You Might Have Been Fooled by Republicans If ...

You Might Have Been Fooled by Republicans If ...

Thursday, 07 November 2013 14:33  
By The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program | Op-Ed 

        (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)

 If you think that Republicans really care about every embryo turning into a living and breathing baby nine months later, then you've been fooled by the Republican Party.
New investigations by the website RH Reality Check and Politico have found that the Kochtopus – a.k.a. Charles and David Koch – have spent tens of millions of dollars of their personal fortunes to fund the anti-choice movement.
According to RH Reality Check's Adele Stan, tax documents show that Kochtopus-directed "pro-business" groups have spent millions to fund legislative initiatives across America that are designed to shutter women's health clinics, and deny women access to contraception, reproductive health services, and abortions.
Despite the millions that the Koch's have spent on the anti-choice movement, make no mistake about it: They, like the rest of the Republican Party, don't care about making sure that all pregnancies are brought to full-term.
Instead, they care about protecting the Republican brand, and the interests of big-business.
And the only way to protect the Republican brand, to keep Republicans in power, and to further the interests of big-business is to bring together a whole bunch of small, sliver-sized single-interest groups - like the pro-life movement - under one big umbrella, and convince them Republicans care about their issue.
Republicans have to build a coalition this way, because if they were honest about their governing philosophy, they would lose every single election.
Democrats have a clear governing philosophy, and that's to do whatever it takes to protect average hard-working every-day Americans.
We've seen that philosophy play out with the Democrats' support of the labor movement, the environment, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, Social Security, universal healthcare and the list goes on.
But unlike Democrats, Republicans have a much more narrow governing philosophy.
The only thing they care about is protecting big-business and the wealthy-elite.
And when that's your governing philosophy, it's very hard to get average people to vote for you, and thus, to win elections.
So, Republicans have to create a coalition of supporters, by bringing together people and groups that may not necessarily agree with helping corporations and rich people, but are so concerned about things like abortion, or guns, or god, that they will get into bed with the billionaires to advance their own personal agendas.
Republicans go out, find these passionate single-interest groups, and pull them together under the big GOP elephant.
They go up to the pro-life movement, and say that "If you believe that life begins at conception, then you might be a Republican."
They go to gun lovers and say that, "If you think that everyone has the right to carry a military assault to protect themselves from a hoard of angry black people marching down Main Street, then you might be a Republican."
They go to climate change deniers and say that, "If you think that scientists are self-serving and that global warming is perfectly normal, then you might be a Republican."
They go to homophobes, and say that, "If you hate gay people, then you might be a Republican."
And finally, Republicans go up to overworked and underpaid white people, the working poor, and say that, "If you think that poor people are just black lazy bums who don't deserve your help, then you're definitely a Republican."
This is how Republicans win elections and hold power. They just bring in enough "useful idiots" to get themselves elected.
Most of these positions don't advance the major principles of the Republican Party, which is supporting billionaires and protecting big business, but others do: When Republicans reach out to climate-change deniers, they're really trying to protect the bottom-lines of Big Oil corporations, and when Republicans bring gun lovers under their umbrella, they're really protecting the profits of America's out-of-control military industrial complex.
So when you see news stories about how billionaires and business groups are supporting things like forced ultrasounds or opposing gay marriage, it should remind you that they're just calling out to the "useful idiots" that they need to win elections.
They already have the rich people and the corporations in their back pocket.
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