News — At The Edge — 8/25

The storm ahead — Republican political & economic complicity — will devastate our future.

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The Slippery Slope of Complicity —

“Trump is every bit as terrible a human being, and every bit as much a menace to the republic, as some [warned]….[A] wannabe Mussolini who can’t even make the trains run on time….

[Republicans] acquiescing in Trump’s corruption, his incitements to violence, and his abuse of power…to punish critics…are making a coldblooded calculation that the demise of democracy is worth it if it means lower taxes on the rich and freedom to pollute_._…

[They’re] sinister in their spinelessness…as careerists, whose instinct is always to go along with the party line…[which] has drawn them ever deeper into complicity…for the next stage of degradation. ‘No evidence of collusion’ becomes ‘collusion is no big deal’….

The party has…habit of rejecting awkward facts and attributing them to conspiracies….[A] monolithic movement that doesn’t allow dissent….

[I]f Republicans lose Congress and Trump leaves office…[they] will try to go back to pretending that Republican politicians are serious, honorable people who care about policy. But they aren’t.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/opinion/the-slippery-slope-of-complicity.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion-columnists

Quicksand of Our Past_History teaches men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. [Eban]_medium.com

How conservatives made socialism attractive —

“[B]oth ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism’…are misunderstood today….Those contending for political power…[claim] one must accept all of the defects of capitalism — the inequality, the injustice, the environmental destruction — because…some kind of socialist system…could not provide prosperity….

Affordable Care Act is the only…reform initiative passed since 1973, and conservatives are working intensely to cripple it….[Other] programs like subsidized child care, universal health care or paid parental leave have gone nowhere.

The right has also used this capitalist-socialist dichotomy…[to] dramatically reduce the progressive nature of the tax system, made it extremely hard for employees to be represented by unions, undermined the effectiveness of regulatory agencies, slashed…programs like public housing and gutted the Voting Rights Act. The result has been a catastrophic increase in income and wealth inequality…[and] against the reform trajectory in American history that has increasingly provided people with more benefits and rights…[and] strengthened the…economic system….

[This] explains a lot about our current politics…[especially] populist rage that led to…Trump’s election…[and] naturally leaves some thinking that we need an alternative system that is not rigged to benefit the millionaires….

[N]ot state ownership of the means of production…[but] reform epoch like the New Deal…to reduce inequality…[provide] new ways to contain the power of large corporations and expand the services to which all citizens are entitled….[A] reconnection with our progressive history…that is not at all a threat to our political and economic institutions.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/08/15/how-conservatives-made-socialism-attractive/?utm_term=.ea2659b4c0a8

Capitalism and Post-Capitalism — The Whole Truth & Nothing But_As a dog that regularly bites, it is fair to say we have a love-hate relationship with capitalism. This lends itself to…_medium.com

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