Defunding the Republican Party

[wisewomn]

It's time to defund the Republican Party

In yesterday's rant, I laid out all the reasons why Democrats should put at the top of their priority list "defunding the Republican Party." Here's a little background, and how to do it.

Back in 1981, the Republican Party decided to defund the Democratic Party. While the Republican party had principally been funded by rich people and big business since the 1920s, the Democrats were largely reliant on the labor unions.

So Ronald Reagan, as part of his "Reagan Revolution," figured the best way to destroy the Democratic Party was to destroy America's unions. His first shot was to destroy Patco, the air traffic controller's union, and he did it in less than a week in August, 1981.

He, with Republicans in Congress and conservatives on the Supreme Court than embarked on an eight-year campaign to eliminate unions from the American landscape, thus wiping out the Democratic Party's ability to win elections.

It worked, and by 1992 American union membership, and their ability to fund elections, had collapsed so severely that Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party had to take money from giant corporations and billionaires to prevail in that election year.

Reagan's plan not only kneecapped the Democratic Party for the next 40 years, but also changed the party at its core, turning it from LBJ's Great Society Party into Bill Clinton's corporate-friendly DLC/New Democrat Party, now in bed with big banks, insurance companies, etc.

If Democrats want to defund the Republican party, which may force it to start focusing on the needs of regular people rather than just billionaires and corporations, there are a few obvious steps they should pursue. They include:

• End Red State welfare. Kentucky gets $2.41 for every dollar they send to Washington DC. Most other Red States are similarly "taker" states, so let's fight for a law limiting states to no more than $1.50 for every dollar they sent to DC in tax revenues. Call it Welfare Reform!
• End corporate welfare that gets recycled to GOP politicians. This includes $600 billion a year to fossil fuel companies, and over $1 trillion a year we give to big Pharma, insurance companies (like subsidies for the "Medicare Advantageâ€� scam), and "Big Ag" support.
• End corporate monopolies. Break up giant corporations and make America safe again for small businesses while rejuvenating local economies. From airlines to tech to banking and retail, giant monopolies rip off working class Americans and use some of that money to fund the GOP.
• Bring back Eisenhower's 91% top tax rate. America's strongest economy was 1950 to 1980, with a top tax rate of 91% to 74%. We built highways, schools, hospitals, and put men on the moon. Reagan cut that to 25%, and the billionaires it produced now pour money into the GOP.
• Follow Europe's example and impose a 1% tax on great fortunes. Average Americans pay a wealth tax every year: the property tax on their largest store of wealth, their homes. Billionaires should pay a similar annual tax on their money bins.
• End campaign contributions from corporations, end SuperPACs and limit billionaires' ability to skew our politics. We did this in the 1970s after the Nixon bribery scandals, but the Supreme Court blew it up. There are multiple ways around that, and the Democratic Party should make this job one.

These simple "Contract with America" steps, along with restoring the ability of American workers to unionize, will not only revive the Democratic Party, but also restore America to economic greatness and give us a far more honest political system.

-Thom Hartmann

https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/20...publican-party

[Valley Oak]

The most effective way to defund the Republican Party is to boycott Conservatives' businesses. Do the right thing and find alternatives. Shopping at Community Market instead of Whole Foods is a good start.

[spam1]

Only in Sebastopol: Whole foods a conservative business....

·instead of Whole Foods

[Valley Oak]

SavageNationLiberty, Jan 18, 2013

CNN Host Confronts Whole Foods CEO John Mackey Calling ObamaCare Fascism

On CNN this morning, host Carol Costello confronted Whole Foods CEO John Mackey over his recent comments that ObamaCare was tantamount to "fascism" because "the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it." "You initially labeled the Health Care Act a form of socialism, and then on NPR you called ObamaCare 'fascism.' Why did you decide to change the terminology?" Costello asked at the outset. Echoing his statement yesterday that he regrets using the word "fascism," Mackey explained, "That was a bad choice of words, but traditionally socialism means that the means of production are run by the government and in fascism the means of production are still owned by private individuals but they're controlled by the government. And what's happening. Our health care system is moving away from free enterprise capitalism towards greater governmental control.

That was a poor choice of words due to the baggage and associations that go along with it. So now I'm just calling it 'government-controlled health care.'"An unsatisfied Costello then challenged Mackey, saying, "You realize when you say 'fascism,' it brings up Nazi Germany and all sorts of things. And we really want that kind language out of our public forum at the moment, don't we?" "Apparently you can't use that word in America any longer, it's taboo," Mackey fired back.Costello claimed that it is taboo because of some of his customer base's negative reaction to the word: "Some of your customers though did express outrage at your use of that word. It was on the Whole Foods Facebook page. One person said, and I quote, 'Of course, he regrets his word choice. It affects his bottom line. I do not believe this apology any more than I believe Mitt Romney's attempt to get out from under his 47 percent comments.'""Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and beliefs," Mackey responded. "This is America."Costello then asked, "But why inject yourself into the debate over ObamaCare in the first place?

"Mackey responded that he provides health insurance for 73,000 Whole Foods employees and some provisions of Obama's health care law will raise his company's costs. "It's making it more difficult to provide the insurance at affordable rates to our team members, so I'm trying to protect them as well as I can," he said."I think, though, that many of your customers probably wouldn't agree with you since, I don't know, you kind of run a store that appeals to the more liberal in America in some ways," Costello replied."I don't understand what your question or your point is," Mackey said."I'm just saying some people feel Whole Foods is a politically-correct grocery store because you sell organic goods," Costello explained. "You're into health, et cetera, et cetera, and some of your customers might be taken aback because of that.""They might be," the CEO replied. "But I mean, Whole Foods is a very diverse company. We have a multiplicity of opinions. Again, we're the United States. We have freedom of speech. We're a democracy. We need to have a variety of opinions shared in order for us to remain a vital and prosperous country."