Thursday, February 9, 2017

Republicans, what's your beef?

The following was shared over at the CenterForInquiry forum, it's well written, concise and directly addresses all those whiny Tea Partiers and Alt-rightwingers and other shrill elements of the Republican establishment with their incessant victimology crying about all their imagined horrid loses at the hands of Obama and the enlightened crowd of empathic humans who believe in multi-culturalism and believe that there's a difference between Personal Truths and Universal Truths and who believe science is the best way to understanding this physical world we exist in - and that spiritual truths are matters of the heart and soul - not the physical world!  
The sad reality is today's religions demand mindless obedience and disregard for physical truths along with contempt for anyone outside their particular tribe. 
It's within the halls of science where you'll find a community of informed, skeptical, ambitious people dedicated to ferreting out the best understanding evidence will allow.  Science is filled with people who believe that we need each other to keep ourselves honest and that enlighten self-interest beats the destruction caused by the greed blinded self-interested totalitarianism of the Trump/Republican collusion. I pledge my allegiance to the intellectually enlightened crowd!  
But I've digressed, here we try to figure out exactly what the GOP is complaining is all about. (attribution 'anonymous' - feel free to copy and share)
_____________________________________________________
A Trump supporter said: 
“We suffered under Obama for 8 years. Now it’s your turn.
Reply:
Over the last 8 years, I was wondering: Why have you suffered so?
Gays and lesbians can now marry and enjoy the benefits of which they had been deprived. Has this caused your suffering?
When Obama took office, the Dow was 6,626. Now it is 19,875. Has this caused your suffering?
We have 82 straight months of private sector job growth - the longest streak in the history of the United States. Has this caused your suffering?
Especially considering where the economy was when he took over, an amazing 11.3 million new jobs were created under President Obama (far more than President Bush). Has this caused your suffering?
Obama has taken unemployment from 10% down to 4.7%. Has this caused your suffering?
Homelessness among US Veterans has dropped by half. Has this caused your suffering?

Obama shut down the US secret overseas prisons. Has this caused your suffering?
President Obama has created a policy for the families of fallen soldiers to have their travel paid for to be there when remains are flown home. Has this caused your suffering?
We landed a rover on Mars. Has this caused your suffering?
He passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Has this caused your suffering?
Uninsured adults had decreased to below 10%: 90% of adults are insured - an increase of 20 million adults. Has this caused your suffering?

People are now covered for pre-existing conditions. Has this caused your suffering?
Insurance premiums increased an average of $4,677 from 2002-2008 an increase of 58% under Bush. The growth of these insurance premiums has gone up $4,145 under Obama – a slower rate of increase. Has this caused your suffering?
Obama added billions of dollars to mental health care for our veterans. Has this caused your suffering?
Consumer confidence has gone from 37.7 to 98.1 during Obama’s tenure. Has this caused your suffering?
He passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Has this caused your suffering?
His bi-annual Nuclear Summit convinced 16 countries to give up and destroy all their loose nuclear material so it could not be stolen. Has this caused your suffering?
He saved the US auto industry. American cars sold at the beginning of his term was 10.4M and upon his exit 17.5M. Has this caused your suffering?
The deficit as a percentage of the GDP has gone from 9.8% to 3.2%. Has this caused your suffering?
The deficit itself was cut by $800 billion dollars. Has this caused your suffering?
Obama preserved the middle-class tax cuts. Has this caused your suffering?
Obama banned solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons. Has this caused your suffering?
He signed credit card reform so that rates could not be raised without you being notified. Has this caused your suffering?
He outlawed government contractors from discriminating against LGBT persons. Has this caused your suffering?
He doubled Pell Grants. Has this caused your suffering?
Abortion is down. Has this caused your suffering?
Violent crime is down. Has this caused your suffering?
He overturned the scientific ban on stem cell research. Has this caused your suffering?
He protected Net Neutrality. Has this caused your suffering?
Obamacare has extended the life of the 
Medicare insurance trust fund (will be solvent until 2030). Has this caused your suffering?
Prescient Obama repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Has this caused your suffering?
He banned torture. Has this caused your suffering?
He negotiated with Syria to give up its chemical weapons and they were destroyed. Has this caused your suffering?
Solar and wind power are at an all-time high. Has this caused your suffering?
High School Graduation rates hit 83% - an all-time high. Has this caused your suffering?
Corporate profits are up by 144%. Has this caused your suffering?
He normalized relationships with Cuba. Has this caused your suffering?
Reliance on foreign oil is at a 40-year low. Has this caused your suffering?
US Exports are up 28%. Has this caused your suffering?
He appointed the most diverse cabinet ever. Has this caused your suffering?
He reduced the number of troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Has this caused your suffering?
Yes, he killed Osama Bin Laden and retrieved all the documents in his possession for analysis. Perhaps THIS caused your suffering?
From an objective standpoint, it would appear that the last 8 years have seen some great progress and we were saved from a financial collapse.
Things are not perfect.
Things can always be better.
We are on much better footing now than we were in 2008.
I look forward to understanding what caused you to suffer so much under Obama these last 8 years.
___________________________________________________________
Or have Republicans, America's once Grand Old Party become a totalitarian outfit that despises everyone who doesn't pass their loyalty test?
Case point: Americans are taking an active role in their democracy, and their representatives can’t handle it

"... On the same day that constituents found a locked door at Rohrabacher’s office, another delegation of the Indivisible group got the same reception at Rep. Mimi Walter’s office (R-CA) in nearby Irvine.

In Arkansas, a small group of constituents also found a locked door at Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) district office that week. They spoke to staff through the intercom, and were told the staff wouldn’t be taking any meetings because of “threats” to the office.

“They’ve turned off their telephones,” Sarah Scanlon, one of the constituents and the former national LGBTQ outreach director for Bernie Sanders’ campaign, told the Arkansas Times. “They’ve locked their doors, they’re not letting you in.”

In Tennessee, constituents of Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R) received a form letter in response to a request for a town hall in which he said “he had never seen so many sore losers as there are today.” The Twitter account for Indivisible East Tennessee posted the entire letter online.

In the letter, Duncan defended himself as “one of the most accessible members of Congress in this country.” But he said he will not agree to hold town halls for his constituents.
“I certainly do not need town halls to tell me how my constituents are feeling on the important issues of the day,” he said. “I am certainly not going to hold town hall meetings in this atmosphere, because they would very quickly turn into shouting opportunities for extremists, kooks, and radicals.”
Last Wednesday, Rep. Peter Roskam’s (R-IL) district staff canceled a meeting with constituents after learning there was a reporter present. Then on Saturday, Roskam changed a scheduled meeting from open-door to members only. Hundreds gathered to protest outside and demand a town hall. Roskam snuck out the back of the building. ..."



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