I am infuriated with the Republican tax bill. Hasty passage of a tax reform bill that allows the 1%’ers to hoard more wealth is unconscionable. This bill will give me a tax cut while killing the health care insurance for some 13M Americans. Although I was raised amid white privilege and good fortune, income and wealth inequality never sat well with me.
Divisive/derisive and obstruction politics, elevated to an art mostly by the Republican Party, will hopefully end. Stealing a Supreme Court seat, refusal to fill judicial vacancies during the Obama administration, numerous Obamacare repeals, climate change denial, inaction on gun control, support of white supremacists and birthers, Russian election collusion, blatant Oval Office Trump lies, etc will have a cost. The Republican Party will pay the Trump cost in the not too distant future.
My disagreements are not merely political, but fundamental. Like many Americans, I have Trump fatigue. What kind of man talks, and tweets, like that? What kind of person supports him?
I have not run out of salient talking points. Gerrymandering is a prime one. Others include CHIP support, DACA solution, gun control, health care access, immigration reform, wealth inequality, and others. But there is one stumbling block I keep running into. What does it mean to live in our democratic society?
Personally, I am happy to pay an additional 4.3 % for my fast food if it means the person making it can afford to feed their family. If you are not willing to fork out 17 cents more for a Big Mac, you are a fundamentally different person than I am.
I am perfectly content to pay taxes that go to public schools. Because all children deserve quality education. Someone once said one good measure of a town is its school building. That building should be the most beautiful building in the town. It is the way the present generation invests in the next. If adequate public-school funding seems unfair or unreasonable to you, we are never going to see eye to eye.
If I must pay a little more for my health care to ensure my neighbors have health care access. Sign me up. If you are OK with thousands of people dying of treatable diseases just so the wealthiest among us can hoard more wealth, then there is a divide between our world views that can never be bridged.
I do not know how to convince you how to experience the human emotion of empathy. My disagreements with the Republican Party are not merely political, but a divide on how to be a good person, and why that matters.
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