Thank a Republican !

The Republican Party is primarily responsible for America's epidemic of school and public shootings. Despite a citizen outcry to do something about the carnage, GOP politicians continue to push their all guns-at anytime-for everyone agenda. They refuse to ban the most efficient of the rapid-fire human-killing machines. They defend the right of the mentally-ill and terrorists to own a deadly arsenal. At both national and state levels, Republicans are erasing common sense gun purchasing and carrying regulations.

If you think that the wholesale murder of children is a good thing, thank a Republican.

But that is not the only reason to thank the GOP. If the party did not exist, the country's Overton Window would not have been shifted so sharply to the loony-right. America would be dramatically different without today's Republican Party. Why else should we thank the Republicans?
 
We should thank them for Americans lacking universal access to healthcare. Unlike all other first world countries, we have a health system that ignores large swaths of our population. Despite deficiencies in our current system, GOP pols are fighting to make it much worse. They constantly slash Medicaid and aspire to privatize Medicare. Destroying the ACA is one of the few unifying goals of the party.

We should thank Republicans for blowing-up the budget deficit and federal debt. We actually ran surpluses during Clinton's second term. W destroyed all that. His huge tax cuts and two unnecessary wars ballooned federal spending. Obama took an ax to spending, reducing Bush's 2009 deficit an amazing 69% by 2015. But the GOP is doing it again. The party of "fiscal responsibility" is again spending like drunken sailors. They enacted a ginormous tax cut for the wealthy and made huge jumps in military spending.

We should thank them for such unpopular moves as killing net neutrality and fighting marijuana legalization. We should thank them for creating a crisis for DACA kids, where none existed before. We should thank them for their Forever War on reproductive rights.

We should thank state Republicans for every pothole to which your car is subjected. By refusing to adequately fund our roads, Wisconsin now ranks #49 in the US in road quality. We can't afford decent roads, but we can afford to give billions to Foxconn.

We should thank Wisconsin Republicans for low wages in our state. The party no longer supports a minimum wage of any kind. Their war against labor includes ending prevailing wage and imposing Right to Freeload. Now the Trump Administration wants to steal the tips of low-paid restaurant workers.

We should thank the GOP for fighting renewable energy and denying the scientific reality of man-made climate change. We should thank them for America's new role as the global village idiot.

We should thank Republicans for worrying granny and gramps by constantly threatening to steal their earned Social Security and Medicare benefits.

We should thank the GOP for interference in our elections by a hostile foreign government. Our Republican White House denies that Russia was even involved in our elections. Our Republican Congress defends that stance with attacks on law enforcement, leaked intelligence, and conspiracy theories about secret societies.

We should thank Republicans for undrinkable water, unbreathable air, and unrestrained banks. We should thank them for allowing the purchase our government with billions of dollars in dark, uncontrolled, and untraceable campaign contributions. We should thank them for a country in which corporations are people.

Yes, we have many reasons to thank today's Republican Party. Without a modern GOP, America would be a very different place. If you don't like what we've become-if you want to truly make America great again- you know what we have to do in November.