BY SHARON MARTIN
Our president has a history of reneging on contracts. Cheating contractors isn’t the act of a kind person. Neither is cheating on wives and girlfriends.
He lies so often that major newspapers in the country track and archive his lies. One fact checker says 70% of the president’s statements are false. It’s safe to say, he’s a cheat and a liar.
He’s also thin-skinned and vengeful, willing to destroy others to save himself. So, we should not be surprised that he fired Andrew McCabe two days before McCabe was set to retire.
The president ended the DACA program and expects us to think it is someone else’s fault. The way he has treated Dreamers and long-time residents ranks at the top of the meanness scale. He tears families apart, and he breaks down the morale of the whole country.
He’s mean. It’s ridiculous that party members still support him.
If you’re still a fan of the president you are OK with his meanness, but you can’t call yourself a fiscal conservative.
States that invest more in education have a higher per capita income. Not only is equality in education kind, it’s a good investment. Privatizing education will not save money and it will not give superior results.
Universal healthcare is kind and financially sound. Herd immunity makes the whole herd stronger. Universal healthcare is cheaper. And it delivers superior results.
Out of 10 industrialized countries, the U.S. comes in last on health results and first in amount of money spent. That’s neither fiscally conservative nor kind.
Perhaps the cruelest thing our lawmakers have done is privatize prisons. Even before we started guaranteeing private prisons a certain occupancy rate, lawmakers engineered laws to control minority populations. There is a reason so many black males end up behind bars.
Guaranteeing an occupancy rate also guarantees that those who rely on the support of prison corporations for campaign donations will be “tough on crime.”
Incarceration instead of education, treatment, and rehabilitation is not only more costly to the taxpayer, but it costs families. Breadwinners behind bars can’t earn a living. Children of the incarcerated suffer most and are more likely to end up in prison themselves. This, from the party of family values!
Our refusal to give safe harbor to refugees is unkind. And senseless. Immigrants, both the highly educated and those just looking for a chance to support their families, have contributed to the prosperity and wellbeing of the country.
Fear and hate have failed.
Let’s give humane policies a chance.
— Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
