Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:22 pm
For well over a decade political observers have asked: Why do Republicans always vote against their own economic a interests? The answer is that they are inherently mean, have no social conscience, and they are stupid.
It is no secret that Republicans in Congress have no regard for the American people, but they seem to harbor a particular hatred for their own constituents on par with their loving devotion to the ultra wealthy and corporations. In fact, it is safe to say that over the past couple of decades Republicans have fought tooth and nail against any policies or legislation that serves the needs of all Americans.
Over the weekend the Senate passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and it was no surprise that every Republican voted against it. No sane American should wonder why because of Republicans’ history.
There was no money for the top one percent – a violation of everything Republicans stand for. And worse yet, it was comprised of “large stimulus checks to most individuals, extended unemployment benefits, a big infusion of aid to state governments, and a new child cash allowance that could cut childhood poverty in half.”
Republicans in the House literally screamed foul over the bill and claimed it was socialism. Again, nothing new from the GOP because it will help working people and socialism scares Republican voters senseless. The GOP opposition to the bill was also another sign that Republicans only exist to serve the interests of the wealthy at the expense of working Americans. What is beyond mind boggling is that those same Republicans voting against helping all Americans, including their own constituents, continue being elected by the people they apparently govern to harm.
Over at the Washington Post, columnist Greg Sargent penned a savvy piece regarding Republicans’ scam and never-ending assault on their own voters. Mr. Sargent was opining about an analysis authored by Jacob Grumbach, Paul Pierson and Yale University’s Jacob Hacker. The theme of the analysis centered around “the political economy of red states, relative to that of blue ones.”
The three authors came up with what Sargent termed a conclusion that “we’re in the grip of a paradox. Even as areas that vote Republican continue falling behind blue America economically — helping widen those oft-discussed regional inequalities between cosmopolitan and outlying areas.”
The obvious conclusion of the analysis is thus: “Republicans elites everywhere are growing more committed to an increasingly uniform and regressive agenda that does little to address the problem.” According to the authors:
“Red America is falling farther behind, but the politicians who represent it at all levels have gotten more unified on an economic agenda that hurts the people who live there.”
That obvious conclusion brings up a question pundits and political observers have asked for a couple of decades: Why do Republicans continue being elected when they perpetually inflict economic damage on the people they claim to serve?
Of course the easy answer is that Republican voters are either sick masochists or inherently stupid. That is certainly true of anyone who votes for a politician, or party, that continues to deliberately hurt them. There is likely a more reasonable answer founded on red state voters’ desperate need to be terrified of everything and religious to the extreme.
No matter how much economic damage Republicans do to their constituents, they know the simplest path to being elected, or reelected, is campaigning on god, guns and the fetus. Add in socialism and Republicans representing red states have enjoyed being reelected for decades. In fact, Republicans in the House and Senate claimed the Biden stimulus is socialism specifically to frighten the life out of their base.
Even though the vast majority of Americans will receive a $1,400 check, and families will receive $300 per child for a year, and communities will receive much needed financial aid from the stimulus, there is little doubt that in two years Republicans will flock to the polls to reelect the same people who opposed aid for their constituents.
Despite congressional Republicans’ vehement opposition to helping their own constituents, it is highly likely they will have an easy task winning during the next election. It happened in Kansas a few years ago because then-governor Sam Brownback used the “fetus” to appeal to the faithful after destroying the economy.
It happened in Kentucky where Senate minority leader “Moscow” Mitch McConnell easily won another six years after the demigod he supported allowed a virulent plague to ravage the nation and decimate the economy.
Republican voters continue reelecting Republicans who deliberately and with malice aforethought oppose anything that will help the people because those voters are not just ignorant, they are religious to the extreme and dirt stupid. Republican politicians know it and will continue perpetuating the scam on their constituents until the base wises up.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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