"Don't Cut Your Nose Off to Spite Your Face"

Kentucky wisdom unheeded

Something strange happened in Kentucky. In a November 2022 referendum Kentucky voters were asked — Are you in favor of amending the Constitution of Kentucky by creating a new Section….. to state as follows: To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion? A bit more than 52% of Kentuckians said NO - I am not in favor of restricting my option for abortion. And yet Kentucky has repeatedly elected one Mitch McConnell to the U.S. Senate since 1984…..seven times. This is THE Mitch McConnell who abandoned political honor and ethics twice in order to stack the Supreme Court with Justices who would overturn Roe v Wade — once to deny President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland a full eight months before the 2016 Presidential election because “the people should choose” and one more time by ramming through President Trump’s nomination of Amy Conney Barrett nine days before the 2020 election because “the people choosing” was an inconvenient idea at that particular time. A bit of simple math would reveal that today’s 6-3 majority of Republican-appointed Justices should honorably have been a Democratic-appointed 5-4 majority. Most Kentuckians probably rejoiced at McConnell’s “owning the libs” — he won re-election in 2020 by 20% points and in June 2022 his Supreme Court theft paid off with the overturning of Roe v Wade in the “Dobbs” decision.

But later that year, after seeing how “Dobbs” liberated extremists in Texas and other states to address the abortion question, most Kentuckians apparently weren’t too joyful about the thought of being owned by Republican Christian Nationalist ideas like tracking menstrual periods, ten-year-old mothers, or dying from sepsis in a hospital parking lot. Being owned, it turns out, isn’t nearly as much fun for Republicans as is doing the owning. Republicans in other “red” states have also rejected being owned on the abortion issue by elements of their party — Kansas and Ohio are notable examples. Maybe they can carry this newfound liberation one more step. You see, in my view a hefty portion of Republican voters have been wholly owned lock, stock and barrel by the “elite” portion of that party for decades. Maybe they could make a break — probably not. Why?

It’s certainly no secret that the Republican party and its voters are now defined by anger — anger they hoped Trump would assuage over his dysfunctional term after the 2016 election but didn’t. And we know where that anger is focused today — libs, elites, transsexuals, experts, actual news (aka “fake” news), ANTIFA, furries, migrant caravans, Bud Light, job-stealing immigrants (Republican voters miss the old days when they could pick fruit for 16 hours a day), George Soros, vaccines, the Biden crime family and the notorious Ruby Freeman.

Now, as the 2024 election approaches, you might say their anger has turned into blind rage. The Party stands ready to re-elect a sociopathic narcissist, who gave most Republican voters nothing tangible over his first term and, in fact, offered them up for sacrifice to a novel virus as a parting gift. Their unresolved anger has now gotten them to a point where every Republican voter is now represented by a Speaker of the House who believes dinosaurs took the Noah’s Ark cruise sometime over the 6,000 years since creation and, by the way, would almost certainly favor a total ban on abortion no matter what you or I think. And when I say this represents every Republican I mean it — every single Republican in your House of Representatives voted for Mike Johnson, with the exception of Wisconsin’s Derick Van Orden who missed the vote in order to give the House’s dining facility employees a proper cursing.

I speculate that the real truth behind a good deal of Republican voter anger, however, is more likely hopelessness. “Red” areas of the country have been economically ravaged over the years by globalization, the loss of labor unions, corporate farming, youth flight, and woefully inadequate re-training and assistance options. They are righteously pissed at having been both screwed over and forgotten and the banking/ housing crisis of 2007-2008 was another killer. The expansion of income and wealth inequality over the past 40 years or so tells a sad story, and much of that story takes place in “red” states. The following charts tell it best.

Since 1979 average income for the wealthiest 1% has nearly tripled - for the wealthiest sliver of wealthy (.01%) income has settled out at just over a 5-fold increase - for the least wealthy 20% of the population income has risen in 40 years by less than 50%. Put another way, if each group started in 1979 with a salary of $1000/month the single wealthiest rich guy would now make about $5200/mo. - the 100 people in the next group, the top 0.99%, would make about $2900/mo. and the 2,000 people in the lowest income group would be making about $1400/mo. ($400 dollars gained in 40 years) NOTE -this example assumes each group started out with the same $1000/mo. salary, which of course they didn’t. The accumulation of these income disparities leads to massive disparities in accumulated wealth.

The accumulation of “wealth” (extra money or equity) is key to a sense of security - food, housing, medical care, etc. It’s not about luxury for most people — it’s about meeting unplanned or unexpected demands and leaving something behind for your family. In 2023 the top 50% in the U.S. possess 97.5% of the “wealth!!!” The wealthiest 10% have 69% of the total wealth!! The least wealthy 50% possess ONLY 2.5% of the country’s wealth!!!!!!!! That group around 50% used to be known as the “middle class” which used to mean a comfortable life with some security.

Why did I switch from MAGA Republican anger to income and wealth inequality — where’s the connection? Because the source of MAGA anger may be legitimate, but it’s directed mostly in the wrong direction. Maybe you older Republicans remember the term “trickle-down economics,” first associated in the media with President Regan’s tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations in 1981 and 1986. We saw it again in the Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2003 and 2010 and again in the Trump tax cuts of 2017. The idea is that when the wealthy and corporations get government-initiated breaks specifically intended to increase their income and wealth all the “excess” will “trickle-down” through the whole economy to you. Consulting the two images above you can easily see that the idea has been soundly disproven. But it certainly hasn’t gone out of favor with your Republican Party and their doners. That’s because they have convinced you, over the decades, to turn your anger (righteously rooted in hopelessness) not toward the wealthy who have benefited massively at your expense and not toward your Republican elected officials who repeatedly enact these policies (like voting to end whatever money you got from the “socialist” extended Child Tax Credit), but toward libs, elites, transsexuals, experts, actual news (aka “fake” news), ANTIFA, furries, migrant caravans, Bud Light, job-stealing immigrants, George Soros, vaccines, the Biden crime family and the notorious Ruby Freeman. Your Republican Party keeps you stoked because rage feels good, and rage distracts you from the people who actually have their hands in your pocket. My Kentucky Mom called that “cutting off your nose to spite your face” — you, going for the meaningless emotional wins while your anger blinds you to reality.

Who really has had their hands in your pocket for the past 40 years? Hint - “they” just voted to take away the last (Democratic) congress’ increased IRS funding for more auditing of corporations and the wealthy by convincing YOU that IRS agents could be headed for your house with a battering ram right now. Oh yeah, that extended Child Tax Credit from 2021 that put money directly into your bank account - you guessed it, gone bye bye with the 2022- elected Republican House of Representatives. And President Trump’s trickle-down tax — expiring for you, but not for corporations thanks to your Republican party. And you’re convinced Democrats are out to destroy our country. This is how your Republican party has been looking out for your interests since 1980.

I could yammer on searching for a reason you elected clowns to represent you in Congress and stand ready to re-elect Donald Trump — racism, cultism, narcissism or “all the above” — or throwing out possible solutions before you actually destroy our country, but why bother. For one thing, just thinking through this dumpster fire you’ve put us in exhausts me. Maybe I’ll return to the perplexing subject matter after a cleansing rest. For now, you apparently think you look just fine without a nose, and you don’t mind being owned after all.