices, or even small rowboats. Those of us in real poverty have nothing, or even lead weights around our necks. We are exhausting ourselves constantly, striving to keep from drowning, while you creatures, with your life preservers and rowboats tell us “it’s your own fault for not swimming enough!”
This is tangentially related to complaints about taxation. ‶I should be able to keep what I earn!″. You know something? I would fully agree, if we were on anything resembling a level playing field, or if there were any way to fully separate what you earned from what you have based on the social tier you were born into.
In order to ensure that everything you have is based solely on what you earn, you′d have to agree to some conditions. Firstly, no public education – that’s pure Socialism. No private school paid for by anyone else, either. Figure it out yourself or pay for your own education. How do you do that as a child with no support from anyone? Hey, that’s not my problem! You’re the one who’s against Socialism, not me!
Here′s what it would take.
- At age eighteen, move out of your parent′s house. You don′t take anything with you but the clothes on your back (I’ll let someone else buy those for you – hey, don’t say I didn’t cut you some slack.)
- Find a location far away from anybody you know and live as a homeless person.
- You are not allowed contact with anyone you knew before. If you do so, whatever you have earned is confiscated, and you start over again.
If you do all of that, then you are living off of what you earned, and can keep it all.
SM,ALL GOVERNMENT AND GUN CONTROL
INCOME INEQUALITY
TERRORISTS AND SECURITY
ENVIRONMENT
HEALTH CARE AND HOUSING
This is where my distaste for Republicans turned into white-hot seething hatred. This is, by far, the richest country in the world, yet we have a health care system run as a for-profit business, which few other countries do. If you make a list of the twenty richest countries on Earth, the USA will be number one, by far, and be the only one of the twenty without socialized medicine.
Meanwhile, the USA has an incredibly bloated military, spending almost as much as the rest of the world combined, yet Republicans cannot handle trimming even a little off of it so as to not be savages. Yes, savages. That’s how most of the rest of the world sees the USA. Some twenty years ago, I met a lady from France. I can remember what she said: “We have poor people in France, too, but we don’t leave them out on the street.”
My defense now is that the USA is in de facto cultural civil war – class warfare a la Karl Marx, if you want to see it that way. That’s not totally accurate, but it’s close enough for my purposes. Whose side are you on? My side consists of most of the poor and working class, while your side consists of the super-rich kleptocracy and their buddies. Anybody who is Republican and poor is a traitor.
This can be something of an oversimplification. There are people who are super-rich, but are very philanthropic. I’d bet that most of them would be fine with much higher progressive marginal taxes on their high-end wealth, as long as it were applied to all rich people. I can’t be sure, but Bill Gates comes to mind as someone who is super-rich, and still a human being.
The Republican opinion is that we can’t have socialized medicine like every civilized country because it’s too expensive. For the hard of thinking, here it is in pictorial form.
To Republicans: you ‘creatures’ (I do not consider Republicans to be human) oppose cutting that enormous military budget by just a few percent, so we can take care of the vulnerable members of our country as well as the average European country.
I had a very close friend who died at fifty for that very reason.
You are utterly vile, and I hate you all. I wouldn’t pee on you if you were on fire.