Each time Republicans refuse to limit suffering, pain, or despair, we pretend they are acting honorably. We insist we just disagree. Sure, the GOP regularly disdained mercy, but we still tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. It seemed polite. But what if that’s not true? What if Republicans are hurting innocent people deliberately? They say so themselves, sometimes. Are Republicans evil because of that?
We did our best to wrap Republicans in good faith. When the GOP reliably votes against disaster aid or economic stimulus, we complain, but excuse them anyway. While President Trump is openly immoral, we suggest the GOP is just letting short-term fiscal prudence override the long-term public good. Republicans opposed each part of our social safety net, from minimum wage to Medicare to workplace safety to unemployment support, from welfare to food support to pensions. And it’s not just old news. Every year, Republicans submit bills to dissolve Social Security.
Each time Republicans vote to make people miserable, we make excuses. We’d say they don’t understand the problem, or they don’t appreciate the severity of people’s distress. At worst, we’d wonder if they might be ignorant of the facts. Republicans, we’d complain, were letting their ideals about small government override the good of the Republic.
Suppose not. Suppose Republicans are not pretending, mistaken, or ill-informed? Consider this as a thought experiment: what if Republicans are doing exactly what they want? Suppose they’re doing exactly what they intend, and deliberately hurting people. That has implications. Are Republicans that evil?
It’s not hard to find examples where Republicans voted against America’s best interests in recent history. Republicans vote against stimulus spending during each and every economic downturn (albeit with exceptions for the big donors). Remember the 2007 collapse? America was at the brink of wholescale depression and the collapse of our economy. Republicans were determined to say ‘no.’ Democrats had to drag Republicans to the table, settling for around half the spending we’d really need. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made his goals perfectly clear. Republicans were willing to tank the U.S. economy if that limited President Barak Obama to one term.
How about the climate crisis? They work hard to make it worse, opposing anything that might limit climate change. And really, does anyone want to argue that Republican sabotage is an accident? Trump gleefully does what he can to make the crisis even worse. The GOP argues that climate change itself is the lie, throwing up the most gossamer excuses. Really, it’s not that we doubt what’s clearly nonsense. Most people don’t even think Republicans believe their agitprop.
That means that, somehow, Republicans believe that widespread ecological devastation benefits them. They have to think that, or they wouldn’t be working so consistently and diligently to make it happen. And now that they’re succeeding, they’re attacking the environmental refugees while driving more people off their land. Does the Republican Party see a political gain from a wave of modern-day Okies? Does someone make money from that? Right or wrong, this is what they’re doing, deliberately and with full intent. Are they that evil?
When they’re in power, Republicans are indifferent to deficits or fiscal responsibility, spending freely and doling tax cuts to their friends. Out of power, they throw themselves at the gears of governance, doing everything in their power to break the federal engine, shouting nonsense about financial debasement. The Republican hypocrisy on deficits alone is breathtaking. Sometimes we talk about the politics of making Democrats look bad. But then the discussion ends. That conclusion means something. Are we saying the GOP is willing to be the party of pain?
There are more examples than I have the patience to list. Look at incarceration, racial injustice, corrupting the rule of law, or any other hot topic. You can fill in the blank parts. There’s horrific evil in each of those: not just lives ruined, Republican racial criminalization didn’t just hurt people, it crushed whole communities under those talking points.
I have to end with the COVID-19 fiasco. Republicans have been dependable, voting against every kind of medical response. They hate testing and masks and contact tracing, stay-at-home orders, or anything that limits transmission. They hate the idea of mobilizing the nation or even making an American COVID plan. They deny people the money to stay home, then require them to work for them in high-risk areas. Can’t run out of pork, you know. President Trump’s super-spreader rallies are uniquely sinful, but it’s all of them. From Trump, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Senate down to State and local elected GOP officials, the establishment Republicans are consistent: enforce whatever actions spread the disease the fastest.
Non-Republicans are fond of joking that Trump leads the pro-virus party. But what if that’s the honest truth? Can you say they aren’t fighting for the spread of Coronavirus? When they’re willing to cheat and lie to keep their secrets, it’s not an accident. Why don’t we believe they’re doing this on purpose?
How do death, disease, and long-term suffering benefit Republicans? This is not a rhetorical question. Does suffering increase their electability? Is that what they believe?
First step: stop assuming good faith. President Donald Trump is neither “unclear” nor “unconvinced” about COVID. The Republican Party isn’t attacking financial relief because they haven’t been convinced it works, and they hate the ACA because it works. GOP Governors aren’t deluded or poorly informed. These are adults worthy of minimum respect. The GOP crusade against public health isn’t an accident or even a surprise, and they’ve spent decades becoming the pro-misery, pro-chaos, anti-people party. Adding “pro-virus” is very on-brand for the modern GOP.
What party would undercut the national healthcare system in the middle of a global pandemic? Republicans. All while lying about it and hiding how bad it is.
That seems insane. Why push for higher COVID infection rates and more severe outcomes? That’s a common end-run my brain tries to use. If they’re just crazy, then I don’t have to look for another reason. Opposing elementary sanitation certainly seems unhinged, so it seems an easy assumption. But they’re all doing the same thing at the same time. Sure, a few Republicans might be deranged, but the entire GOP? They can’t all be nuts in the same way. I can’t just say it’s Trumpian madness and look away.
What is the Republican reason for creating misery, despair, and chaos? Why cause this much willful destruction? I can’t say for sure. Maybe the GOP thinks that desperate people are cheaper to manipulate. Perhaps the rich people who purchased the GOP asked their thralls for a higher level of anarchy, but that’s only secondary. I suspect the GOP is betting that we’ll forget what they did, and in our indignation, we’ll re-elect them.
Want to know the worst part? It works. Republicans routinely ride their own failures into public office. The GOP has created a mix of toxic masculinity and intellectual dishonesty that works against the easily cowed, old-school Democrats. Republicans systematically destroy good government and then point to the flaming wreckage, telling everyone, “See? That’s what Democrats want for you!” And party Democrats spent their decades cowering from the bully.
The moral is hard to deny: Republicans are showing us their true face. We should judge based on what they do. When they discard balanced budgets, shrinking Leviathan, and all the rest, those were never real. When they reliably dismantle our government, replacing working parts with authoritarian Turkey Farms, and attack public health and the safety net, that’s what’s real.
And yes, Republicans are deliberately spreading COVID and blocking most attempts to limit the harm. This is their platform and their plan. This is what they’re doing.
Honestly, the GOP seems remarkably malevolent. Believe what you see. They’re not just pretending.
At the top I asked: are Republicans evil?
Yes.
[Admin update (8/10/2020): Chockamo wrote this, but during the editing, I accidentally changed the author to Admin. It was always by Chockamo. Sorry for the confusion.]
