Oliver Willis's Blog, page 177

Ocasio Nails The GOP/Media’s Hypocrisy On Spending

Republicans kill the deficit and ramp up spending, often diverting federal dollars to pet conservative causes. Then when they bust the economy and a Democrat is elected to the presidency, they pretend to be fiscal hawks and complain about runaway spending.

Most recently, they complained about spending under President Barack Obama, who unfortunately spent way too much time working out how initiatives like the stimulus and health care reform were “fiscally responsible.”

He has been followed by Trump, who doesn’t care about fiscal responsibility and is enabled by Republicans who don’t care either.

Democrats should stop feeding this cycle. Their ideas for social programs are immensely popular. Most voters simply don’t care about deficits. It is only the concern of media elites and fake concern by Republicans when they are out of power.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez nailed this stupidity succinctly in a tweet, easily summarizing the issue at hand: “New Rule: anyone that was cool with the GOP inventing $2 trillion out of thin air for freebies for people with yachts that have tiny yachts inside doesn’t get to demand how we pay for people who need chemotherapy treatments.”

It is that simple. Advocate for a robust safety net, if concerns are raised about the cost it is simple to point out that the fabulously wealthy recently got a massive tax break that can be rescinded to care for millions of people.

Everything else about fiscal concerns is meaningless background noise. It simply doesn’t matter and should be summarily dismissed as silly and without merit.

Brett Kavanaugh And The Popularity Of Abortion Rights

The selection of anti-abortion judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court is the latest salvo to be fired in the Republican Party’s war on abortion access.

His selection, combined with decades of work at the state level to put in place trigger laws that would ban abortion if Roe vs Wade is struck down, should not be minimized.

It is a danger to women’s health across the country.

But we should also remember that the Republican Party’s true position on abortion is unpopular. Banning abortion is not a popular option in America, despite the GOP’s insistence to the contrary and the media’s parroting of that position.

Americans believe that women have a right to an abortion, with certain restrictions on when abortions can be initiated. An outright ban on abortion is extremely unpopular.

The presidential nominee of the party supporting abortion rights and opposed to a ban – the Democratic Party – has won the popular vote in 6 out of the last 7 presidential elections, including 2016.

While the Republican base – especially Mike Pence – would love an abortion ban, they are pretty much the only ones in America who feel that way.

Kavanaugh’s nomination and the subsequent rightward turn of the court in concert with the Republican Party at the national and state level is an opportunity to repeatedly make this point.

The right will always back hate, liberals shouldn’t work with them to stop Trump

For some reason many liberals have decided that conservatives have a role to play in opposing the Trump presidency. This is a sucker’s bet.

Conservatism is largely happy with Trump’s presidency. He is pushing for the same policy goals they have always wanted while installing the types of right-wing judges in the federal judiciary they prefer.

Their main objection to Trump is that unlike previous Republican leaders like Mitt Romney, John McCain, and George W. Bush, Trump doesn’t know how to avoid saying the quiet bits out loud.

So instead of simply pushing initiatives under the radar to cut down on the black and Latino vote and to link arms with white supremacists at a level below the top line of the party, Trump just puts it all out there because he is a carnival barker dope.

It isn’t so much that conservatives reject his bigotry. He’s just being too up front about it.

When Trump is gone from the political scene, either through losing at the ballot box or just the passage of time, conservatism will not have learned anything – by design. They largely like things the way they are and wish to continue on the dead-end path they have had in mind for America since the mid-1960s.

There is no point to progressives making an alliance with these people. They are the same ones who accused Bill Clinton of a string of murderers and called the center-left presidency of Barack Obama the first round in Venezuela-style socialism.

Trump didn’t create any of that mindset. He simply capitalized on what was already there.

His rivals for the Republican presidential nomination held their fire against him because he was embracing the racist and xenophobic messages they intended to use under the radar should they have secured the nomination.

Figures like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz wouldn’t call out Trump’s bigotry, because to do so would somehow play into a left wing message.

For conservatives, racism isn’t such a big deal. But calling out racism is verboten and almost always associated with the left.

That is why figures like Paul Ryan won’t say anything louder than a murmur about Trump’s hatred. That’s just how they do things on the right, it’s just that Trump, again, is such a clown he just blabs out the whole game plan.

As Mitt Romney said, such strategizing is meant for “quiet rooms,” not public consumption.

The left can win without locking arms with these people, who spend half the time they publicly agree with Democrats simply looking for a soft spot between our collective shoulder blades to shove in the dagger when Trump is gone.

There will be no restoration of the great consensus when Trump is gone. Instead, the right will continue to traffic in racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry because at the end of the day it is who they are.

They seek power. They do not believe that opposing bigotry will get them power. They believe, either through their own hate or through the electoral power emanating from those who embrace hate, that this is the path forward for their movement.

They stand diametrically opposed to decency, no matter who is in charge of their party and movement. They’re not worthy of alliances, if you care about the future of America as a diverse and open nation.