Why you vote the way you do.

Americans treat elections like sports. I suspect many nations do. We have favorites, not for logical reasons but for the emotion we have applied to them. I loved Roosevelt because everyone did. What did I know? I was only ten years old when he died. Later, I learned about the SS St. Louis and his not bombing the railroad tracks to the concentration camps. I stopped even liking him. I liked Truman until I learned about his antisemitic wife. I still like him, but less. I liked Ike a bit. I felt he was more a politician than a leader, both in the military and as President. I loved Kennedy until I learned about his private life.

I hated Johnson. Later, when I added up all he accomplished, I decided he was one of the top three Presidents in U.S. history, though Vietnam killed his reputation. I was ambivalent about Nixon and soon decided he was pretty good. At least he was more intelligent than most. Today, his support for a burglary would have been defended by 100% of the Republican party, and he never would have been forced from office. Back then, the GOP really was the party of law and order. I thought Ford was weak and later decided he was strong. I think he could have become a fine President, given time. I hated Jimmy Carter and still do. I like him more for his post-presidential work than for his Presidency. I loved Reagan, but now I believe he was a phony. I liked the elder Bush until he foolishly raised taxes after correctly promising not to. I liked Bill Clinton until I realized his federal surpluses killed the American economy and caused the Bush II recession. As for Bush II, eh. Eight wasted years. He attempted self-promotion and was terrible at that, too. I was massively disappointed in Obama. I had thought he cared about the poor, but he was a proponent of federal austerity. I hope his library never gets built. As for Trump, even before he was elected President, I wrote articles saying he was the 2nd coming of Hitler. Thank heavens he was dumb and lazy, or he would have been Hitler. I hope his library gets built in an underground bunker, where he is forced to live out his miserable life. Finally, contrary to the pundits and the majority of Americans, I predict Biden will be remembered as one of our most effective Presidents, who despite a fascist GOP, will have accomplished more than any President since Johnson. Because I’m aware the federal government has infinite money, and federal spending does not cause inflations, I lean more liberal than conservative. It will require a Democratic Congress and President to give us Medicare for All, Social Security for All, College for All, and the end of hunger in America. The Republicans won’t do it. Before I became a permanent resident of Florida last year, I was a Cubs, Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks fan, but now care nothing for any of them. I still am a fan of Andy Pafko, however, though he stopped playing many, many years ago. All of this came to mind what a friend told me she was an ardent Republican. I asked why, and a puzzled look crossed her face. She hadn’t thought about why. Her family had voted Republican for ages. Again, I asked why, and she had no idea, but said she probably would vote Republican, again. I was a Cubs fan though the Cubs never did anything for me. So why was I a fan? Because I was a Chicagoan? Sure, but they were terrible, with Andy and without him. What made me scream with delight when they infrequently won, and why was I so blue all those times they lost. How did their wins and losses affect my life? They didn’t. Looked at objectively, the Cubs were a terrible team, unworthy of anyone’s adulation. Looked at objectively, the Republicans are an awful party, which does absolutely nothing for the vast majority of Americans. It clearly is the party of the rich, along with being the more immoral and dishonest of the two major parties. Their unwavering support for an obvious traitor is disgusting. And Donald Trump, who unquestionably is the least honest, least intelligent, least patriotic, most dangerous-to-America of any past President, received over 70 million votes, mostly from people who “always vote Republican.” There is no logic, but there is a reason: We are programmed to root. We root for our home state and city, our school, our sports teams, our friends and relatives, our company, and our favorite celebrity. But why? Do other animals root? Perhaps, as we’re social animals, we gain an evolutionary advantage if a member of our group wins in some way. Could it be that if you consider yourself a Republican, you sense you have an evolutionary advantage if a Republican wins? That somehow, this strengthens your group, and this makes you safer? It still begs the question, “Why do you consider yourself a Republican. What has the GOP done for you or those you care about?” Consider the case of Herschel Walker. He received about half the votes. Half the votes! Do all those people really believe he would have been the better choice for Senator? Do they really want him to be their leader or representative? We tend to vote for those who are like us. Whites tend to vote for whites; blacks tend to vote for blacks, Hispanic for Hispanics, Jews for Jews, men for men. The list goes on. But Herschel Walker is an immoral, brain-dead, nincompoop, who can’t put together two meaningful sentences. Does that mean half the voters in Georgia are immoral, brain-dead nincompoops, who can’t put together two meaningful sentences? In what universe does even one intelligent person vote for Herschel Walker to represent the interests of Georgian people? H. L. Mencken wrote:

“No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.

“Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Would've Led Armed Jan. 6 Insurrection — **Marjorie Taylor Greene Says, “I Would’ve Led An Armed Jan. 6 Insurrection”**

Mencken surely was talking about Donald Trump / Herschel Walker / Greene GOP voters. Right? I suspect Mencken was wrong. It’s not lack of intelligence; it’s some other force. Plenty of intelligent people vote for Republicans. I suspect there are several reasons for illogical voting:

You wish for acceptance. If you have one group where you have friends and relatives, you will drift to that group.
Changing groups is hard. Once you have committed to a group, staying with that group takes no effort. It is comfortable. Changing groups requires effort plus the admission you were wrong.
Changing groups requires you to be an alien, which is uncomfortable.
Your status has changed. Perhaps circumstance has made you poorer, but you hate to admit it. So, you stay with your former group. It would be like quitting your country club because you lost money, and no longer can afford the dues.
You aspire to be in a group, so you do the things the group does. You so want to be rich you join a group you can’t afford, so you can be among the rich.
You aren’t actually voting for anyone. You are casting “against” votes, the lesser of two evils.

The sad lesson for both political parties is to put forth candidates whom the voters wish to emulate, not necessarily candidates who will do the better job. A classic example for the Democrats would be Jack Kennedy, a relatively inexperienced politician who people wished to copy. He was a mediocre President, but he lived an attractive lifestyle. He was loved for his charisma. Donald Trump seems charismatic to his base, though now that he has proved himself to be a repeated loser, whiner, and criminal, that sheen may be dulling. It would be a blessing for America if we could prove Mencken wrong, but we are far from there. The votes cast for the likes of Herschel Walker, Marjorie Taylor Greene,, Jim Jordan, and indeed the majority of the Republican Party, leave me doubtful about future voter intelligence and sanity. And if this post makes you angry, you have proved my point. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

……………………………………………………………………..

The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

An example of how the forces of ignorance are relentless

This is frightening. It’s a letter I just received from that notorious disseminator of misinformation, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB).

Hello Rodger

With economic conditions making fiscal issues impossible to ignore, we hope there will be opportunities to improve our fiscal situation in the coming months.

This past year saw both victories and setbacks, and many policies that would have been far worse were it not for the hard work of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Without the support of our loyal donors, none of our work would have been possible.

For the last year, we have worked tirelessly to push back against the narrative that deficits do not matter.

Actually, the narrative is that deficits do matter. Federal deficits are absolutely necessary for economic growth. Without deficits, we have depressions and recessions.

U.S. depressions tend to come on the heels of federal surpluses.

1804-1812: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 48%. Depression began 1807. 1817-1821: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 29%. Depression began 1819. 1823-1836: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 99%. Depression began 1837. 1852-1857: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 59%. Depression began 1857. 1867-1873: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 27%. Depression began 1873. 1880-1893: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 57%. Depression began 1893. 1920-1930: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 36%. Depression began 1929. 1997-2001: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 15%. Recession began 2001.

The measure of our economy, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is a spending measure, and spending requires the money that deficits provide:

GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports

The graph below shows the essentially parallel paths of GDP vs. perhaps the most comprehensive measure of the money supply, Domestic Non-Financial Debt:

**Vertical gray bars are recessions, which are preceded by reductions in debt growth and cured by increases in debt growth.**

Those “tireless efforts” of the CRFB represent efforts against economic growth and for recessions and depressions.

However, as we write this, our national debt is on track to surpass record levels, the federal government is still operating without a budget, and the major trust funds are edging even closer toward insolvency.

The “major trust funds aren’t real trust funds. They do not fund anything, and like the federal government itself, they can become insolvent only if Congress and the President want them to become insolvent. We could eliminate those fake trust funds today, and that would have no effect on Medicare, Social Security or any other federal program.

How we tackle these challenges will not only impact our nation’s fiscal future but determine what type of country our children and grandchildren will inherit.

That is true. If we continue to worry about federal debt, deficits, and fake trust funds, our children will inherit a country ruled solely by the wealthy elite. That seems to be the goal of the CRFB.

With the fiscal future of our country hanging in the balance, we wanted to share a summary of our work with you. Because of the generosity of our donors, we achieved the following this year:

Published more than 150 analyses, including 21 papers and testifying on Capitol Hill;

Participated in more than 225 meetings with more than 155 Members of Congress and their staff;

Launched our Student Debt Cancellation project and expanded our Trust Funds Solutions Initiative to include new insolvency countdown interactives;

Hosted six virtual events with policymakers and experts on timely topics, such as Social Security and inflation, as well as in-person events engaging more than 3,000 people;

Cited more than 1,200 times by hundreds of unique outlets, including CNBC, CNN, The Economist, Fox News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

The massive misinformation keeps coming at us from all sides, with scant voices to protest. –Student debt cancellation not only would benefit students and not only would benefit America by educating more students. It also would benefit the American economy by pumping dollars into the pockets of Americans. –The Trust Fund concerns are 100% fake and are a blatant attempt by the rich to reduce benefits to the middle- and lower-income groups.

None of this would have been possible without support from people like you. Will you consider supporting the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget this year with a tax-deductible donation?

The people can spread their misinformation on a tax-deductible basis.

Your gift ensures that fiscal responsibility has a champion and a voice during key fiscal moments and debates in Washington.

Looking ahead to 2023, we hope you’ll continue following our work, attending events, and making your voice heard.

While our country faces formidable fiscal challenges, together, there is a lot we can do to meet them. We appreciate any help you can provide,

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Support Our Work

Sadly, there isn’t a Committee for a Truthful Federal Budget (CRTB) that would disseminate such facts that:

The Federal government has infinite dollars. It cannot become insolvent. Even if it collected zero taxes, it could continue spending, forever.
Increased federal deficit spending is necessary for economic growth. The lack of deficit spending causes recessions and depressions which can be cured only by increased deficit spending.
Federal deficit spending is not socialism. Ownership and control, not spending, are signs of socialism.
Inflations are caused by shortages of key goods and services, not by federal debt and deficits. Inflations can be prevented and cured by federal deficit spending that targets shortages.

You and your children already suffer from the lies that reduce federal benefits. The federal government could do so much more; taxes could be so much less. Is there anyone with the knowledge and financial resources to counter the massive misinformation campaign coming from sources like the CRFB? Anyone? Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

……………………………………………………………………..

The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Another reason for real Medicare for All

The U.S. federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has infinite dollars. It never can run short of dollars. The government can pay for comprehensive, no-deductible health care for every man, woman, and child in America without collecting a penny in taxes. This would not be the Bernie Sanders Medicare for All, which is merely an expansion of our current Medicare. It would be a comprehensive, no-deductible, no FICA, no Part A, Part B, Part C, Part D, Medicare that truly is for All. It would cover everything and everyone one. The 10 Poorest States in America

And it would not be government-provided health care. It would be government-funded healthcare. Everyone still would have their own doctors. Hospitals would remain privately owned. The only differences would be that insurance companies no longer would be the middlemen, and everyone would have free health care. There is no functional reason why America needs privately-owned, for-profit insurance companies that collect medical dollars but provide no medical services. It is a costly scam. The insurance companies, in essence, tell you, “Give me your healthcare dollars. We’ll give some of them to doctors, nurses, and hospitals and keep the rest for ourselves.” What’s the purpose of having middlemen take some of your hard-earned medical dollars? It would be far better for the federal government to tell you, “You don’t have to give us anything. We’ll create the dollars and pay them to the doctors, nurses, and hospitals. It won’t cost you a cent. You and your doctors will make all the medical decisions. We’ll just pay for them.” That is the way medicine should and could operate. An article in today’s Palm Beach Sun Sentinel reminds me of these simple facts. Here are excerpts:

More than half of hospitals in rural Miss. facing closure Leaders at the publicly owned Greenwood Leflore Hospital in Greenwood, Miss., say they will be out of business before the end of the year without a cash infusion. Rogelio V. Solis/AP By Michael Goldberg Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. — Over half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing immediately or in the near future, according to the state’s leading public health official.

Dr. Daniel Edney, the state health officer, spoke to state senators at a hearing last week about the financial pressure on Mississippi hospitals. Edney said 54% of the state’s rural hospitals — 38 — could close.

Rural hospitals were under economic strain before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the problems have worsened as costs to provide care have increased.

Mississippi’s high number of low-income uninsured people means hospitals are on the hook for more uncompensated care. At the same time, labor costs weigh on hospitals as they struggle to pay competitive wages to retain staff.

Why does America have uninsured (for healthcare) people when the federal government has infinite dollars? It makes no sense at all.

“The costs on an income statement for a hospital have skyrocketed,” said Scott Christensen, chair of the Mississippi Hospital Association Board of Governors. “The liabilities on the balance sheets of hospitals around the state have reached some unsustainable levels given what we face.”

The crux of the problem facing Mississippi’s hospitals is that revenues have not kept pace with rising costs, Christensen said.

The strain is most acute in Mississippi’s Delta region, an agricultural flatland where poverty remains entrenched. Greenwood Leflore Hospital has been cutting costs by reducing services and shrinking its workforce for months.

But the medical facility hasn’t been able to stave off the risk of imminent closure. Hospital leaders say they will be out of business before the end of the year without a cash infusion.

At Greenwood Leflore and other hospitals across the state, maternity care units have been on the chopping block. Mississippi already has the nation’s highest fetal mortality rate, highest infant mortality rate and highest preterm birth rate, and is among the worst states for maternal mortality.

Does anyone care? Do the Republicans who run Mississippi care?

A rising number of healthcare deserts are emerging in the Delta, but financial pressures are bearing down on hospitals in more prosperous areas of the state as well, experts at the hearing said.

But hospitals in poor communities often treat patients who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay for care out of pocket. An expansion of Medicaid coverage would reduce costs that result from uncompensated care.

Gov. Tate Reeves and other Republican leaders have killed proposals to expand Medicaid, which primarily covers low-income workers whose jobs don’t provide private health insurance.

Opponents of expansion say they don’t want to encourage reliance on government help for people who don’t need it.

This is the same -old, same-old trope that poor people are lazy takers, and giving them help will make them even lazier. It is a vicious lie promulgated by the richer to keep the more destitute down. It is the classic expression of Gap Psychology, in which the richer want to widen the Gap between them and the poorer.

As a near-term solution, the Mississippi Hospital Association has suggested the state’s Division of Medicaid work with federal officials to raise the Medicaid reimbursement rate cap.

The move would lower the cost of providing care for people who are already covered under the state’s current Medicaid plan.

It’s a Band-Aid, as are Medicaid, Obamacare, and Medicare. They all should be merged to provide comprehensive, no-deductible, 100% coverage, fully government-funded, no taxes healthcare insurance for every American of every age and every income. No exceptions. Finally, it isn’t “socialism.” The rich falsely chant “socialism” every time a benefit for the not-rich is mentioned. But socialism is government control, not government funding. With real Medicare for All, the government only would take over funding from the for-profit insurance companies. All Medical decisions would remain with your doctors and hospitals. It is a disgrace of American politics that we don’t already have it. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

……………………………………………………………………..

The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

The strange evolution of the Republican Party and the American electorate

The Republicans proudly will remind you that President Lincoln was a Republican. That Republican party is long gone, replaced by a party of opposite beliefs.

I was born a Roosevelt Democrat. My parents were Democrats, as was my entire family.

Later, I became a Reagan Republican because I didn’t like Mondale for telling us the truth that he would raise taxes. Also, in those days, I subscribed to the myth that the Republicans were “good for business and the economy.”

I now lean Democrat, not because I love the Democrats, but because I believe their hearts are in the right place and they are the viable alternative to Trumpism.

Voting for a 3rd party Presidential candidate is futile in itself — it’s like knowing the future and still booking the Titanic — but depending on the 3rd party, your vote, combined with others, can force the major parties to adopt some of the things you want.

I never would vote for a Libertarian candidate, however, because they believe in austerity — the death knell for any economy — rather than just limited federal taxing. I never understood how reduced government spending could grow GDP when GDP is a spending measure.

The GOP now lives solidly in the age of Trump, though even before Trump, they provided America with one bunch of extremist nuts after another. It’s just become worse. The right wing has turned full-on demented.

If it wasn’t the John Birchers, it was Tea Party. Or the white supremacists. Or the Nazis, Or the MAGAs. Or the fascists, Or QAnon. Or the anti-vaxxers. Or the election deniers. Or the global-warming deniers, Or the book-burning, history deniers. Or the gun-nuts, OathKeepers, Boogaloo Boys, Three Percenters, Wolverine Watchmen, Base, skinheads, alt-right, Pepe the Frog, Alex Jones, and every kind of screw-loose, forest-dwelling militia you can imagine.

And conspiracy theories — is there a conspiracy theory to which the Republicans have not subscribed?

They want to tax the poor, give tax breaks to the rich, cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, eliminate Obamacare, deport the Dreamers, and cut all poverty aids.

They are the ultimate hate mongers, directing bile against Muslims, Mexicans, blacks, browns, yellows, reds, Jews, gays, immigrants, the poor, and women.

They are Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, Sarah Palin, Rick Scott, Lauren Boebert, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Louie Gohmert, Herschel Walker, et al.

They are Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, George Nader, and George Papadopoulos — all Trump associates and all convicted felons.

Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention such notables as John Eastman, Sydney Powell, Lin Wood, and Rudy Giuliani, who could join Trump’s pals in jail.

Given all this, the GOP doesn’t merely look away. It actively defends.

Conservatives are supposed to conserve, that is, to hold the line against radical change. They are supposed to be the solid, reliable bedrock upon which American democracy is built.

But instead, they devote their lives to coming up with new crazinesses.

They wave the American flag (along with a Trump flag), but they are the least patriotic Americans on the planet.

There was a time when the Republican party stood for something solid, reliable, and good. Today, it is the party of the rich trailing obediently behind the most dishonest, psychopathic, incompetent President in U.S. history.

Fortunately, most Americans have discovered the rot and rejected it, though the GOP has yet to acknowledge the depths to which it has sunk.

And yet . . . and yet . . .

All the blame cannot be laid at the Republican’s feet. They are politicians. As politicians, their first rule is: Get elected. It’s what politicians do. It’s the only thing the Republicans do well.

In the last Presidential election, Trump received more than 74 million votes. That’s 74 million Americans who gave their precious votes to Donald Trump. What can one say about people like that?

In the 1930s, Germans supported the apparent maniac, Adolf Hitler. The plausible excuse was that Germany was in the midst of a terrible depression/hyperinflation. People were starving. Families were rent asunder. Their world had caved in. The Germans were desperate.

What was our excuse? Obama was President from 2009 to 2017. He immediately got us out of Republican George W. Bush’s “Great Recession,” the economy grew, inflation was low, and most Americans saw their lives improve.

**While GDP grew under Obama, inflation (red) stayed low. Trump’s mishandling of COVID helped cause today’s shortages, resulting in recession and inflation.**

Then, in 2017 came Donald Trump, whose mishandling of COVID and the Presidency, in general, led to the 2020 recession and inflation. And still, 74 million Americans gave him their votes, and recently millions gave the Republicans the House of Representatives.

Really? Do they want more of the crazy? Do they want more criminality, more nepotism, more lying, more attempted coups, more inflation, and more recession?

Do they really want more voting restrictions, more politicizing the Justice Department, more pardoning of Trump’s criminal pals, more profiting from the Presidency, more attempts to blackmail Ukraine, more firing of whistleblowers, more reneging on international pacts, more of a President supported by Putin?

**Trump’s illegal debasement of the Presidency. Anything for a buck.**

Today, we have six Republican Supreme Court Justices who have proven to be political hacks giving precedence to right-wing politics of hatred and to Catholicism above all other religions.

It has become so notorious that SCOTUS even includes one Justice whose wife backs the coup attempt while he refuses to recuse from related cases.

As the GOP has gone crazy, much of America has gone stupid.

That combination of crazy and stupid has put America on its most perilous path since the Civil War.

Fortunately, President Biden was able to leverage the narrowest of Congressional margins to accomplish more in two years than the GOP has even attempted to achieve in the past two decades.

You may not agree with all or even most of these, but they represent an attempt to help Americans who need help, not just the rich.

The GOP doesn’t try or even pretend to. There is no warmth, love or compassion in them. They are all anger, hatred, and resentment.

This is not the America I recognize.

But Biden is 80 years old, and American democracy, such as it is, trembles.

American voters created the deranged GOP, and only American voters can change it.

Otherwise, it will continue to slide further down, down, down the rabbit hole, from the idiotic party of Donald Trump to the truly maniacal party of Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

……………………………………………………………………..

The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: