If your vision for America is corporate welfare, wealthy subsidies, shaming the poor, a virtual Wall Street crime syndicate and a perpetual state of war, you would need a couple of decades to slash federal assistance programs, eliminate organized labor, deregulate the financial industry, run the economy into the ground and convince Americans their government is tyrannical- fueling an anti-government paranoia as a convenient place to project all your fears. Welcome to the modern Republican vision, a manifestation beyond bad economics and deceptive practices. It is a state of mind, an empathy gap dressed in traditional Republican ideals and veiled in corporate vestments of democracy, patriotism and the constitution while simultaneously subverting the democratic process and attempting to dismantle the social insurance system.
It wasn’t always this way; there was a time when conservatives embraced moderation and pragmatic legislation, when they stood for what was right and waged war on poverty not on poor people. A time when Republicans participated in the process, collaborated to explore the universe, cure diseases, create a prosperous economy and acted like men. The Republican platform of 1956 advocated expanding its assistance to millions of handicapped, minority and migratory workers. The Eisenhower administration’s policy included the unemployment insurance system, extending federal minimum wage laws and continuing the Taft-Hardy act to protect the right of workers to organize into unions, bargain collectively and warned against the military-industrial complex.
Republicans today have lost their most valuable stalwarts; men of character who aspired to intelligence, whose moderation served our nation well. They’ve lost the trust and respect for their own government and in the end have managed to manifest an empathy gap and a vision that illuminates the broken soul of the Republican Party.
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