Dear Republican Friends: The Democratic Party Is Not Your Enemy🔉

[appalachiablue]

(Photo: Ronald Reagan makes a face during White Hs Correspondents Dinner May 18, 1983). 'Dear Republican Friends: The Democratic Party Is Not Your Enemy' by Richard W. Behan, Common Dreams, Sep 16, 2024. -Edit.
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"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken." —Oliver Cromwell, 1650, imploring his executioners to reconsider
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This is a missive directed to Republican voters, wherever it finds them. And here is the message: the Democratic Party is not your enemy.

No, your enemy is former U.S. President Donald Trump. He and the Republican Party care a great deal about your votes, but they don’t give a damn about you. They rely on your fierce loyalty to get elected and then betray you, serving instead the interests of great American corporations and a tiny stratum of immensely wealthy citizens. (The towering achievement of Trump’s presidency was a massive tax cut for precisely these clients.) The betrayal is not readily apparent, of course: It is disguised brilliantly and successfully with distortion, fabrication, and lies.

Donald Trump tells you the Democratic Party is a radical, far left, socialist enterprise and it must be defeated to protect the America we know and love. At his rallies you roar in approval, shouting USA! USA! USA! Your patriotism is genuine and praiseworthy, but please heed Mr. Cromwell’s plea for open minds: Think it possible—just possible—you may be mistaken about the integrity of Mr. Trump, the Republican Party, and the messaging. Think it possible you are not being protected but victimized. Let’s look at the evidence. Mr. Trump is the spokesman and the Republican Party is the front group for corporate oligarchy, a tyrannical form of federal governance put in place decades ago, when corporate money overpowered American democracy.

The well-being of the American people no longer takes priority in crafting public policy.

Foremost now is the assurance of financial security for powerful corporations: creating new profit streams or enhancing and protecting those in place. This is what the Republican Party hides from view. *We must rid the corrupted Republican Party of its greedy corporate captors, and that means, first, Donald Trump and Republican Senators and Representatives must suffer a smashing defeat in November.* Corporate oligarchy is comprised of the corporations, yes, who contribute millions of dollars to political campaigns eliciting the candidates’ favor and spend billions more in lobbying for quid pro quos.

But it also includes individual corporate owners and managers, and conservative billionaires with similar interests who pour personal funds into friendly campaigns. (Think about Elon Musk, say, offering Trump $45 mill per month to win this campaign.) The core ideology of corporate oligarchy is neoliberalism: “Free market capitalism” best provides for society’s needs, and “government regulation” only degrades the process. It is legitimized by conservative think tanks—notably the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute in Wash., D.C.—and disseminated by sympathetic media—think the Fox News empire and conservative talk radio which blankets the nation with right-wing propaganda 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The consequences of corporate oligarchy are not trivial. American people are suffering today the largest increases in food prices in 50 years, while the corporations marketing food products are reaping unprecedented profits...

- Read More,
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dear-republican-friends-the-democratic-party-is-not-your-enemy

[AZ8theist]

1. ++++++++++

[Staph]

2. I hate to be pedantic...

(No, I actually love to show off!)

Though those are Oliver Cromwell's words, they are not from a speech to his executioners. Cromwell died in bed, possibly from malaria or a UTI. The royal forces dug up his body two years later and posthumously executed him. That famous quote was directed at the Church of Scotland, asking them to reconsider their support of Charles II.

(I know those are not your words, AppalachianBlue. Of course, few Republicans will recognize the error. You had to pay attention in history class!)

[appalachiablue]

3. That's interesting, they really had it in for him to dig him up. Maybe

the author will be contacted about the mixup. Thanks for posting. The prof I had for the history of the English Civil War (from Univ of Leeds) was quite disagreeable and dry sorry to say. But the one who taught the Tudors and Stuarts rocked.

[Aristus]

4. Republican friends?

Sorry. Don’t have any…

[appalachiablue]

5. I also haven't any close R friends now. In the greeting the writer reaches out

in a positive way which is definitely better than Dear Republican Enemies! Ha. I think the piece is informative for people of various political positions.

He covers many complex and troubling issues and hopefully the article have an impact. It's very well thought out and written in my view and I got a lot from it. Thanks for the reply.

[Aristus]

6. If we get more Republicans like Adam Kinzinger and fewer like tfg,

Republican friends will one day again be possible.