The most defining characteristic of the Trump Administration and of the current GOP -- aside from the hypocrisy, dishonesty, and corruption -- is its
cruelty.
I mean, they positively
revel in it. During the campaign, Trump insisted that "torture absolutely works," and we should be torturing people suspected of terrorism -- to cheering crowds. During campaign rallies, Trump explicitly instructed his followers to physically attack dissenters, and offered to pay the legal costs of those who did so.
The Trump Administration wants to deport "illegal immigrants" who were brought here as infants and who have never known any other home. Trump and his cronies tacitly -- and sometimes not so tacitly -- encourage violence by white supremacists.
Trump and his GOP allies have been desperately trying to kill Obamacare -- despite knowing full well that this will costs millions access to health care. Trump and the Republican-led Congress are slashing or eliminating federal programs that benefit the poor and middle class while giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy.
And so on, and so on. The list is seemingly endless.
It's not that Democratic politicians haven't endorsed cruel policies, of course, but the current administration is officially ripping children away from their families and freely admitting that the cruelty of this practice is the
point. And while there's certainly opposition, tens of millions of Americans are just A-OK with this.
Kevin Drum argues in
Mother Jones that the cruelty isn't a bug, it's a feature.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Kevin Drum
Donald Trump has made plain what’s long lurked barely below the surface of American politics: it’s not so much a contest between liberal and conservative as it is between kindness and meanness. God knows, not every liberal is kind and not every conservative is mean. But that’s sure the way to bet these days.
Republicans are mean and getting meaner. It’s now the foundation of their party, and Trump has decided to make it a selling point, not something to be ashamed of. They’re just plain mean and they’re proud of it.
|
And so, what would have been virtually unthinkable just a couple of years ago is now perfectly normal. Meanwhile, the feckless Democrats will put up only a token resistance.
Republicans get more blatantly anti-poor and anti-middle class in their policies; they get more and more anti-science as they deny reality itself when it comes to things like climate change; and they get more and more breathtakingly cruel in their economic, healthcare, and immigration policies. And sadly, tens of millions of Americans are cheering them on.
Well, I think we're rapidly approaching the point where we need to start organizing mobs with pitchforks and torches to march on Congress and the White House.