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To Republicans, cruel government is the feature, not the bug [1]

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Date: 2022-07-27

Stephen Miller caricature (by Donkey Hotey); Source: Wikimedia Commons

{For a related perspective on this subject, see Mark Sumner’s DK diary from yesterday. Sumner rightly characterizes the red state authoritarians who exert total control over nearly two dozen state governments as “wanting government to fail” and “fixed on destroying … Lincoln’s America”.}

Back in 2019, many of us will remember a phrase that was used to characterize the agenda of Stephen Miller (Trump’s acolyte for conceiving and implementing a host of racist immigration policies such as Muslim Ban, Zero Tolerance, Family Separation, Denaturalization, Stay in Place, and Child Cages) — ”The Cruelty is the Point”.

We can now confirm that it’s not just Trump and Miller whose glee overfloweth at the thought of government-imposed cruelty, and it’s no longer just people of color who are the subjects of that cruelty. It’s finally becoming clear that America is cursed with many groups that favor universal sadism for US residents (citizens and non-citizens alike).

Proud Boys/Oathkeepers, Dominionists/White Christian Nationalists, the Federalist Society, the House Freedom Caucus, and the SCOTUS-6 — are all Stephen Miller wannabes. And the targets of their brutishness include women who can become pregnant (and their obstetricians), LGBTQ people, poor people, homeless people, unionized workers, librarians, social security recipients, and pretty much everyone else who isn’t an ultra-millionaire.

First, I would like to count the ways these savage control-freaks are proposing to radically alter America, and then we must analyze the hellish reasons why they promote such a depraved governing philosophy.

So what do we respond when a “reasonable” conservative innocuously asks us, “Why is it depraved to want smaller government?” or “What’s wrong with meritocracy?”

We should calmly inform them that the depravity inherent to the GOP governing mantra has nothing to do with the size of government or whether hard work gets rewarded .

Nearly all good ideas and nearly all efficient workers are rewarded in the marketplace and no government (red/blue, communist/libertarian) can stop that at the micro level. Beyond that, government spending objectively can be either excessive or insufficient (see Stephanie Kelton’s full employment philosophy). Realistically though, the occasional blue excesses are no where near as omnipresent or egregious as the red deficiencies.

As listed above, the GOP goons are all about overturning helpful old laws and concocting hateful new laws — precisely because they want people to hate “big government” (which is a deliberate misnomer they fabricated as a deceitful synonym for “helpful government”).

Republicans actually want government to be smaller in the areas where it helps people, and they want government to be larger in areas where it punishes people who disobey (or merely protest) the draconian rules they establish anew to thwart goverment’s helpfulness to ordinary people.

At its core, this GOP governing approach is a contrived formula for cruelty — with three underlying motives that are (each in its own way) systematically opposed to freedom in marketplaces of ideas, products and labor, opposed to equality of opportunity for all races, religions, and genders, and opposed to free and fair elections.

1. The first and more obvious motive for programmed government cruelty is that capitalists need government to help ensure the econcomic playing field remains tilted in their direction. If workers obtain too many rights and too many “unearned” benefits, they will be able to form stronger trade unions that will negotiate more vigorously for greater wages. In a competitive (i.e. non-monopolistic) product market, this invariably drives down profit margins (because price competition will keep a cap on the total revenue available), and that makes it harder for authoritarians like Elon Musk to become billionaires.

Ultra wealthy capitalists inherently have a huge advantage over individual workers in the wage negotiation game but labor unions can bring significantly more negotiating power to the table and reduce the tilt. If workers, for example, can rely on government for their healthcare instead of their employer, that’s one less reason for them to be afraid of striking for higher wages and benefits.

On the other hand, there are plenty of decent employers out there who actually care about their workers, and whose profits are reasonable — but they don’t benefit from the tilted playing field and therefore they don’t need government cruelty to succeed.

2. The second motive is addressed in Mark Sumner’s article linked above. The more Abbott and DeSantis can create painful and undesirable conditions in their home states, the more normal (blue) people will want to leave those states to live in California or Massachusetts. The sadism induces what they view as an emesis of blue voters in their state and that entrenches their power at home (and their proximity to secession from the Union if the time ever comes).

3. The third, and less obvious motive for government cruelty is that ordinary citizens will feel less empowered to change their circumstances if they incessantly hear messaing that nature is cruel, their neighbors are vile, the economy is zero-sum, cops are dangerous, politicians are liars, and ordinary people can’t win.

If 700 people die needlessly in a winter storm, or if 19 school children are massacred in their classroom, or if a few million Democrats are capable of stealing an election with no discernable traces — why should they ever put their hope in Obamacare or Build Back Better. Afterall, all politicians are liars, right? Nothing’s going to improve … in this life? Right? So just maybe it will be gloriously better in the next life?

During the prior administration, we saw what appeared to be an unnatural alliance between Trump and the televangelists — co-equal fraudsters to the core. But might there also be a natural alliance between local church leaders and a political philosophy based on austerity (and cruelty)?

If I’m just trying to keep my head down and do a good job, but my government and my boss both tell me to stop hoping for a better life, I might as well bring my tithe to the pastor or priest who is at least singing glorious songs and telling me tales of hope — all based on the greatest story ever told.

But on the other hand, if the government is actually able to help ordinary people ensure their needs are met, the canonical storytellers might lose a few attendees (and a few dozen 10 and 20 dollar bills) each week.

I’m not saying that I believe all religious leaders are disingenuous — on the contrary, I believe a large majority of them are honest believers. However, they must instinctively know that people who receive many benefits from government will come to expect more from government, and they may not feel the need to expect so much from church. (Yes, since government spending can’t wipe out sin like it can diminsh poverty, churches will still have a monopoly on forgivness of sins.)

The bottom line is that small-minded Republican leaders know that public charity makes people less dependent on private charity — and that burns them up just as much as workers being less dependent on fat-cat employers. It’s dangerous for their worldview if too many people feel independent of bosses and priests.

Come to think of it, maybe the GOP cruelty arises because they are bitterly angry — against progressives who have figured out their con game.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/27/2112678/-To-Republicans-cruel-government-is-the-feature-not-the-bug

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