Are We All in This Together?

We the people.

Those three words are the start of the most important document in our nation, the foundation for our society and our way of life, the Constitution of the United States.  But it's more than that, as well. Those words are the basic symbol of American unity. These words imply that we are a people, not just 310,000,000 individuals who happen to live in the same place.

We are a people. We are a nation. When the nation succeeds, we all succeed. When it fails, we all fail.

That is patriotism. That is love of country.  Anyone who disagrees with this is not only unAmerican, but anti-American. They are against the very essence of the foundation of our country.

The Republican Party has shown itself to be anti-American. No, more than that. Over the past few years, the GOP has bragged about its lack of patriotism. It's shouted its hatred of our nation from the highest rooftops it can, and all the while it's plastered American flags on every free surface. As if we're so stupid that we'd be tricked by that.

The Republicans want to fool us. They think that if they shout "America!" and "Patriotic!" enough, we won't notice that almost every single action they take is the opposite of either of those things. That we won't notice that they are systematically removing our liberties and destroying everything that makes our country great.  But we know better than that, because we've been watching them. We've seen how they're trying to hurt our nation.

In August, the Republicans threatened to shut down the government unless they got their way. In effect, they were holding the country hostage. This proves two things. One: the Republicans don't care about the country. You don't take something hostage if you care about it. Two: the Republicans know that the Democrats do care about the country. Watch any movie where a bad guy grabs a hostage, points a gun to its head, and makes demands of the hero. The bad guy can't just grab someone that the hero doesn't care about! Even if it's a random person off the street, the message is clear: the hero wants to save that person, and the villain doesn't care if they die.

It's clear that the Republicans are the villain. They're the ones willing to threaten our country to get their way. Even if the Democrats aren't perfect, which they aren't, that situation proves that the Democrats are the ones who want to help the people. Who care about the nation.

Another deadline is coming up in November, though, and the Republicans have already started making their demands. One of their bigger demands is that we make large cuts in a nutrition program for low-income women and children. The Republicans want to deny help to more than 700,000 poor women and young children.



On the GOP chopping block

No, they don't simply want to do this. They are demanding it, and they are willing to hold the rest of the nation hostage.

Let's remember that currently, in America, 37% of all families with young children are living in poverty.  That's literally the highest percentage on record.  That doesn't stop the Republicans from taking away their food.

The Regressives also want to cut Medicaid funding by $771 billion over the next decade.  Who do they want to pay for it?  Increased taxes on low-income Americans.

Our economy is bad right now.  We all know that.  The United States is in the middle of the worst economy we've had since the Great Depression.  The poor and the young are hurt the most by this, and the Republicans have decided that they should also bear the largest share of the cuts.  They've even taken to pointing fingers at the poor, claiming that they're the ones who caused the economic collapse!  Yes, those hedge fund investors and Wall Street executives had nothing to do with it.  The hyperwealthy?  Why, there's no reason to ask them to help out!  They're doing well!  The Republicans can't punish those who are doing well!

They can only punish those who are doing not so well.  They can only punish those who, in their eyes, have already failed. 

Making these cuts during an economic upturn would be wrong.  It would be cruel, selfish, and greedy.  Making these cuts now is an act of moral bankruptcy verging on evil.  The GOP has effectively abandoned any hope of being seen as benevolent or compassionate, except by those too stupid or brainwashed to step outside of their FOX News-induced bubbles of anti-reality.  These acts are the acts of a callous party, an uncaring party, a greedy, selfish party that doesn't give one damn about whether you live or die.

Regressives do not see us as a nation.  They do not see us as a people.  Regressives see our nation as a series of "us versus them."  They see us only as "the successful" and "the failed," and they measure success entirely by wealth.  The rich have succeeded, and by Republican logic, cannot be taxed because that would be punishing them for their success.  The poor, however, they have failed.  The poor can be taxed as much as possible; they can be ignored by our healthcare institutions; they can be left in the streets to die.  Because they failed, and in the eyes of a Republican, they deserve to die.  If anyone disagrees they're simply labeled a communist.

Republicans make their cries of "class warfare" so often because they've already decided that a class war exists.  They cannot see our nation in any other way.  But we, the people, can. 

Are we all in this together?  That's the question that we have to answer.  The Republicans say no.  They say that we're all in this alone.  They say that society exists only to help the wealthy and the successful, and they are willing to let people starve to make their point.

But I say yes.  Stand up with me, patriots, and with the rest of America, and remind the Republican elite that we are a people.