(2023-10-11) Hartmann Why Trump And The Gop Are Burning The Entire System Down

Thom Hartmann: Why Donald Trump and the GOP are Burning the Entire System Down. Today’s Republican Party is dedicated to destroying what they call the “deep state.”

Talking about government regulations that protect the environment, punish companies and con men who rip off consumers, and provide for a safe workplace, Steve Bannon said in March, 2017: “That’s all gonna be deconstructed

In this, the GOP, Putin, and fossil fuel billionaires are all working toward the same goal: to do away with or at least fatally weaken the institutions of our government that prevent the morbidly rich and wannabee strongman autocrats from taking over America.

For democracy to work in human societies isn’t some magic or organic thing; it depends on institutions and systems to function and remain free of corruption.

remembering a time in America when the top income tax bracket was 90 percent for the morbidly rich and 50 percent for the most profitable corporations. It was also a time of the greatest prosperity for the American middle-class, the highest levels of social mobility, and the strongest social cohesion. Rather than submit to such “onerous” taxation, regardless of the social benefits it conferred, they’d rather burn the entire system down.

Similarly, the next steps in the GOP’s plan to turn America into a single-party state — that mirrors what they’ve achieved in a dozen or so Red states — explicitly involves damaging, corrupting, and then controlling the systems of the US federal government.

Do a search on just about any measurable index of quality-of-life and you’ll find that Democratic-controlled states are doing better than Red states.

Which is exactly why Red states and their forms of governance appeal to the morbidly rich; their tax “burden” is lower than in Blue states.