In political campaigns it is more important to have
an appealing message, regardless it is founded on lies and propaganda,
as it is to have a plan to advance a specific agenda or set of policies. The repugicans are masterful at telling their base, and many independent
voters, exactly what they want to hear despite the fact they have no
intention of following through on their campaign promises once they are
elected. One of the primary reasons the repugican cabal is so successful selling a
bill-of-goods to voters is that Democrats, while campaigning on issues
they fully intend on advancing if elected, are more often than not
reluctant to either cite repugicans’ broken promises, or inform voters
of the repugican cabal’s true motivation for seeking control of the government.
On Sunday, President Obama finally exposed the repugicans’ goal in their drive to take control of Congress and few, if
any, people took note of a very important remark buried in a message
that should have resonated with every American. Last week it was
reported that “for a minute,” repugicans were concerned they did not
have a viable campaign message to run on heading into the midterm
elections other than opposing Barack Obama. It is not that the repugican cabal does
not have a message or agenda to campaign on, it is just that their
message will not appeal to anyone except their anti-government base and
it is curious why Democrats did not seize on the President’s revelation
that repugicans’ sole intent on controlling Congress is “dismantling
the federal government.”
While the President railed on repugicans for
lacking common sense in making partisan issues out of things that were
once common sense such as “building roads, bridges, improving our
airports, improving our water systems, and reducing traffic,” he noted
the reason why “they have become partisan issues is because you’ve got a
‘small’ portion of the repugican cabal that is fixated simply on
dismantling government.” Now, although the President’s remark was
prescient and fundamentally true, he sorely underestimated the number of repugicans who are fixated on dismantling the government. If Americans
were not so dense and uninformed, the President would not have had to
tell them what repugicans are more than hesitant to campaign on;
eliminating the federal government.
Last week when it was revealed that Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech at a Koch brothers’ billionaire
confab that when repugicans take control of the Senate and keep control
of the House, their entire agenda “will be pushing back against this
bureaucracy so that no money can be spent to do this or to do that.
We’re going to go after them on healthcare, on financial services, on
the Environmental Protection Agency, across the board. All across the
federal government, we’re going to go after it.” McConnell was not just
pandering to the Koch brothers’ billionaire cabal, he clearly stated
what the repugican cabal agenda is if they win a majority in the Senate. However, it
is not what repugicans are overtly campaigning on even though it is
evident in everything repugicans have proposed since they took control
of the House after the 2010 midterms.
Even if one excuses Americans’ ignorance over the
rash of phony “jobs” bills House repugicans claim they have passed,
including Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity budget, repealing banking
reform, repealing Obamacare, defunding the Environmental Protection
Agency, or eliminating overtime pay regulations, Ryan himself revealed
on national television that eliminating extremely popular federal
programs is part and parcel of the Republican agenda. Ten days ago Ryan
bemoaned that on their own, House repugicans cannot possibly abolish
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act without
a repugican Senate. He said, “you actually can’t stop (read eliminate)
entitlements like Medicare and Social Security and Obamacare
unilaterally in the House,” and yet Democrats failed make his remarks a
focal point in their campaigns.
It is true Democrats hammered Ryan for his remarks
about government shutdowns, but they missed a golden opportunity to
shine a light on the repugican cabal’s agenda if they control Congress;
abolish New Deal programs like Social Security and Medicare as well as
Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, unemployment insurance, overtime pay,
workplace safety regulations, food stamps, and education. Add to those
their intent to abolish the EPA, IRS, Wall Street regulations, and
campaign finance rules, their goal is clear as the President said;
“dismantle the government.”
If those well-covered news items highlighting the repugican agenda to dismantle the federal government until it ceases to
exist were not enough campaign ammunition for Democrats, news out of
Georgia should have had them assailing repugicans mercilessly. The
Georgia legislature passed a resolution “calling for an application to
Congress for a Convention of States (Article V Convention of States)
with the intent of proposing amendments to limit the power and
jurisdiction of the federal government.”
The “dismantle the federal government” Article V
convention is the brainchild of retiring repugican senator from
Oklahoma Tom Coburn. Coburn’s goal, like the entire repugican cabal, is
to “reform” (repugican parlance for abolish) entitlement programs like
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps, as well as
eliminate federal regulations and bring the federal government he says
is “too powerful, too big and too unwieldy” to its knees. Or as
anti-federal government agitator Grover Norquist notoriously said, “drag
the federal government into a bathtub and drown it.”
Democrats are squandering a prime opportunity to
expose the repugican agenda if they win control of both houses of
Congress; dismantle the federal government. Mitch McConnell has said it,
Tom Coburn said it, Paul Ryan said it, House repugicans’ 40 jobs bills
say it, and President Obama said it; albeit as more of a passing remark
than a bold statement of fact. As an aside, if one takes even a cursory
glance at House repugicans’ vaunted “jobs bills,” they will see they
are integral to their not-so-secret dismantle the federal government
agenda. Still, Democrats are unwilling to go much farther than
suggesting the House repugicans’ ‘jobs bills’ do not create jobs; just
more wealth for their wealthy supporters.
Obviously repugicans are not going to overtly call
for eliminating the federal government on the campaign trail, but for
three years they have revealed that their entire agenda is predicated on
the Koch vision for America without a government. Regardless what any
American thinks about the federal government, there are few, very few,
Americans who want to live in a nation with no federal government to
protect Americans from wealthy predators with no other goal than taking
every and anything from the people; a goal repugicans share en masse
and one Democrats are curiously unwilling to expose. If, as President
Obama said, elections matter, then it is crucial that Democrats reveal
what is in store for Americans if repugicans continue lying about
creating jobs to win big in the midterm elections because their concept
of job creation is dismantling the people’s government and they are as
serious as a fatal heart attack.
by Maggie Kozel, M.D.
