BY SHARON MARTIN
Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan take from the poor and give to the rich without flinching. It’s not that they don’t like little people; we just don’t matter.
Republicans know they have the power, and they plan to do everything they can while they can to cement it for the next generation. Only one party matters, and we can’t just blame Putin.
Did Russia interfere with the election? U.S. intelligence agencies say so, but this coup didn’t happen in just one election cycle.
On Dec. 9, 2000, the Supreme Court halted the recount in Florida and on Dec. 12 declared George W. Bush winner of the election. The real prize was redistricting. The GOP redrew voting districts and gave election security to party members all the way down into state and local jurisdictions.
Two war fronts when one might have been winnable, tax cuts in wartime, banks too big to fail, and home loans for which lenders had no responsibility crashed the economy in 2008. Young people voted for hope, but the party that lost declared they weren’t going to have it.
In 2010, the Supreme Court called money free speech. Now elections were easier to buy. And in 2013, SCOTUS undid a key section of the Voting Rights Act. Now states were free to demand special IDs, shorten voting hours, and otherwise keep “undesirables” from the polls.
For eight years, there was constant effort to undermine President Obama. Why? His policies brought us out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. We weren’t afraid of nuclear annihilation, either.
Sore losers refused to vote on judges nominated to fill vacant seats. Legislators demanded concessions then refused to vote for the Affordable Care Act. They cared more for their donors – insurance companies, banks, and billionaires – than they did for the health and wellbeing of the people they swore to serve.
They undermined the president with lies and innuendos despite the esteem in which he was held by the rest of the world. And in 2016, even when McConnell and others knew of Russian interference and hacking, they stood in the way of letting the American people know.
This is treason in my book. And the resulting damage will likely be catastrophic.
Remember the Dow losing over half its value? This hit retirees especially hard. Pre-existing conditions made you uninsurable. Now, even children are in danger of losing coverage that once had bipartisan support.
Dreamers are looking over their shoulders while Vice President Pence has his own dreams of a nation as cleansed of non-Christians as Myanmar is of Rohingya Muslims.
With the constant attack on the press, intelligence agencies, and truth, we can become just another dictatorship by committee. Or party.
This isn’t patriotism; it’s a coup. The framers of our Constitution must be spinning in their graves.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
