The Republican Hat Trick
As a child, I never really liked “Alice in Wonderland.” Psychopathic playing cards, disappearing cats, time-challenged bunnies and mad hatters—it was all too much for me, and far too abstract. I was more of a Curious George person. A monkey in a room with a can of paint—this was something I could comprehend and relate to.
Lately, though, I have found myself revisiting Alice’s Wonderland to gain some perspective on the current state of US politics. Most of the time I feel as though I, like Alice, have fallen down a rabbit hole and am now in some alternate reality where up is down, black is white and Republicans are for the working class while Democrats are for the effete, rich, snobbish elite.
See? It makes no sense. Oh, there goes the rabbit!
For a book I was researching once, I studied the confidence games used by hucksters throughout the centuries to separate the rubes from their money. Now, I stand at the edge of a crowd gathered around the grifter as he moves the shells back and forth and I marvel at how effective he is at pulling off the con. At the same time, I am perplexed by the willingness of the crowd to continually place their money on the table.
The Republican Party has pulled off a hat trick of epic proportions, one that will be studied by political con artists for years to come. Through sleight-of-mouth, they continually persuade people to vote Republican against their own best interests.
Think about it. Conservatives elect Republican politicians to stop abortion and get, instead, a tax cut that primarily benefits the wealthiest Americans while gutting the social infrastructure and running up debt that our great-grandchildren will be paying for. They elect Republican politicians to put God back in our schools and get, instead, a roll-back in the capital gains tax. They send Republicans to Washington to fight terrorism and get, instead, free market policies that marginalize the poor in our own country and completely devastate the poor elsewhere.
When their first term ends, though, the voters in the pews and the firehouses and the factories and the farms don’t tally a scorecard. They don’t check to see whether the promises have been fulfilled. Abortion never goes away. Prayer is never returned to the schools. These are carrots offered to the masses so that they will keep sending the Republicans back.
And send them back they do, for a second, a third, a twentieth time, in the hopes that they’ll finally get it right.
With Republican control of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the federal government, you’d think they’d have gotten it right by now.
But they never get it right, because getting it right was never part of the plan.
Democrats have always supported working families. It is because of Democrats that you have a forty-hour work week. It’s because of Democrats that your children go to school instead of the factory. It’s because of Democrats that your food is (admittedly, less every day) safe to eat and your water is safe to drink. Unions protected workers against the greed of company executives and owners. And, it’s because of Democrats that African Americans and women can vote.
Now, thanks to the hat trick mentioned earlier, blue collar workers are voting for an administration whose policies will lead to the loss of their jobs. Farmers are voting themselves off the farm. People are voting for one thing – family values, and getting another – societal devastation. It really is astonishing and frightening at the same time, and would make a wonderful sociology experiment if the consequences weren’t so dire.
But they are.
So, if you must vote Republican (for the abortion issue, for instance), can you at least hold them accountable? When they fail to live up to their promises, can’t you at least replace them with a better class of Republican? If they realize you’re watching, maybe they’ll stop taking your vote for granted and actually give you some of the policies you send them to Washington to enact.
I don’t think so. But, at least I won’t pity the voters who send them there as much. And the voters won’t have themselves solely to blame when it all falls apart.
Lately, though, I have found myself revisiting Alice’s Wonderland to gain some perspective on the current state of US politics. Most of the time I feel as though I, like Alice, have fallen down a rabbit hole and am now in some alternate reality where up is down, black is white and Republicans are for the working class while Democrats are for the effete, rich, snobbish elite.
See? It makes no sense. Oh, there goes the rabbit!
For a book I was researching once, I studied the confidence games used by hucksters throughout the centuries to separate the rubes from their money. Now, I stand at the edge of a crowd gathered around the grifter as he moves the shells back and forth and I marvel at how effective he is at pulling off the con. At the same time, I am perplexed by the willingness of the crowd to continually place their money on the table.
The Republican Party has pulled off a hat trick of epic proportions, one that will be studied by political con artists for years to come. Through sleight-of-mouth, they continually persuade people to vote Republican against their own best interests.
Think about it. Conservatives elect Republican politicians to stop abortion and get, instead, a tax cut that primarily benefits the wealthiest Americans while gutting the social infrastructure and running up debt that our great-grandchildren will be paying for. They elect Republican politicians to put God back in our schools and get, instead, a roll-back in the capital gains tax. They send Republicans to Washington to fight terrorism and get, instead, free market policies that marginalize the poor in our own country and completely devastate the poor elsewhere.
When their first term ends, though, the voters in the pews and the firehouses and the factories and the farms don’t tally a scorecard. They don’t check to see whether the promises have been fulfilled. Abortion never goes away. Prayer is never returned to the schools. These are carrots offered to the masses so that they will keep sending the Republicans back.
And send them back they do, for a second, a third, a twentieth time, in the hopes that they’ll finally get it right.
With Republican control of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the federal government, you’d think they’d have gotten it right by now.
But they never get it right, because getting it right was never part of the plan.
Democrats have always supported working families. It is because of Democrats that you have a forty-hour work week. It’s because of Democrats that your children go to school instead of the factory. It’s because of Democrats that your food is (admittedly, less every day) safe to eat and your water is safe to drink. Unions protected workers against the greed of company executives and owners. And, it’s because of Democrats that African Americans and women can vote.
Now, thanks to the hat trick mentioned earlier, blue collar workers are voting for an administration whose policies will lead to the loss of their jobs. Farmers are voting themselves off the farm. People are voting for one thing – family values, and getting another – societal devastation. It really is astonishing and frightening at the same time, and would make a wonderful sociology experiment if the consequences weren’t so dire.
But they are.
So, if you must vote Republican (for the abortion issue, for instance), can you at least hold them accountable? When they fail to live up to their promises, can’t you at least replace them with a better class of Republican? If they realize you’re watching, maybe they’ll stop taking your vote for granted and actually give you some of the policies you send them to Washington to enact.
I don’t think so. But, at least I won’t pity the voters who send them there as much. And the voters won’t have themselves solely to blame when it all falls apart.
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