The Republican Party has all but officially declared its motto to be: "Screw the Middle Class and Poor; we're all about making the rich even richer -- meanwhile, we'll use appeals to racism and religion to keep you distracted from how thoroughly we're screwing you over."
As
this article argues, the GOP has been all about "trickle-down economics" for over a century now, despite the fact that it simply doesn't work as advertised.
The current GOP tax plan -- no doubt deliberately -- will have a
disproportionately large effect on people in "blue states." No doubt, plenty of voters in redder states will be in favor of it for that reason alone.
I think our modern GOP really owes its existence to Reagan. It was Reagan, after all, who popularized the notion that "Government is the problem" and used that mantra to aggressively push programs that directed government services away from helping the poor and middle class and toward making the rich ever richer. And the Reagan Administration proved that if you demonize the opposition while using religion and racism to keep people distracted and divided, you can get away with a policy that
blatantly and
openly favors the interests of the rich over those of everyone else, while slashing programs that help the middle class and poor -- and not only can you thus avoid an open revolt by the poor and the middle class, but a great many of them will just
love you, even as you're screwing them over.
[Just go to any news article about Roy Moore, for example, and read the comments from the legions of people who loudly declare that they'll proudly and happily vote for Moore -- no matter
what he might have done -- over
any "Demoncrat."]
It's really quite brilliant of the GOP. They have done an
excellent job of convincing so very
many of the people they're screwing over most thoroughly to love them for it. It's
evil, of course -- but quite brilliant.