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.

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.

To the editor:

Although I agree with Wendy Gribben to a point — “government for the people” and “every vote is important” — I do believe we still have a big decision to make this election year.

“Vote your conscience.”

Now for the real problem. Mr. Watters is so quick to blame all these murders, yes, senseless murders, on our elected Democratic officials that he fails to look at who voted for the gun laws that are now in place.

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To the editor:

It’s happened again, just like last campaign season. Vandals tried to tip over a Democratic sign on Lake Drive. When they failed, they got a red marker and crossed out the word “forward” on the sign and wrote “backward.” Actually, Democrats want this to happen.

Our state will have to go backward to go forward.

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