Republican Extremism Not Recent Phenomenon

I’m often asked why so many people don’t challenge what is being said by Republicans, especially Donald Trump. I try to make sense of it, and I think it has a lot to do with what has been happening the last fifty plus years in the Republican Party.

Author David Corn’s recent book, American Psychosis, An Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy, traces Republican extremism, beginning with McCarthyism up to its current form — Trumpism. Senator Joseph McCarthy’s impact is still with us. His picture is displayed above the jury box in the Shawano County Court House. Why?

From 1950-54, McCarthy lead a witch hunt to root out alleged communists in the US government, Hollywood and elsewhere. Most of those he accused had nothing to do with the Communist Party, yet they were still blacklisted and/or lost their jobs.

The John Birch Society picked up where McCarthy left off. They even accused President Dwight D. Eisenhower, of being a Communist.

More recently, we have had the Tea Party, which falsely repeated over and over that President Obama was not born in the United States, that he was a Kenyan nationalist seeking to take over the government with socialism. Now we have Qanon with its unexplainable conspiracy theories.

Our nation is struggling to hold onto its democracy. In the past, the two major opposing political parties worked cooperatively. Today, it has become a money-fueled winner take all power struggle. Republicans make assertions that Democrats want to destroy our country. Democrats say Republicans are actually doing it: with stacked courts that render blatantly partisan decisions, and legislatures that seek to suppress the vote, even intent on controlling the voting process itself and the final outcome as well.

History has shown us that some people can and will say and do anything for power. History will also show that the elections next month can and will determine America’s future based on who we choose: whether it be a renewed effort to maintain our democracy, or acceptance of a radical right wing shift towards an authoritarian takeover by people who will not accept election results unless they win.

We need to vote wisely for our future and that of our families. That is, if we want to remain the United States of America. As Abraham Lincoln cautioned during a similar time of great peril: “a house divided cannot stand.”

This is the current letter to the Editor which was distributed to the local area media by the Shawano County Democrats.

Have Some Faith in Our Leaders

Throughout history presidents have always been blamed for problems with the United States economy. Now is no exception.

Since the beginning of the pandemic we stayed home more and didn’t use as much gasoline. Now people are driving more so demand for gasoline has increased. Add to that the shortages because of the war in Ukraine and you get higher prices. To blame President Biden is not fair.

Exon Mobil, Chevron, Shell and BP have added to the problem. In the last quarter they limited supply and racked in $25 billion in profits, which is the highest income level in 7 years. Maybe they should help to stabilize prices.

Also happening with the COVID-19 outbreak was the interruption of goods production. Many workers got sick and missed work. This happened just as we were buying more products for home thus putting a strain on the worldwide supply chain.

Certain corporations have made the situation worse. Starbucks’s profits soared 352%. In 2021 Netflix doubled profits and UPS had a record-breaking year. Amazon made $35 billion and McDonald’s had $23 billion in revenues. Corporate profit margins are now at a 70-year high. They have profited at our expense.

All this corporate greed has led to increased prices. Consumers have found themselves having less purchasing power even though wages are on the rise. This dilemma is called “inflation”, a word Republicans have been using as they blame President Biden for consumer price hikes.

What is being ignored are the indicators that show the economy actually slowly rebounding from the effects of the pandemic. The national economy is seen as growing at 4%, a rate not seen since the Reagan administration. 6.6 million new jobs have been created in 2021. As hiring increases, President Biden is on track to have unemployment rates like the 1950’s.

Even Wisconsin is making progress. The unemployment rate is 2.8%, the lowest in Wisconsin’s history. Governor’s Evers’ investments in small businesses has paid off.

Our state has accumulated a projected budget surplus of historic proportions. His plan is to return a portion of the money to working families to help them fight rising costs.

We need to stop pointing fingers and have patience as cope with the higher prices. The price of gas, groceries and goods will come down when supplies stabilize. Have some faith in our leaders.

We haven’t had such division in our country since Wisconsin’s United States Senator Joseph McCarthy made false accusations of treason among left-wing individuals in the 1950’s.  His campaign spread fear of alleged communist and socialist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet Agents.  He lost credibility after several of his accusations were found to be false.

Unfortunately, history is repeating itself.  Now we have the “Big Lie” which alleges Donald Trump won the 2020 election due to voter fraud.  At this time there has been no evidence that points to illegal votes as the reason Trump lost.  The movement has, however, caused our county to be more and more divided as time goes on.

McCarthy was not the only Wisconsinite to divide our state.  Former Governor Walker used his “divide and conquer” strategy when it came to the state’s budgeting process.   He pitted public employee unions against those who wished to take down organized labor.  In reality it was less about budget-cutting and more about his personal campaign to weaken worker’s power.

FOX News has only fueled the divide in our country.  If you tune in (which I do only occasionally), you will hear daily rhetoric about how bad President Biden’s policies are and how the Democrats are destroying our country.

 If you go off FOX News (which I would recommend) and listen to other cable stations such as CNBC you will get less opinions and more “hard news”.  By tuning into “The News with Shepard Smith” at 6:00 pm you will get a non-political leaning on the true news.  By the way, Shep used to be a host on FOX but left because he didn’t like how they were using a false premise (disinformation about election fraud) to lead people astray.  He could see how this behavior was spreading seeds of division and thus doing harm to us as a nation. He couldn’t take it anymore.  He sleeps well at night knowing that his broadcasting of the news gives people the truth.

Keep in mind that division has been used as a path to power worldwide for centuries.  This holiday season should be the start of our effort to put aside politics and love our neighbor as ourselves as the Second Commandment suggests.  We can each be the catalyst which makes the world a better place for all.

SOCIAL CHANGE REQUIRES UNDERSTANDING AND EMPHATHY
 

  On Sept. 28, the Wisconsin Assembly decided to gag teachers and hog-tie school districts by voting to prohibit schools from full discussions about racism and sexism.  Wrong?  Absolutely.
Assembly Bill 411 is an effort to put a lid on our schools to having students grapple with racism and sexism which are so much a part of our history and our society. 
  Discussions involving Critical Race Theory has only been taught in colleges. Children are not being taught the complex theories of CRT in our Wisconsin schools or those in Virginia (even though their Republican for governor lied when he said they were).
  We as adults need to be educated about Critical Race Theory.  Everyone has a race.  Racism is the fact that ‘White’ means ‘normal’ and that anything else is “less than” different. The first step towards combating structural racism is acknowledging its existence.
  For Caucasian people, talking about race may be uncomfortable.  Discussions of race in America may center around the protection of White feelings.  It is okay to admit there are times when the United States has not been fair. 
  Don’t believe that our country needs a strong leader who will protect our children from having to deal with racism.  Banning certain books and articles will only make our children narrow minded in their thinking.  When a government has dictatorial power it can only lead to Fascism.
Social change requires making some noise. As with Black Lives Matter, activists are going to hold all influencers — allies or otherwise – accountable.  White people have to accept that anger is a natural response to being systematically oppressed.  It can be an effective tool. 
  Societies do not, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior or even 500 years ago in the case of our Native Americans.   Racism is everywhere.  People of color experience Frustration and Anger.  They are Silenced, Talked Over, and Ignored.  Every one of these emotions are felt painfully every single day by racial minority groups in our country.
  It’s up to all of us to continue the conversation by listening and empathizing. This includes discussion with our children and allowing our schools to teach accurate American history.  Be a part of the solution by changing perceptions for the betterment of ‘us’ all.

Edward Johnson

Below is a Letter to the Editor published in the Shawano Leader.

AMERICANS BEHIND IN FIXING INFRASTRUCTURE

After decades of disinvestment, our roads, bridges, and water systems are crumbling. Our electric grid is vulnerable to catastrophic outages. Too many lack affordable, high-speed Internet and quality housing. It’s embarrassing that the greatest nation in the world is ranked 13^th in the overall quality of infrastructure according to a study in 2019.

Government officials from both parties have been promising for years how they will move forward with an infrastructure plan.  Former President Trump announced two different infrastructure weeks that never happened.  Governor Evers promised if elected he would fix “the damn roads”.  Finally, we have a president and a governor who are working on infrastructure at the same time.

Evers’ Badger Bounceback agenda shows his commitment to fixing the 1,949 miles of crumbling roads as well as the 198 bridges which are in poor condition in Wisconsin. His 2021-23 budget brings the state’s investment in transportation aid for local roads to its highest level ever.

Infrastructure telecommunications include internet connectivity and broadband access.  Every Wisconsinite should be able to access and afford internet.  Evers’ would like to invest five times the amount invested in the 2013, 2015, and 2017 budgets combined making internet services affordable to all income levels.

President Biden is also committed to improving our infrastructure.   Biden’s American Jobs Plan is an investment in America that will create millions of good jobs and rebuild our country’s infrastructure.

The American Jobs Plan will invest in America in a way we have not invested since we built the interstate highways and won the Space Race in the late 1960’s.  The past year has led to job losses and threatened economic security.  Our nation is falling behind its biggest competitors on research and development (R&D), manufacturing, and training. It has never been more important for us to invest in strengthening our infrastructure and competitiveness, and in creating good-paying jobs of the future.

In a Monmouth University Poll survey sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults supported the president’s infrastructure package dealing with physical needs including road, bridge and tunnel upkeep, as well as broadband internet expansion and electric vehicle investments.

Hopefully our elected officials can support the people, compromise, and come up with infrastructure plans that improve life for all Americans.