Arthur Camins refers to the famous line of attorney Joseph Welch, challenging Senator Joseph McCarthy.
“Don’t let Republicans take away your self-respect and humanity– your claim to be a decent person. Tell them enough. Stop. Tell the Democrats to stand up and fight back for all of us or get out of the way for politicians who will.
“Self-respect, humanity and decency are what is at stake in the Republican give-to-the-rich tax plan, their effort to undo environmental and financial regulations, their unrelenting push for charter schools and vouchers instead of public schools, their efforts to undermine voting and labor rights, their endless attempts to undo the advances of the Affordable Care Act, cut back on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and support for the disabled, their drive to control access to information on the Internet, and their opposition all reasonable controls on guns.
“Republican ascendancy in federal, state, and local government marks the triumph of an immoral moral principle: Their gain comes at my expense. Historically, the identity of them (Native Americans, African Americans, the latest immigrants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, women, LGTBQs, the disabled, and always the poor) has been fluid, as suits the political exigencies of the moment, but the core principle and morality is consistent.
“In just one day, Donald Trump managed to stir more hatred by re-tweeting extremist anti-Muslim videos and defend proposed tax gifts to the already obscenely wealthy by promising to help struggling workers by curtailing government benefits to people who do not work. “Welfare reform, I see it, and I’ve talked to people,” he said. “I know people that work three jobs and they live next to somebody who doesn’t work at all. And the person who is not working at all and has no intention of working at all is making more money and doing better than the person that’s working his and her ass off.”
“The New Deal and perhaps later the Great Society, marked the American apotheosis of institutionalizing–through collective government action– the moral principle that that everyone is worthy of a decent life. Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and myriad other programs all represented the idea that people should not be left to fend for themselves in difficult times and circumstances. All manner of health, safety, environmental, and financial regulations were all enacted to protect people from unrestrained profiteers without concern for the wellbeing of others. Voting, civil and labor laws were enacted to move the nation closer to its founding principle, the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“Republicans aim to undo it all. That is indecent.”
He is appalled by what Trump and the Republican Party are doing. They are crushing the lives and rights of millions of people while sanctimoniously claiming that they are doing the opposite.
How long can we stand for their lies, hypocrisy, indecency, and malice?
Let our anger turn into resolve, into determination to reverse the damage they are inflicting.
Join the Indisibles. Support the Flippables, a group of young people who crowd-source funding to flip seats from red yo blue.
Target: 2018.
Model: Virginia.
Among other things, the hard work to be done includes interracial organizing around issues that affect people’s daily lives and using the energy that results to elect progressive Democrats.
Thank you, Arthur. You know, Republicans love spending money on one thing, the military. I could be wrong, but I think in basic training, soldiers are taught that the best way to run the course is not to be the fastest, but to help the slowest keep up, to leave no one behind.
That is why DJT is coming to Pensacola for another populist rally because he figures the military stooges will show up to cheer for him.
In Alabama thousands of released felons are registering to vote in an attempt to win the election for U.S. Senate. Sadly, Alabama has more people that would rather vote for a predator than a Democrat if recent polls showing Moore with 80% are accurate. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/roy-moore-alabama-voter-registration_us_5a1ef85ce4b017a311ebe308
New poll by Washington Post shows the Alabama Senate Race is tied
I am quoting a poll I heard on a Mobile, AL TV station last night. Polls are coming up with different figures. I remember what was said because it was discouraging. http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/new_senate_polls_have_roy_moor_1.html
My husband said the poll was the local TV station poll of three hundred local residents, not an official poll.
🗽 MAGA 🗽 VERO 🗽
🗳 🗳 🗳
Make America Great Again
🗳 🗳 🗳
Vote Every Republican Out
🗳 🗳 🗳
Thank you, Diane, I needed this today.
Ditto!
Trump is not a part of either party. He is not a typical politician. You think Hillary is not corrupt!
Quote: “He is appalled by what Trump and the Republican Party are doing. They are crushing the lives and rights of millions of people while sanctimoniously claiming that they are doing the opposite.
How long can we stand for their lies, hypocrisy, indecency, and malice?”
………..
Just how long can people be screwed before they find out? Is this destructive falsehood going to completely destroy our democracy? When will lives of average and poor people matter? How long do we have to listen to the rants of a bigoted hate-filled, ignorant ‘leader’ who is out to better his own financial status?
I am so tired of it all. And now we will soon have this ‘wonderful Christmas present’ to the wealthy and corporations who are already making huge profits while worker salaries have stagnated for years.
By the way, the tax bill has a provision in it to directly benefit one college that is associated with Betsy DeVos, Hillsdale College.https://thinkprogress.org/gop-sneaks-provision-into-tax-bill-to-benefit-one-college-favored-by-republican-billionaires-15c57a2261c9/
Yes. For billionaires, enough is never enough. This was a favor she could do for a far right College that refuses to take federal aid and ignores federal regulations and civil rights directives.
That amendment was voted down before the tax bill was passed by the Senate: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/02/us-tax-bill-democrats-attack-exemption-for-college-linked-to-betsy-devos
That’s very good news! I was not aware that the preferential treatment for a Hillsdale College was blocked. The main effect of the tax on endowments will be to reduce their ability to offer scholarships to poor students.
I do believe it would have been “bad form” to have that amendment go through.
Good grief. Is there going to be a backlash for such irresponsible politics?
……………………….
From The New York Times:
NYTimes.com: Heading Toward Tax Victory, Republicans Eye Next Step: Cut Spending
Heading Toward Tax Victory, Republicans Eye Next Step: Cut Spending
…With Republicans’ new ambitions, the bill heading toward completion is not just a tax cut, but the first step toward a long-held vision to undo the New Deal and Great Society.
As the tax cut legislation passed by the Senate early Saturday hurtles toward final approval, Republicans are preparing to use the swelling deficits made worse by the package as a rationale to pursue their long-held vision: undoing the entitlements of the New Deal and Great Society, leaving government leaner and the safety net skimpier for millions of Americans.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan and other Republicans are beginning to express their big dreams publicly, vowing that next year they will move on to changes in Medicare and Social Security. President Trump told a Missouri rally last week, “We’re going to go into welfare reform.”
Their nearly $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts, a plan likely to win final approval in the coming days, could be the first step. But their strategy poses enormous risks, not only for millions of Americans who rely on entitlement programs, but also for Republicans who would wade into politically difficult waters, cutting popular benefits for the elderly and working poor just after cutting taxes for profitable corporations…
I am so sad and depressed because of all this and also being visually impaired at the moment. It is so hard for me to listen to the news. Trump and the GOP iare ripping asunder this great nation. The GOP is destroying this country socially, politically and economically. It can only go two ways. Sane people will use the democratic progress to remove these monsters from power or those in power will undermine the democratic process and plunge this nation into a civil war. Once people cannot compromise because our views are diametrically opposed, we will have to go our separate ways–either through a negotiated separation or violently. Historically,and politically we are in the 1850s–the decade before the Civil War.