From a Google Image Search - Duluth News Tribune
Now We Fight
We (Democrats) don't have a left-wing Heritage Foundation writing lockstep policy that will be imposed on the nation if a Democrat wins the Presidency. Now is the time to decide what freedoms you will keep and what freedoms you will redefine or lose altogether.
Guns
Will you finally accept that there should be some restrictions on gun ownership or will you stay with a party that takes away our freedom to make gun ownership safer by insisting on unregulated gun ownership everywhere? Which is better, freedom to own automatic-style weapons, weapons of war, or is it better to legislate rules for gun safety and free ourselves from mass shootings or to at least make these incidents rare?
Women's rights
From a Google Image Search - New York Times
Will we all have to abide by the views of Christians and how far will we go? Mark Robinson, for example, is running to be the Governor of North Carolina. He believes men should take back a dominant role and women should be submissive. It says so in the Bible. He would disenfranchise women, repeal the Nineteenth Amendment, and take voting rights away from women. He would punish any woman who he or any resident thought had aborted a baby. He would outlaw day-after pills to prevent fertilization and birth control pills. He expresses the views of many Conservative men who govern us or want to govern us.
"On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson won the GOP primary to become his party’s nominee for North Carolina governor, presumably with the help of female voters.
But just four years ago, Robinson invoked a bizarre hypothetical in which he said he’d “absolutely” like to return to the days when the 19th Amendment didn’t exist ― when women didn’t have the right to vote." Here's the link to the video:
From a Google Image Search - Trumps endorses Robinson - Advocate.com
Small Government and more Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest Americans
Will you give up your Social Security or any plan that offers seniors income in retirement? Trump says he won't do that. Conservatives back phasing out Social Security. What will that feel like if you are caught in the phase out as your retirement income dwindles gradually to nothing. It could happen.
If you favor more tax cuts on our rich elites, the federal budget will shrink. Since conservatives want to cut the deficit, they will take from those who have not rather than those who have because the wealthy are powerful. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United in a decision that affects how much money rich people can contribute to the political candidates they back. They have the Court's permission to buy candidates they know will cut taxes.
Conservatives believe that work is part of life and that we should all be workers for life. How do you feel about that? This does not necessarily apply to the wealthy.
Medicare may not be perfect, but do we want to give it up? Healthcare costs have risen astronomically. Would costs fall if we got rid of Medicare? Could you afford that knee replacement? Could you afford cardio care? How is your liver, your kidneys, your lungs, your guts? Factories once offered health care plans and they still do, but we don't have as many factories, and not everyone is employed in manufacturing. Office workers may also have employer health care plans. If we do have to work until we die, then we will be covered. However, employers tend to push older employees out. Without Medicare, you may have to buy a book on herbal treatments. Good luck finding a field full of the necessary plants.
Do you resent Medicaid and Food stamps (SNAP) enough to want these programs to end? We like Medicaid when it helps seniors and we like SNAP also, but you don't like it when it helps "those people," the deadbeats, the ones who won't work, illegal immigrants. We already see that people who are unable to believe that they can compete to win bring crime, homelessness, drug abuse, and other social problems. Without benefits does society suffer more serious breakdowns? Is it worthwhile to spend tax dollars to ensure societal breakdowns stay manageable? Isn't it worthwhile to address the sorrow in the world by trying to lessen it even knowing that sorrow will always be with us?
From a Google Image Search - A-Z Quotes
Millionaires and Billionaires
One man, Sam Altman who wrote the algorithms that gave birth to the AI Large Language Model is now worth $80 million, probably more by now. He had to feed all the content on the internet into that model and he didn't pay the creators one cent. We have many who have made themselves rich at the expense of others, some legitimately, some not so concerned about their business ethics.
From a Google Image Search - These Billionaires added $5 trillion during COVID - CNN
Conservatives have written a tax law and it passed in 2017 that allows some Americans who are billionaires to pay almost no taxes. Now conservatives want to cut taxes again. Look it up. They don't want to cut your taxes. They plan to cut taxes on those same Forbes millionaires and billionaires who already know how to pay taxes even lower than those written into the 2017 law. They might offer us hoi polloi a pittance back on our taxes.
We are funding the government, and we can't pay enough to afford the supports we need. Why are wealthy people being given a free ride? They will elect whoever offers them the lowest tax rates, like a MAGA government that wants to drastically downsize the IRS. Rich people have houses in America, but they also have houses abroad, and yachts. They are not concerned about American woes. Supply chain revelations may pull some business back to the US, but perhaps not the owners or even the CEOs. Biden wants to raise taxes on American CEOs who make $1 million dollars or more. That could help.
From a Google Image Search - NPR
Maybe then we could afford the programs we value and a few new programs, like expanding the Child Tax Credit to help parents with childcare expenses. Perhaps companies that operate in the US would find that parental leave from work improves productivity. We learned a lot about work issues during the pandemic.
Immigration
From a Google Image Search - CNN
There is a bipartisan bill sitting in Congress, formulated by a committee led by Republican James Lankford which addresses the understaffing problems at the Southern border but Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House will not bring the bill to the floor for a vote even though it passed in the Senate. Trump told Republicans in the House to kill the bill. There is historical precedent for almost everything that happens in our government. Is there historical precedent for an ex-president calling the shots in another president's administration? Does that matter?
From a Google Image Search - Rolling Stone - Getty Images
Trump has expressed his xenophobia many times. He often flashes the White Power signal while ranting at rallies. It's easy to guess that Trump favors stopping all or most immigration and that he would like to pick and choose what ethnic or national groups can enter America.
Strangely, border policy and women's rights are connected in the conservative/evangelical ideology. Making it patriotic for women to stay home and have babies is the conservative/evangelical plan to replace our stock of white babies in particular, although all women regardless of ethnicity are forced to give birth. It's not a rational plan. It takes 18 years for a child to be old enough to work, unless child labor become widespread again. For trained professions a child cannot work until the age of 21. Who will work on our farms, in our food processing factories, in our meat packing plants, in our healthcare system until this new crop of acceptable babies reaches working age. Parents who want the best for their children will not plan to send them to low-wage jobs. The Conservative plan to address their cry of "you will not replace us" is not a logical plan. It won't work and it's inhumane, if we care about that anymore.
Here's the Conservative Plan for 2025
From a Google Image Search - NYT
Do Trump's followers understand what his handlers want to do to our government? Don't you have children and grandchildren? Not all Americans who are Trump's followers look wealthy although some of you look quite comfortable financially. If we are forced to do away with the income tax altogether so that the government will have to be small, won't you MAGA folks miss the resources offered to us by big government? Isn't there some middle ground where our government gets a bit smaller, but still serves “we the people”?
Do the MAGAs have a personal vendetta against the left? Do you want to trade racism and a rise in the acceptable level of intolerance for diversity for losing help with childcare, for losing unemployment insurance, for forced birth, for hunting women down and locking them up and sending them back to their kitchens? Can you make your sons go to church? Even if families are forced to pair up male-female, can you make your sons or even your daughters go to church after a certain age? Is a theocracy the answer to ending drug abuse and crime? It's a mighty big experiment and we will all have to lose our democracy to see if it works. Forcing Americans to do things in the name of freedom - doesn't that seem contradictory to you? How long will your celebration last if you saddle America with Donald Trump as our leader? Not for as long as he will stay in office. Fortunately, he's old, but there will be an heir to the conservative throne who could be as ordinary and scary as Mike Johnson. I thought we could avoid this fate, but you really hate liberals and want to make us pay. Sadly, you will also pay because laws will not be able to differentiate between Trumpers and libs, only between the rich and the not-rich.