Its hard to imagine a more horrific scenario for the most vulnerable people in this country. My own father was using Medicaid when he fell at 88, broke his hip and had to go into a nursing home. In return, Medicaid put a lean on his house, which would be sold when he died, to reimburse money back into this lifesaving fund that everyone uses. It is not waste or fraud, but necessary and lifesaving services that enable people to get the help they need. To see this slashed to put more money in the pocket of the feckless and undeserving rich, is a complete travesty. We don't do enough for our poor and working poor ( sorry no middle class anymore) and are years behind Europe and other countries that use progressive measures to make life better for those who live there. The foul intent of those in the Trump administration, and members of Congress who are approving all of this, could not be more clear. Their utter lack of humanity and common decency is pretty appalling. America needs to look in the mirror now, to see the ugly and destructive face of our once exceptional country. It is not a pretty sight.
It's pretty incredible to witness the GOP representatives who themselves have government paid health insurance voting to ax the people who live in their districts and can least afford insurance. Their lack of self-awareness is the very definition of entitlement.
And yet they refer to Dems as the "elitists". It's like when Hiward Lutnick said his mother wouldn't have a problem if her Social Security check didn't come or Trump talking about taking away kids' toys or truckers losing their jobs. These guys are the very definition of out of touch, or they simply don't care.
the GOP representatives don't just lack self-awareness. They lack empathy and don't care how these cuts to Medicaid will destroy peoples' lives. It really is utter cruelty and unconscionable.
My "representative," Chuck Edwards of District 11 NC, held a Town Hall in Asheville a month or so ago. He SWORE that there would be no cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security, and when a 20-year veteran called him a "f---ing liar" Chuck had his friendly campus police expel the man from the auditorium. To this date he has STILL maintained that "I will not vote for any cuts to Medicaid or Medicare" even as he voted for the budget blueprint that approved $880 billion in cuts (without specifying from what program, so he can still say "I haven't voted for dime to be cut from Medicaid)." What's the lying SOB going to do when this next vote comes up? Vote for the cuts, insist that they're all for "waste, fraud, and abuse" but not a dime taken out of patient services, and lie his way to another term.
Meanwhile, his constituents outside of Asheville comprise the poorest, most uneducated, downtrodden people in the state -- rural counties like Cherokee, Burke, Swain, Graham, Clay, etc. -- where overall 12.5% of the population is at poverty level. BUT 1/6 of the population lives in high-end, high-income Asheville, which skews the statistics; and 1/3 in surrounding Buncombe and Henderson Counties, big retirement communities loaded with dough. Remove them, and the remaining 500,000 face unemployment, poor health, low income, few opportunities . . . and they consistently vote for right-wing nut-jobs who trample on their very lives. Mark Meadows! Madison Cawthorne! Chuckie Edwards!
It's frustrating, and crazy, that we Dems, like in Ashville, are standing up for the rights and interests of people on the other side who vote against those things. I sometimes ask myself why I should continue fighting for people who not only won't fight for themselves, but who actively fight against the common good. Whether they do that out of ignorance, failure to pay attention, credulous susceptibility to lies repeated over and over again, or to racism and xenophobia I can't say, but it's frustrating. Even worse that they hold up ignorance as a virtue, and paint educated and informed folks as "eitist". Why do we continue to fight for them? Why not let them suffer the consequences of their foolish support of Trump. Those consequences fall disproportionately on them. Why not let the pain increase until they wake up and see what's happening and tell their reps in Congress to stand up for them? I always end up fighting for them anyway, because we need to stand up for our society and our democracy, but the temptation to leave them to their chosen fate is always in the background.
There's a cultural thread that runs through human history that divides people into two general (and very broad and fluid) categories.
-- One group -- the majority of humanity -- are fundamentally passive. They are the people who, like herd animals, follow the leader, whether it's the bellwether sheep or and tribe leader in a gorilla pod or the matriarch of a clan or family of elephants. Among humans beings, they are the ones who easily categorize themselves into castes, or allow themselves passively to be categorized. They stay in those castes for generations; even in modern England there's a strong strain of class culture that won't be overturned. People who think of others as "their betters," the downstairs people who cannot imagine themselves being anywhere else and resent those who do; or who serve the upper class masters but look down their noses when those UC folks invite someone who "doesn't belong," like an actor or populist politician.
These are people who "know their place" and prefer being there, knowing that others will make decisions for them (not necessarily to their benefit) and believe they can't and shouldn't do anything about it.
I think of Rose in Upstairs Downstairs 50 years ago; the others resented her for being ambitious. I think of people all across this country who still-to-this-day thank the boss for their paychecks, though the boss never thanks them for the work they did to earn those checks.
Those attitudes carry down from generation to generation, century to century. Think of the Chinese peasantry, the Russian serf-mentality (I'm half-Russian myself), the Italian submissive devotion to popes and princes and mafia dons and autocratic rulers. And in this country, that mentality infects a large proportion (maybe 35 to 40 percent, or more) of white voters.
Ethnic immigrants come here for opportunity and freedom, whether Greeks opening restaurants in the 1950s or Italians as tailors in the 1920s or Mexicans as laborers who became bodega owners and accountants in the 1960s 70s and 80s.
Of course those are all stereotypes and generalizations, but they're based on fact: that immigrants are ambitious, and learn submissiveness only over time here.
The second group of people I categorize is self-imagined. We think for ourselves, analyze options, choose our own career paths or ambitions. It's not that this group is necessarily smarter; it's just that we expect to make our own lives, and will not allow others to tell us what to do.
But the first group? All you have to do is assuage their consciences by assuring them that hating certain others is okay; that others beneath them deserve what they (don't) get; and that the masters of power (like in Congress or the legislature) know better what really matters, and besides, "as long as I'm not personally hurt ..." And if they are personally hurt, well, certainly Chuck Edwards didn't deliberately do that; it was someone else!
That's why Spartacus, or Rose, or Howard Beale in "Network," or Jimmy Stewart in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington," stand out so clearly.
One of my favorite quotations is from Lyndon Johnson, because it explains a lot in a lot fewer words:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
An important overlay to your 2 groups is 2 other groups - immigrants and native born. One of the things that made America great over the centuries is that we are all immigrants (other than the native Americans). Our population self selected itself ss those most likely to have the energy and ambition to risk everything to come here to work for a better life. It's still true today, maybe moreso.
An immigrant risks blood and treasure to come here, while the native born coal miner waits in their dieing town for hand shoveling coal to come back. Which contributes more, and which do we villify?
My apologies. I did not mean to suggest you were diminishing people. We are all frustrated. When our frustration turns into theories—e.g., that there are two groups of people, the largest fundamentally passive, etc.—I hear diminishment. But you didn’t say this. I will delete my message for the confusion it caused. Thank you.
We the people need to demand, loudly and insistently, that all who serve in elected or appointed office, national or state, go on the same healthcare and retirement savings plans as the rest of us.
Very clear use of CBO figures to show how many people will be treated so poorly while our tax monies are used in place of what the wealthy should be paying. Thank you for this article.
Jeff, once again, a very good explanation! I asked Andy Reed because of his comment, but why don't people get it, and change their votes? How many times must Trump and Republicans lie to them, before they understand that things will never change for them unless they vote for Democrats?
Thanks Andy! I appreciate the time you spent on this! Quite honestly, it’s so out of my realm of experience, that while I understand what you wrote, it's not one I embrace, but it won't help us to convince his voters to join us.
Ever since Trump was elected the first time, I’ve been surprised by almost everything that’s happened. I have never understood why anyone would see a billionaire as the victim he portrays himself to be. Those who characterize him as a “strong leader” must not know the definition of a bully. Veterans vote for him, although he was a draft dodger. Women vote for him although he’s been convicted of sexual abuse, which the judge said was rape. Latino males voted for him in the last election, although he’s been overtly racist since the beginning.
While Trump's polling is down, it's not as low as I had hoped it would be. And, we need to come up with strategies to fight against him, which will convince his voters that he not only doesn't care about them, but his brand of evil and cruelty, and strategy of pitting people against each other, is destroying our country.
Its hard to imagine a more horrific scenario for the most vulnerable people in this country. My own father was using Medicaid when he fell at 88, broke his hip and had to go into a nursing home. In return, Medicaid put a lean on his house, which would be sold when he died, to reimburse money back into this lifesaving fund that everyone uses. It is not waste or fraud, but necessary and lifesaving services that enable people to get the help they need. To see this slashed to put more money in the pocket of the feckless and undeserving rich, is a complete travesty. We don't do enough for our poor and working poor ( sorry no middle class anymore) and are years behind Europe and other countries that use progressive measures to make life better for those who live there. The foul intent of those in the Trump administration, and members of Congress who are approving all of this, could not be more clear. Their utter lack of humanity and common decency is pretty appalling. America needs to look in the mirror now, to see the ugly and destructive face of our once exceptional country. It is not a pretty sight.
It's pretty incredible to witness the GOP representatives who themselves have government paid health insurance voting to ax the people who live in their districts and can least afford insurance. Their lack of self-awareness is the very definition of entitlement.
And yet they refer to Dems as the "elitists". It's like when Hiward Lutnick said his mother wouldn't have a problem if her Social Security check didn't come or Trump talking about taking away kids' toys or truckers losing their jobs. These guys are the very definition of out of touch, or they simply don't care.
the GOP representatives don't just lack self-awareness. They lack empathy and don't care how these cuts to Medicaid will destroy peoples' lives. It really is utter cruelty and unconscionable.
My "representative," Chuck Edwards of District 11 NC, held a Town Hall in Asheville a month or so ago. He SWORE that there would be no cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security, and when a 20-year veteran called him a "f---ing liar" Chuck had his friendly campus police expel the man from the auditorium. To this date he has STILL maintained that "I will not vote for any cuts to Medicaid or Medicare" even as he voted for the budget blueprint that approved $880 billion in cuts (without specifying from what program, so he can still say "I haven't voted for dime to be cut from Medicaid)." What's the lying SOB going to do when this next vote comes up? Vote for the cuts, insist that they're all for "waste, fraud, and abuse" but not a dime taken out of patient services, and lie his way to another term.
Meanwhile, his constituents outside of Asheville comprise the poorest, most uneducated, downtrodden people in the state -- rural counties like Cherokee, Burke, Swain, Graham, Clay, etc. -- where overall 12.5% of the population is at poverty level. BUT 1/6 of the population lives in high-end, high-income Asheville, which skews the statistics; and 1/3 in surrounding Buncombe and Henderson Counties, big retirement communities loaded with dough. Remove them, and the remaining 500,000 face unemployment, poor health, low income, few opportunities . . . and they consistently vote for right-wing nut-jobs who trample on their very lives. Mark Meadows! Madison Cawthorne! Chuckie Edwards!
Let them eat cake.
It's frustrating, and crazy, that we Dems, like in Ashville, are standing up for the rights and interests of people on the other side who vote against those things. I sometimes ask myself why I should continue fighting for people who not only won't fight for themselves, but who actively fight against the common good. Whether they do that out of ignorance, failure to pay attention, credulous susceptibility to lies repeated over and over again, or to racism and xenophobia I can't say, but it's frustrating. Even worse that they hold up ignorance as a virtue, and paint educated and informed folks as "eitist". Why do we continue to fight for them? Why not let them suffer the consequences of their foolish support of Trump. Those consequences fall disproportionately on them. Why not let the pain increase until they wake up and see what's happening and tell their reps in Congress to stand up for them? I always end up fighting for them anyway, because we need to stand up for our society and our democracy, but the temptation to leave them to their chosen fate is always in the background.
Thank you. “I always end up fighting for them anyway, because we need to stand up for our society and our democracy,…”
To both SBwrites and Harrison:
First, I wish I knew!
Second, I have a theory.
There's a cultural thread that runs through human history that divides people into two general (and very broad and fluid) categories.
-- One group -- the majority of humanity -- are fundamentally passive. They are the people who, like herd animals, follow the leader, whether it's the bellwether sheep or and tribe leader in a gorilla pod or the matriarch of a clan or family of elephants. Among humans beings, they are the ones who easily categorize themselves into castes, or allow themselves passively to be categorized. They stay in those castes for generations; even in modern England there's a strong strain of class culture that won't be overturned. People who think of others as "their betters," the downstairs people who cannot imagine themselves being anywhere else and resent those who do; or who serve the upper class masters but look down their noses when those UC folks invite someone who "doesn't belong," like an actor or populist politician.
These are people who "know their place" and prefer being there, knowing that others will make decisions for them (not necessarily to their benefit) and believe they can't and shouldn't do anything about it.
I think of Rose in Upstairs Downstairs 50 years ago; the others resented her for being ambitious. I think of people all across this country who still-to-this-day thank the boss for their paychecks, though the boss never thanks them for the work they did to earn those checks.
Those attitudes carry down from generation to generation, century to century. Think of the Chinese peasantry, the Russian serf-mentality (I'm half-Russian myself), the Italian submissive devotion to popes and princes and mafia dons and autocratic rulers. And in this country, that mentality infects a large proportion (maybe 35 to 40 percent, or more) of white voters.
Ethnic immigrants come here for opportunity and freedom, whether Greeks opening restaurants in the 1950s or Italians as tailors in the 1920s or Mexicans as laborers who became bodega owners and accountants in the 1960s 70s and 80s.
Of course those are all stereotypes and generalizations, but they're based on fact: that immigrants are ambitious, and learn submissiveness only over time here.
The second group of people I categorize is self-imagined. We think for ourselves, analyze options, choose our own career paths or ambitions. It's not that this group is necessarily smarter; it's just that we expect to make our own lives, and will not allow others to tell us what to do.
But the first group? All you have to do is assuage their consciences by assuring them that hating certain others is okay; that others beneath them deserve what they (don't) get; and that the masters of power (like in Congress or the legislature) know better what really matters, and besides, "as long as I'm not personally hurt ..." And if they are personally hurt, well, certainly Chuck Edwards didn't deliberately do that; it was someone else!
That's why Spartacus, or Rose, or Howard Beale in "Network," or Jimmy Stewart in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington," stand out so clearly.
One of my favorite quotations is from Lyndon Johnson, because it explains a lot in a lot fewer words:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
Does that help?
An important overlay to your 2 groups is 2 other groups - immigrants and native born. One of the things that made America great over the centuries is that we are all immigrants (other than the native Americans). Our population self selected itself ss those most likely to have the energy and ambition to risk everything to come here to work for a better life. It's still true today, maybe moreso.
An immigrant risks blood and treasure to come here, while the native born coal miner waits in their dieing town for hand shoveling coal to come back. Which contributes more, and which do we villify?
My apologies. I did not mean to suggest you were diminishing people. We are all frustrated. When our frustration turns into theories—e.g., that there are two groups of people, the largest fundamentally passive, etc.—I hear diminishment. But you didn’t say this. I will delete my message for the confusion it caused. Thank you.
We the people need to demand, loudly and insistently, that all who serve in elected or appointed office, national or state, go on the same healthcare and retirement savings plans as the rest of us.
Very clear use of CBO figures to show how many people will be treated so poorly while our tax monies are used in place of what the wealthy should be paying. Thank you for this article.
‘It was never about 'waste, fraud, and abuse.'
Just like it was never about ‘the price of eggs!’
When prices weren’t ‘rosy enough’ under Biden it was ‘INTOLERABLE!’
Now that Trump threatens hard times with unnecessary tariffs they plan to become STOICS!
— (silent scream! Edward Munch)
Jeff, once again, a very good explanation! I asked Andy Reed because of his comment, but why don't people get it, and change their votes? How many times must Trump and Republicans lie to them, before they understand that things will never change for them unless they vote for Democrats?
Those capable of switching gears come around in the midterms, right?
Demonstrating not just a fickleness to facts, but poor memories of pain.
Thank you! I certainly hope so!
Thanks Andy! I appreciate the time you spent on this! Quite honestly, it’s so out of my realm of experience, that while I understand what you wrote, it's not one I embrace, but it won't help us to convince his voters to join us.
Ever since Trump was elected the first time, I’ve been surprised by almost everything that’s happened. I have never understood why anyone would see a billionaire as the victim he portrays himself to be. Those who characterize him as a “strong leader” must not know the definition of a bully. Veterans vote for him, although he was a draft dodger. Women vote for him although he’s been convicted of sexual abuse, which the judge said was rape. Latino males voted for him in the last election, although he’s been overtly racist since the beginning.
While Trump's polling is down, it's not as low as I had hoped it would be. And, we need to come up with strategies to fight against him, which will convince his voters that he not only doesn't care about them, but his brand of evil and cruelty, and strategy of pitting people against each other, is destroying our country.