Rich bullies are using GOP to take over America
Robert Reich, the former U.S. secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California and author of “Beyond Outrage.” In a recent op-ed in the Chicago Tribune, Reich talks about the bullies who have taken over the Republican Party and where the Tea Party extremists are “getting their dough.”
Reich concludes the money is coming “from even bigger bullies — a handful of hugely wealthy Americans who are sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into this extortion racket.” He names names, including David and Charles Koch and their front groups such as Americans for Prosperity, hedge-fund manager Peter Thiel, leveraged buyout specialist John Childs, investor Howie Rich and executives of J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sacks, all behind the Club for Growth, executives of MetLife and Philip Morris, and foundations controlled by the Scaife Family, all bankrolling Freedom Works.
According to Reich, “Their game plan is not just to take over the Republican Party; it’s to take over America,” possibly by running Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for president.
Robert Reich’s words ring true to me. My late father was a Republican. He believed in conservatism when he died in 1983. Were he alive today he would not recognize these Tea Party Republicans shutting down the entire nation like spoiled children who want their every demand granted or else! He would be sickened by their total lack of responsibility to their country’s future dependability.
The other countries can no longer trust America. They believe (and rightly so) that we can no longer be trusted with their investments or loans. We have lost their respect long ago; it went when we illegally invaded and bombed the hell out of Iraq. Now we are playing games with their financial investments in our country, plus spying on them for more financial inside information. The NSA has spent 80 billion of our tax dollars spying on us and the rest of the world, and all we get for our $80 billion is our loss of personal privacy and egg on our faces.
Always, the Republicans bring up the Constitution, then jump over our Constitution right into the arms of oligarchy. Do they know the difference? I don’t believe they do. My father was spared this heartbreak. The loss of personal privacy, the cost of endless unwinnable wars, the Citizens United ruling of the Supreme Court, militarization of local police forces, and even the threat of private for-profit taking of our Social Security funds and post office. Everything including our water and air must be given over to the “for profit” corporations use and abuse.
My life is drawing to a close. I don’t envy the youth of others; l am frightened for them.
Johnson is a resident of Bigfork