Over the last week or so I’ve received three of those big 8 ½ by 11 post cards asking that I “re-elect Vinny deMacedo.” One card had photos of various elected town officials who were supporting him with each one being quoted saying something nice about him. I looked to see what party he belonged to. It was not indicated anywhere. “Hmm,” I thought, “this guy must be a Republican who is embarrassed to say so.” The latest card I received suggests he had something to do with the minimum wage at “$15.00 an hour,” vague words about criminal justice reform including “increasing judicial discretion,” his voting for “millions of dollars in grants to community colleges” and his concern over the opioid crises. Those sound like Democratic positions. I figured maybe I was wrong thinking he was a Republican. I figured he didn’t show his party affiliation again because everyone must know he’s a Democrat.
Rather than walking around in the dark (don’t own any candles) I figured I’d turn on my computer and check. My first impression was right. He is a Republican. He doesn’t want people to know that. He suggests he had been working for Democratic programs. “Why,” I wondered do people do this. “If he’s supporting Democratic programs as he suggests why isn’t he a Democrat?”
Earlier this week I posted saying the blame for the three tragic events that occurred over the prior week fell squarely on Trump’s shoulders occasioned by his wild and loose talk and tweetering. It wasn’t three minutes after I posted my post that Trump tweeted: “There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame… ..of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!
Au contraire, it’s not the news that is the Enemy of the People it is Trump. He is such by identifying with a term that was used by Mao in China to label those who oppose him; used by Lenin shortly after taking over the Russian government when he stated: “all leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, a party filled with enemies of the people, are hereby to be considered outlaws.” According to Wikipedia, “Stalin’s successor Nikita Khrushchev called for an end to the use of the term, stating “the formula ‘enemy of the people’ was specifically introduced for the purpose of physically annihilating such individuals” who disagreed with Stalin.” Trump, following the Communist formula brings to America a term that is alien to our discourse.
The tragedy of this is that the reporting of the news media for the most part is of the disgusting things that Trump says and tweets. The media tells us what he is saying and for that he attacks them. It seems that his goal to annihilate the independent press. If not, why does he use such foreign expression of dictators when discussing it.
I surmise the reason he attacks the media is because by quoting him it shows that he is continually lying. He wants people to forget what he said earlier and only to remember his latest statement and when the media says that is not what he said before he thinks it is the enemy.
Not content with using Communist language, Trump now uses Nazi Joseph Goebbles Big Lie telling us: “Republicans will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions.” or “All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions, and if they don’t, they will after I speak to them. I am in total support. Also, Democrats will destroy your Medicare, and I will keep it healthy and well!”
We know that is a Big Lie. It is as big a lie as the Tax Cut being for all Americans when it really benefited the wealthy and corporations. Trump’s singular important piece of legislation over his first two years is not even mentioned by Republicans running for office because Americans caught on to the lie. Why, because it is common knowledge that only the rich made out and the rest of us have to pony up more.
Trump’s goal is to destroy the Affordable Care Act (ACA) precisely because it requires insurance companies not to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. He ran on that. Republicans voted more than fifty times to do away with it. Now, because health care is a big worry among Americans the Republicans outright lie about their positions. The AARP recently noted the Republicans replacement bill for the ACA: “included an ‘age tax’ that could have added as much as $13,000 a year to health insurance costs for older Americans. It also would have discriminated against people who already had health conditions like cancer or diabetes.”
Those on Medicare who support Trump in his endeavor to do away with healthcare for millions of other Americans are simply hypocrites. They decry universal health care while benefiting off it themselves. They’ll start squealing when Trump tells them he’s going to protect it as he guts it.
It’s not just Trump who is lying, most of the Republicans running for Congreess are doing it. Like deMacedo they tell the voters their positions which are those held by the Democrats. Many Republicans are running ads suggesting they are supporting and protecting people with preexisting conditions so they can still get health insurance when they are doing the exact opposite. They know they are lying. There’s no shading here. You either protect the people or you don’t. They have been working not to protect them. They know they need to lie so that they have a chance to get elected. Why do they do it?
It’s simply because they like Trump are fakes.
Oh, Smell the Roses, Moses !!! … If he was a…. Nazi …. as caricatured by a free press in 2018 …. you would be no doubt engaged in THE RESISTANCE !!! … Just like Tito’s partisans and Danish and French Resistance fighters, and Jewish partisans and all Resistance fighters … Authentically … worthy of the name ….
Why develop this comedic theme ?
No serious person subscribes to this nonsense .
Wa-llahi! It will take a while to purge the Clintonite faction (Republican Democrats). Republicrat Trumpist adventurers are even worse.
Big Lie? How about “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” As for Vinny deMacedo, he is, of necessity, a Massachusetts Republican, like Charlie Baker. Protective coloration is a necessity for survival. You should see the Democratic Senators around the country in places like Indiana, Missouri and West. Virginia talking about how supportive they have been of President Trump. As for “Medicare for All,” Medicare only works as a model because you have to pay into it for 40 years before you can collect it. You might as well argue, as some do, for a guaranteed minimum income, “Social Security for all.” As Thatcher said, “The problem is, sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money.