Hypocrisy / Anomaly

With their incessant and hypocritical drum-banging for states’ rights, the Republican party (or whatever passes for its present iteration ) governs as though they are perpetually the opposition party; they are an anomaly: historically it is the minority party that pushes for states’ rights while the majority attempts to maximize federal reach.

However, it is impossible to see this drum-banging as anything but a smokescreen to expand Republican donor power from the top down: for example, Graham/Cassidy would have transformed Medicaid subsidies into block grants under the discretion of the states, but nearly 70% of those states are under Republican governorship.

They are always on the defensive, their Koch/Mercer policies too unpopular and out-of-touch with the majority of the population to stand on their own legs; they must instead be persistent repudiations of forward progress, efforts to dismantle and tarnish the legacy of a progressive administration. Maybe that’s part of their strategy (if they even have one beyond bluster and premature keggers): it’s far easier, the messaging far more simple and visceral, to stand in opposition to something than it is to be for something — especially when the policies for which they must stand are indefensible, the cruel wants of a donor class steeped in hypocrisy and the 140-character ravings of reprehensible conman.

(TW)