By Mark Lesseraux
President Trump cut all of these people’s taxes by 15% recently. He also stripped away long fought for protections and regulations (which he’s very open about and proud of btw) so as to increase the number of loopholes that exempt many of these multi-billionaires from paying any taxes whatsoever.
So what? So, this means that you and I will pay their unpaid taxes so that we can continue to have things like public schools, a police force, public libraries, a public sanitation system, a fire department, highways and roads that function, etc.. You and I will pay them not through openly announced tax hikes, but rather through disguised tax hikes such as public transportation fair increases, higher public college tuition rates and myriad other corporate billionaire class driven slights of hand. Make no mistake, these are all taxes. Taxes on you and me.
Don’t misunderstand me, I know that the Democratic Party is in bed with corporations as well. That said, let’s not be silly about this. There IS a difference between what Trump’s Republican party is and has been symbolizing and doing and what the Democratic Party symbolizes and does. Supporting Donald Trump goes directly against the interests of everyone, whether they realize it or not, who isn’t extremely wealthy. In fact, even those who are now well-situated within the current hierarchy are, ultimately, putting themselves and their families at great risk by backing the current handing over of the American store to the super-rich.
Sticking with our theme though, supporting Donald Trump’s Republican Party at this moment in history is, in my view, a straight up self-destructive act. It’s self-harm. Unless (arguably) you’re on the multi-billionaire list that Robert Reich posted. In that case, have at it. It’s your planet after all, and we’re just 7 and 1/2 billion little human obstructions in the way of your plans, so …
All sarcasm aside, again, I have zero illusions about the current mainstream Democratic Party, where it stands and what it stands for. In a nutshell, it stands for stagnancy, sorry Dems. But President Trump’s Republican party stands for something much more insidious, something much more backward. It stands for an intentional fear-impelled forfeit of everything that we have aimed for and worked to move toward as a nation over the last century, i.e.: economic opportunity for those other than the already very wealthy, racial harmony, compassion, tolerance and our basic sanity as a culture
