140 Reasons Not to Vote Republican

The thing about most extremists is that, if you don't cuddle up to their particular form of zealotry, they automatically assume that you are the polar opposite of whatever they are. I saw this during the election, when I still participated in mainstream social media. Anytime I made any argument about CNN being politically biased, the retort was always, "b-b-b-but muh Fox News!" If you're not on the one team, you must be on the other. Where I grew up, you were either a Cubs fan or you were a Cardinals fan. Every now and again some smartass would say something ridiculous, like they were a White Sox fan... but no one ever took those types seriously.

And so, the arena sports mentality of team loyalty is also a defining feature of our political discourse. I'm actually not the biggest Fox News fan. It is still corporate-run Big Media. It is the home of the news bimbo, and of overly dramatic special effects. While I appreciate their dedication to aesthetics, it's hard to take such an organization seriously as a purveyor of objective truth. (Studies have shown that men are less capable of absorbing information when delivered by beautiful women, which my own independent studies have also confirmed to be true.) Fox News is not all that conservative, either. Not by my book, of course, but not by anyone's book. Sheppard Smith is every bit the flaming anti-Trumper that Anderson Cooper is, and the OG anti-Trumper - Megyn Kelly - was a Fox News host before she got too big for her britches. There are some redeeming characters, like Tucker Carlson - the closest we'll probably get to a nationalist on mainstream TV - and Maria Bartiromo - who provided excellent coverage of FISAgate. Still, overall, Fox News isn't really my thing, I don't watch it, and I'm certainly not indirectly defending Fox News anytime I criticize CNN.

Similarly, some people that I know have said they can't believe I ended up becoming a Republican. Well, they can trust their lack of belief, because I'm not. Enthusiastic support for Trump does not equate to party loyalty. I also enthusiastically voted for Ron Paul, but did not vote for either McCain or Romney. The corporate/deep-state Republicans are hardly any more palatable than their Democrat counterparts. The major highlights of the Bush II presidential legacy were the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act, Wall Street bailouts, and wonton imperialism. With conservatives like that, who needs liberals? 

Today, the Republicans have given us more reason to reinforce any belief that they are not deserving of our loyalty. Not because they aren't better than Democrats - they are - but because they still can't be depended on to do the right thing. The House of Representatives voted to extend green cards to an additional 300,000 Indian contractors, plus 300,000 of their family members, plus an extra 75,000 to be awarded each year. The House voted that the middle and working classes, who were finally starting to beat the scourge of stagnant wages and eternal debt plaguing them since the 1970s, should remain destitute. Both parties voted for the measure. The Democrats voted that middle and lower-class incomes should continue to fall relative to the very rich. The Republicans voted that economic arguments always outweigh all others; that corporate profits are more important than American families or national cohesion. 140 out of 197 Republicans (71%) voted yay, as did 224 out of 232 Democrats (97%). Oh look, the Republicans are somewhat less evil and less hypocritical than the Democrats...which is all we ever said they were.