Trump Came in Like a Wrecking Ball
The right-wing talking heads and The-Speaker-in-Hiding Mike Johnson keep yammering about how the progressive peaceful protests popping up all over this country are not real. Johnson, of course, accused George Soros of financing them. Over 7 million folks protested nationwide on No Kings Day.
The GOP may be having Tea Party finance flashbacks. Remember in 2010, when the Tea Party showed up screaming and spitting about Obama and the Affordable Care Act? These groups were funded by Americans for Prosperity (the Koch brothers) and Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund (Richard Uihlein and Christopher Goldsbury). Was it a coincidence that a black man was elected president and suddenly these billionaires became concerned about the working class!
In 2010, because of that backlash, the Republicans picked up 63 seats in the House to take back control and six seats in the U.S. Senate. 2010 gave Wisconsin Scott Walker as governor. Republicans took control of 29 of the 50 state governorships and gained 690 seats in state legislatures. That is why the Republicans are terrified right now. They know that their lack of action on healthcare, their ICE brutalities, and the attack on fishing ships in the Caribbean are turning off voters.
Trump has orchestrated his third government shutdown. He had two in his first term. There were no government shutdowns under Biden’s presidency. The Republicans’ policies are terribly unpopular, but that doesn’t mean they will stop. Everyone knows that Democrats care about people having healthcare and not going broke. Republicans don’t care.
Republicans are good with the wrecking ball. The demolishing of the East Wing of the White House is more than likely a signal of more bulldozing of Washington, D.C., monuments and memorials that don’t fit the White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s view of America. In an appearance on Fox News, Miller said that the left has “scarred the landscape of our country with grotesque, so-called ‘modern art’ that celebrates ugliness, that celebrates defacement.”
According to NPR, “The White House has fired six members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the independent federal agency that advises the president and Congress on design plans for monuments, memorials, coins and federal buildings. The seven member commission is made up of experts in architecture, art, urban and landscape design. Since its creation in 1910, the commission has reviewed plans for everything from Arlington National Cemetery to Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial.”
So what is next, Stephen? Mow down the Vietnam War Memorial because “we didn’t win” that war? Is it too modern and depressing? Fill in the National Mall at the Washington Monument? Replace Lincoln with Trump in that memorial?
Here’s a thought: Republicans call the House back into session. Swear in Arizona Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva. Release the Epstein files and get to work.