The War on Wisdom: How the GOP Made Smart Uncool

Why Republicans Fear Critical Thinking, Science, and Equality.

Thom HartmannDec 30

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“Those who control the present, control the past; and those who
control the past control the future.” —George Orwell, 1984

From outlawing the polio vaccine to ignoring the scientific consensus on gender dysphoria to refusing to wear masks in hospitals to trying to strip evolution and science from our schools, stupid has become fashionable in today’s GOP.

When Republican politicians want to score points, they criticize their opponents as having had “elite” educations; the GOP’s war against Ivy League colleges was particularly evident during the student protests of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza. Congressional Republican inquisitors voices’ dripped with scorn and contempt as they grilled university presidents.

It wasn’t always this way.

I remember when the USSR launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth. It was the fall of 1957, I was six years old, and my dad and I watched it arc over our house from our back yard one clear October night. My best friend’s father, a ham radio operator, let us listen on his shortwave radio to the “beep beep beep” it was emitting when it was over North America. I’d never seen my dad so rattled.

That dramatic technological achievement lit a major fire under the Eisenhower administration and Congress. In his January 27, 1958 State of the Union address, Republican President Eisenhower pointed to Sputnik and demanded Congress fund a dramatic transformation of America’s educational system:

“With this kind of all-inclusive campaign, I have no doubt that we can create the intellectual capital we need for the years ahead, invest it in the right places–and do all this, not as regimented pawns, but as free men and women!”

In less than a year Congress wrote and passed the National Defense Education Act that poured piles of money into our public schools and rolled out programs for gifted kids.

I was lucky enough to be enrolled in one of those in 1959: by the time I left elementary school I was functioning at high school and college levels in math, science, and English. I’d had two years of foreign language and two years of experimental music instruction. IQ tests were all the rage: mine was 141 and my best friend, Terry, was 142, something he never let me forget.

Most all of those programs died over the following decades as a result of Reagan’s war on public education, which began with his bringing private religious school moguls like Jerry Falwell and bigots like Bill Bennett into the White House.

Repudiating Eisenhower’s embrace of public education, Reagan put Bennett in charge of the Department of Education, which Reagan had campaigned on shutting down altogether. Bennett is probably best known for defending his proclamation that:

“If you wanted to reduce crime you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every Black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”

Much like Bennett back in the day, the catch phrase among white supremacists and their fellow travelers today is that “Western Civilization” is either under attack or at risk because we teach history, tolerance, and critical thinking skills in our public schools, which are often racially integrated. The answer, Republicans will tell you, is to defund our public schools.

When Reagan was elected in 1980, the federal share of total education spending in America was 12 percent; when he left office in disgrace in 1989 amid “Iran/Contra” rumors he’d cut a deal with the Iranians to keep the American hostages to screw Jimmy Carter, that share had collapsed to a mere 6 percent. (It’s 3 percent today.)

Reagan also wanted to amend the Constitution to allow mandatory school prayer, and unsuccessfully proposed a national tax credit — a sort of tax-system-based national voucher system — that parents could use to send their kids to religious schools like Falwell’s.

Reagan made anti-intellectualism a political weapon, repeatedly criticizing colleges and professors throughout his political career. When asked why he’d taken a meat-axe to higher education and was pricing college out of the reach of most Americans, he said that college students were “too liberal” and America “should not subsidize intellectual curiosity.”

Four days before the Kent State Massacre of May 5, 1970, Governor Reagan called students protesting the Vietnam war across America “brats,” “freaks” and “cowardly fascists,” adding, as The New York Times noted at the time, “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with. No more appeasement!”

Before Reagan became president, states paid 65 percent of the costs of colleges, and federal aid covered another 15 or so percent, leaving students to cover the remaining 20 percent with their tuition payments.

That’s how it works in many developed nations; in most northern European countries college is not only free, but the government pays students a stipend to cover books and rent.

Here in America, though, the numbers are pretty much reversed from pre-1980, with students now covering about 80 percent of the costs. Thus the need for student loans here in the USA.

Ever since Reagan’s presidency, the core of Republican positions on public education have been five-fold:

1. Let white students attend schools that are islands of white privilege where they don’t have to confront the true racial history of America,
2. Use public money to support private, for-profit, and religious schools that can accomplish this (and cycle some of that money back to Republican politicians),
3. Destroy public schools’ teachers’ unions,
4. End the teaching of science, critical thinking, evolution, and sex ed, and,
5. Bring fundamentalist Christianity into the classroom.

Earlier this year, Republican Senator Marco Rubio called America’s public school system a “cesspool of Marxist indoctrination.”

“Dangerous academic constructs like critical race theory and radical gender theory are being forced on elementary school children,” Rubio wrote for the American Conservative magazine, adding, “We need to ensure no federal funding is ever used to promote these radical ideas in schools.”

Instead, multiple Republican-controlled states are now actively gutting their public schools with statewide voucher programs, and instituting mandatory bible instruction or posting of the Ten Commandments. Book bans and panics around queer kids using bathrooms or playing sports are the new wedge issues.

There is no more powerful urge we humans can experience than to protect and defend our children. For most people it beats hunger, sex, and money. So if you’re a politician looking for an issue to motivate voters, just tell them their children are under attack. It’s cynical, but effective.

In an interview for Semafor, Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid it out:

“I tell the story often — I get asked ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is [American Federation of Teachers President] Randi Weingarten. It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids…”

Just a few months ago, Donald Trump laid out his plan to deal with the “major problem” America is facing. That problem, he said, is:

“[W]e have ‘pink-haired communists teaching our kids.’”

Turning the Constitution upside down and arguing the Founders intended to protect teaching schoolchildren religion, Trump elaborated, arguing that mixing religion, politics, and education was the intention of that document:

“The Marxism being preached in our schools is also totally hostile to Judeo-Christian teachings, and in many ways it’s resembling an established new religion. We can’t let that happen. For this reason, my administration will aggressively pursue intentional violations to the establishment clause and the free exercise clause of the Constitution.”

As Jonathan Chait wrote for New York magazine:

“More ominously, at every level of government, Republicans have begun to act on these beliefs. Over the past three years, legislators in 28 states have passed at least 71 bills controlling what teachers and students can say and do at school. A wave of library purges, subject-matter restrictions, and potential legal threats against educators has followed.”

George W. Bush followed the trend, bragging about his pathetic performance in college at Yale’s 2001 commencement:

“To those of you who received honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students I say, you, too, can be president of the United States!”

Similarly, JD Vance gave a speech in 2021 titled Universities Are The Enemy.

This isn’t the first time elected officials have used public education as a political weapon. In 1844, 25 people died and over 100 were severely injured in riots in Philadelphia over whether there should be daily Bible readings in that city’s schools. Two churches and several city blocks of homes were burned to the ground.

The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 didn’t provoke riots, but was a major event in the history of public education. Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes was charged and convicted of the crime of teaching evolution. Mississippi and Arkansas joined Tennessee in passing laws making such instruction a crime that stood until the 1967 repeal of the Butler Act.

While Republicans across the country successfully rode a wave of white outrage about Critical Race Theory in November’s election, polls suggest the issue is really only meaningful to a fragment of the American electorate: an anti-science “Christian” subset of white Republican voters.

The annual PRRI American Values Survey found:

“Americans overwhelmingly favor teaching children history that includes both the good and bad aspects of our history so that they can learn from the past, versus refraining from teaching aspects of history that could make them feel uncomfortable or guilty about what their ancestors did in the past (92% vs. 5%).

“There are no substantial partisan differences, though Republicans favor excluding aspects of history slightly more (7%) than Democrats and Independents (both 4%). There are few differences across religious traditions or demographics. This consensus holds up across different levels of exposure to critical race theory: 92% of those who have heard a lot about critical race theory, 94% of those who have heard a little, and 93% of those who have heard nothing about it state that we should teach children the good and bad of history.”

Nonetheless, they note:

“[A] majority of Republicans (54%), compared with 27% of independents and only 7% of Democrats, believe that teachers and librarians are indoctrinating children.”

America spent $794.7 billion on primary education last year. For-profit private schools and megachurches that run schools look at that pile of money and drool. Republicans are committed to delivering as much of it to them as possible, regardless of the damage it does to our nation’s kids.

Their strategy for privatizing our public schools is pretty straightforward, and echoes the plan of action Republicans are using right now to replace real Medicare with the privatized Medicare Advantage scam.

First, they falsely claim that they’ll deliver a better product at a lower cost. In the education realm, we see this with Florida and several other Red states now offering vouchers that can be used at private or religious schools to every student in the state.

(Nearly 2,300 private schools in Florida accept vouchers, but “69 percent are unaccredited, 58 percent are religious, and nearly one-third are for-profit.”)

As more and more students use the vouchers to flee public schools, the public schools sink into deeper and deeper financial troubles. Those cut the quality of teaching and upkeep of the school buildings, causing even more students to use the vouchers.

Because the vouchers never cover the full cost of private school tuition (typically they pay for half to two-thirds), the truly poor can’t use them: the result is the public school system becomes ghettoized, leading to even more flight by middle- and upper-class (mostly white) people.  

Once the public schools are dead and the state has transitioned entirely to private schools, the state will claim budget problems and begin to dial back the amounts available for vouchers. (The same will happen with Medicare Advantage once real Medicare is dead.)

This will widen the relationship between the educational and wealth divides; the racial and class cleavage will become so great that the state will have effectively gone back to a “separate but equal” educational system. Which, of course, is the GOP’s goal and has been since 1954.

Republicans are generally convinced — and surveys show they’re right — that when people have a good, well-rounded education they will vote for Democrats, who explicitly value science and egalitarian social values.

Thus, keeping our kids ignorant and destroying one of America’s largest unions, all while helping their education and religion industry friends get rich, is a complete win-win.

Much of this battle is playing out in state houses around the country, but there’s a huge and well-funded effort to take control of local school boards as well.

Driving this ethos with a constant flood of anti-intellectual, anti-science propaganda are an army of rightwing podcasters, YouTubers, hate radio hosts, and the billionaire-owned Fox “News” network (among others). They argue, essentially, that “stupid is the new smart.”

Barely coherent politicians like Tommy Tuberville and Marjorie Taylor Greene are their heroes. Donald Trump, who still refuses to release his grades, is their avatar. Bob Kennedy is their avenging angel. And people with college educations — and teachers/professors — are their enemies.

Bottom line: the Republican war on public education and science is real, and if we want to stop it we must get involved. Show up for your local school board meetings and, if you have the time and ability, run for a position on the board.

Lobby your state legislators and support pro-science and pro-education politicians. It’s time to make smart cool again!

Our children’s and grandchildren’s futures are literally at stake.

The Hartmann Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my daily work on behalf of America, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I must add: I spent the final 23 years of my working life as a sixth grade teacher and I had no idea what the right wing politicians were talking about in referencing “critical race theory.” I assumed it meant don’t actually teach history. I’m old enough to have experienced an early education where exactly what Mr. Hartmann is talking about above was real. I remember my anger as I came to realize how I had been “programmed” – exactly what republicans want to take us back to – as I struggled with the Civil Rights movement and the Viet Nam war. Mr. Hartmann, who actually lives close to me (I believe he’s in Portland, Oregon – right across the Columbia River from where I live) is one of my intellectual heroes. It grieves my heart as I witness the culmination of the republican attack on education during my lifetime – as teacher, I still remember my dismay when GW Bush got his so-called “no child left behind” bill passed through Congress. At the time I referred to it as the “Lots of children left behind” and, sadly, I believe I was correct. The final straw will be when they close the Department of Education – further causing “the least of these” (In the words of Christ) to have the republican’s intended result – to take away opportunity for the children who are born to “low socio-economic” parents!

My tired old eyes won’t allow me to read as much history as Thom Hartmann – or express my thoughts as he so admiringly does. His Substack is, to me, the best!

Merry Christmas! (From Mr. Hartmann)

The GOP-caused fiscal disaster and government shutdown has been postponed until March, but in the meantime, House Republicans have laid out their vision for the future of America.

In a budget document they released last year, anticipating this very moment, the legislators proposed dramatic $9 trillion cuts to Social Security, food stamps, aid to women and children, Medicare and Medicaid, along a new round of tax cuts for America’s billionaires. Their argument is that we need to “balance the budget now!”

This is the classic Two Santas strategy that the GOP has been running ever since 1981. In addition to showing the hypocrisy and depravity of these politicians who are happy to live on the largesse of rightwing billionaires but see no benefit in feeding hungry children, it also shows that Jude Wanniski’s grand plan, adopted by Reagan in 1981, is alive and well.

It’s no accident or coincidence that the threat of a failure to pay the nation’s bills or fund an upcoming year constantly happens when Republicans control the House of Representatives.

You could even call it a conspiracy: there’s an amazing backstory — with a unique name — here. And it all started with a guy named Jude Wanniski, who literally transformed Republican Party politics with a plan that the American mainstream media, astonishingly, continues to ignore.

Here’s how it works, laid it out in simple summary:

To set up its foundation, Wanniski’s “Two Santas” strategy dictates, when Republicans control the White House they must spend money like a drunken Santa and cut taxes on the rich, all to intentionally run up the US debt as far and as fast as possible. 

They started this during the Reagan presidency and tripled down on it during the presidencies of Bush and Trump with massive tax cuts for billionaires and increases in spending across-the-board.

Those massive tax cuts and that uncontrolled spending during four Republican presidencies produced three results:

1. They stimulated the economy with a sort of sugar high, making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy;
2. They raised the national debt dramatically (it’s at $36 trillion today, all of which tracks back to Reagan’s, Bush Jr.’s, and Trump’s massive tax cuts and Bush’s two illegal off-the-books wars);
3. And they made people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Clauses.” 

Then comes part two of the one-two punch: when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans must scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “you must cut spending to solve the crisis!”

The “debt crisis,” that is, that they themselves created with their massive tax cuts and wild spending.

Do whatever it takes, the “Two Santas” strategy goes. Tie up legislation, deny a quorum, filibuster, shut down the government, whatever.

Which is why, following Wanniski’s script, Republicans were squealing about the national debt and saying they will refuse to fund the government, possibly crashing the US economy on Biden’s watch. 

And, once again, the media covered it as a “Debt Crisis!” rather than what it really is: a cynical political and media strategy devised by Republicans in the 1970s, fine-tuned in the 1980s, and since then rolled out every time a Democrat is in the White House. 

Politically, it’s a brilliant strategy that was hatched by a fellow most people have never heard of: Jude Wanniski.

Republican strategist Wanniski first proposed his Two Santa Clauses strategy in The Wall Street Journal in 1974, after Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace and the future of the Republican Party was so dim that books and articles were widely suggesting the GOP was about to go the way of the Whigs. 

There was genuine despair across the GOP, particularly when Jerry Ford couldn’t even beat an unknown peanut farmer from rural Georgia for the presidency. 

Wanniski argued back then that Republicans weren’t losing so many elections just because of Nixon’s corruption, but mostly because the Democrats had been viewed since the New Deal of the 1930s as the “Santa Claus party.”

On the other hand, the GOP, he said, was widely seen as the “party of Scrooge” because ever since the 1930s they’d publicly opposed everything from Social Security and Medicare to unemployment insurance and food stamps. 

The Democrats, he noted, had gotten to play Santa Claus for decades when they passed out Social Security and unemployment checks — both programs of FDR’s Democratic New Deal — as well as their “big government” projects like roads, bridges, schools, and highways that gave a healthy union paycheck to workers and made our country shine. 

Even worse, Democrats kept raising taxes on businesses and rich people to pay for all that “free stuff” — and Democrats’ 91% top tax rates on the morbidly rich didn’t have any negative effect at all on working people (wages were steadily going up until the Reagan Revolution, in fact).

It all added, Wanniski theorized, to the public perception that the Democrats were the true party of Santa Claus, using taxes on the morbidly rich to fund programs for the poor and the working class.

Americans loved the Democrats back then. And every time Republicans railed against these programs, they lost elections.

Therefore, Wanniski concluded, the GOP had to become a Santa Claus party, too. 

But because Republicans hated the idea of helping working people, they had to come up with a new way to convince average voters that the GOP, too, had the Santa spirit.  But what? 

“Tax cuts!” said Wanniski. 

To make this work, the Republicans would first have to turn the classical world of economics — which had operated on a simple demand-driven equation for seven thousand years — on its head. (Everybody then understood that demand — “working-class wages” — drove economies because working people spent most of the money they earn in the marketplace, producing “demand” for factory-output goods and services.)

To lay the ground for Two Santa Clauses, in 1974 Wanniski invented a new phrase — “Supply-Side Economics” — and claimed the reason economies grew and became robust wasn’t because people had good union jobs and thus enough money to buy things (“demand”) but, instead, because business made things (“supply”) available for sale, thus tantalizing people to part with their money. 

The more products (supply) there were in the stores, he said, the faster the economy would grow. And the more money we gave rich people and their corporations (via tax cuts) the more stuff (supply) they’d generously produce for us to think about buying.

At a glance, this 1981 move by the Reagan Republicans to cut taxes while increasing spending seems irrational, cynical, and counterproductive. It certainly defies classic understandings of economics.  But when you consider Jude Wanniski’s playbook, it makes complete sense.

To help, Arthur Laffer took that equation a step further with the famous “Laffer Curve” napkin scribble he shared with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld over lunch. Not only was supply-side a rational concept, Laffer suggested, but as taxes went down, revenue to the government would magically go up! 

Neither concept made any sense — and time and our $36 trillion national debt have proven both to be colossal idiocies — but if Americans would buy into it all, they offered the Republican Party a way out of the wilderness.

Ronald Reagan was the first national Republican politician to fully embrace the Two Santa Clauses strategy. 

He told the American people straight-out that if he could cut taxes on rich people and businesses, those “job creators” (then a newly-invented Republican phrase) would use their extra money to “build new factories” so all that new stuff “supplying” the economy would produce faster economic growth. 

George HW Bush — like most Republicans in 1980 who hadn’t read Wanniski’s piece in The Wall Street Journal — was initially horrified. Ronald Reagan was proposing “Voodoo Economics,” said Bush in the primary campaign, and Wanniski’s supply-side and Laffer’s tax-cut theories would throw the nation into debt while producing nothing to benefit average Americans.

But Wanniski had done his homework, selling “Voodoo” supply-side economics to the wealthy elders and influencers of the Republican Party. 

Democrats, Wanniski told the GOP, had been “Santa Clauses” since 1933 by giving people things. From union jobs to food stamps, new schools to Social Security, the American people loved the “toys” and “free stuff” the Democratic Santas brought every year, as well as the growing economy the increasing union wages and social programs produced in middle class hands.

But Republicans could stimulate the economy by throwing trillions at defense contractors, oil companies, and other fat-cat donor industries, Jude’s theory went: spending could actually increase without negative repercussions because that money would “trickle down” to workers from the billionaires and corporate CEOs buying new yachts and building new mansions.

Plus, Republicans could be double Santa Clauses by cutting people’s taxes! 

For working people, the tax cuts would only be a small token — a few hundred dollars a year at the most — but Republicans would heavily market them to the media and in political advertising. And the tax cuts for the rich, which weren’t to be discussed in public, would amount to trillions of dollars, part of which they knew would be recycled back to the GOP as campaign contributions from the morbidly rich beneficiaries of those tax cuts. 

There was no way, Wanniski said, that the Democrats could ever win again.

Every time a Democrat was in the White House, they’d be forced into the role of Santa-killers if they acted responsibly by raising taxes; or, even better, they’d be machine-gunning Santa by cutting spending on their own social programs.

Either one would lose them elections, and if Republicans executed the strategy right, they could force Democrats to do both!

Reagan took the federal budget deficit from under a trillion dollars when he was elected in 1980 to almost three trillion by 1988, and back then a dollar could buy far more than it buys today.

Republicans embraced Wanniski’s theory with such gusto that Presidents Reagan and George HW Bush ran up more debt in twelve years than every president in history up until that time — from George Washington to Jimmy Carter — combined. 

Surely this would both “starve the beast” of the American government and force the Democrats to make the politically suicidal move of becoming deficit hawks. 

Bill Clinton, the first Democrat they blindsided with Two Santas, had run on an FDR-like platform of a “New Covenant” with the American people that would strengthen the institutions of the New Deal, re-empower labor, and institute a national single-payer health care system. 

A few weeks before his inauguration, however, Wanniski-insiders Alan Greenspan, Larry Sommers, and Goldman Sachs co-chairman Robert Rubin famously sat Clinton down and told him the facts of life: Reagan and Bush had run up such a huge deficit that he was going to have to both raise taxes and cut the size of government programs for the working class and poor.

Clinton buckled under the threat of a government shutdown: he raised taxes, balanced the budget, and cut numerous social programs. He declared an “end to welfare as we know it” and, in his second inaugural address, an “end to the era of big government.”

Clinton shot Santa Claus, and the result was an explosion of Republican wins across the country as GOP politicians campaigned on a “Republican Santa” platform of supply-side tax cuts and pork-rich spending increases.

Democrats had controlled the House of Representatives in almost every single year since the Republican Great Depression of the 1930s, but with Newt Gingrich rigorously enforcing Wanniski’s Two Santa Clauses strategy with brutal threats to shut down the government, they finally took it over in the middle of Clinton’s presidency.

State after state turned red, and the Republican Party rose to take over, in less than a decade, every single lever of power in the federal government, from the Supreme Court to Congress to the White House.

Newt had done his job in the House of Representatives. Looking at the wreckage of the Democratic Party all around Clinton in 1999, Wanniski wrote a gloating memo that said, in part:

“We of course should be indebted to Art Laffer for all time for his Curve… But as the primary political theoretician of the supply-side camp, I began arguing for the ‘Two Santa Claus Theory’ in 1974. If the Democrats are going to play Santa Claus by promoting more spending, the Republicans can never beat them by promoting less spending. They have to promise tax cuts…”

Ed Crane, then-president of the Koch-funded Libertarian CATO Institute, noted in a memo that year:

“When Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich, Vin Weber, Connie Mack and the rest discovered Jude Wanniski and Art Laffer, they thought they’d died and gone to heaven. In supply-side economics they found a philosophy that gave them a free pass out of the debate over the proper role of government. … That’s why you rarely, if ever, heard Kemp or Gingrich call for spending cuts, much less the elimination of programs and departments.”

Two Santa Clauses had fully seized the GOP mainstream.

Never again would Republicans worry about the debt or deficit when they were in office; but they knew well how to scream hysterically about it and hook in the economically naïve media as soon as Democrats again took power.

When Jude Wanniski died, George Gilder celebrated the Reagan/Bush adoption of his Two Santas “Voodoo Economics” scheme — then still considered irrational by mainstream economists — in a Wall Street Journal eulogy:

“Unbound by zero-sum economics, Jude forged the golden gift of a profound and passionate argument that the establishments of the mold must finally give way to the powers of the mind. … He audaciously defied all the Buffetteers of the trade gap, the moldy figs of the Phillips Curve, the chic traders in money and principle, even the stultifying pillows of the Nobel Prize.”

Republicans got what they wanted from Wanniski’s work. Using the “fiscal responsibility” argument — essentially Two Santas in drag — Republicans have forced two Democratic presidents, and tried to try to force a third, to gut-shoot the Democratic Santa established by FDR.

Using this strategy, Republicans held power for forty years, transferred over $50 trillion from working class families into the money bins of the top one percent, and cut organized labor’s representation in the workplace from around a third of workers when Reagan came into office to around 8 percent of the non-governmental workforce today.

Think back to Ronald Reagan, who more than tripled the US debt from a mere $800 billion to $2.6 trillion in his 8 years. That spending produced a massive stimulus to the economy, and the biggest non-wartime increase in America’s national debt in all of our history until Trump.

There was nary a peep from Republicans about that 218% increase in our debt; they were just fine with it and to this day claim Reagan presided over a “great” economy.

When five rightwingers on the Supreme Court gave the White House to George W. Bush in 2000, he immediately reverted to Wanniski’s “Two Santa” strategy and again nearly doubled the national debt, adding several trillion in borrowed money to pay for his two tax cuts for billionaires, and tossing in two unfunded wars for good measure, which also added at least (long term) another $8 trillion.  

There was not a whisper about that debt from any high-profile in-the-know Republicans; in fact, Dick Cheney — who knew Wanniski personally — famously said, amplifying Wanniski’s strategy:

“Reagan proved deficits don’t matter. We won the midterms. This is our due.”

Bush and Cheney’s tax cuts for the rich raised the debt by 86% to over $10 trillion (and additional trillions in war debt that wasn’t be put on the books until Obama entered office, so it looked like it was his).

Then came Democratic President Barack Obama, and suddenly the GOP was hysterical about the debt again. 

So much so that they convinced a sitting Democratic president to propose a cut to Social Security (the “chained CPI”). Obama nearly shot the Democrats’ biggest Santa Claus, just like Wanniski predicted, until outrage from the Democratic base stopped him. And then we got the “sequester” out of it: a freeze on Democratic spending and political power along with automatic cuts to social programs if certain terms weren’t adhered to. It was a successful hostage-taking exercise that is still largely in place.

Next, Donald Trump raised our national debt by over $8 trillion, and the GOP funded the government without a peep every year for the first three years of his administration, and then suspended the debt ceiling altogether for 2020 (so, if Biden won, he’d have to justify raising the debt ceiling for 2 years’ worth of deficits, making it even more politically painful).

And last Friday, Republicans again tried using the renewal of government funding for fiscal year 2025 to drop their Two Santas bomb right onto President Joe Biden’s head. After all, it worked against Clinton and Obama and the media never caught on. Why wouldn’t they use it again?

And if the GOP’s failure to fund the government crashes the economy, all the better. Republicans can just blame Biden: it’ll give Trump a great bragging point and make it easier for him and Congress to pass a new tax cut for billionaires!

Americans deserve to know how we’ve been manipulated, and by whom. Sadly, although I and others (it’s even detailed on Wikipedia!) have been calling out Wanniski’s scheme for decades, none of the national media have ever seriously examined this 40+ year GOP strategy.

Hopefully when they write obituaries for Trump’s effort last week to raise the debt ceiling, and revisit this scam in March, Democratic politicians and our media will, finally, call the GOP out on Wanniski’s and Reagan’s Two Santa Clauses scam and let Americans know how they’ve been conned for over 40 years.

The Hartmann Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my daily work to let Americans know how billionaires and the GOP have been screwing us for decades, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

For years I’ve been trying to get SOMEONE in the “mainstream media” to pick up on the reality Donald Trump and the republicans are following the “path” of the Third Reich back in 1930’s Germany in their regaining POWER in the United States of America. Hitler devised a “strategy” of the “Big Lie Theory” and “Projection” in their propaganda scheme to take over the German government just as Trump has used the same scheme to gain control of America’s government over 90 years later. Reminds me of the saying, “Those who refuse to learn history are destined to repeat it.”

The corruption of the first Trump administration will become the CORRUPTION of the second “go round” on steroids. There just is never any let up in the LYING and the PROJECTION coming from Trump and the republicans. I keep, for example, hearing republicans referring to Joe Biden the as head of the “Biden crime family.” Coming from the party which supports a 34 times (found guilty) FELON whose son-in-law pulled close to THREE BILLION dollars out of the Middle East ($2 BILLION from Saudi Arabia) – money those in charge of the Saudi Investment fund wanted to deny, but was authorized by Muhammed bin Salman (MBS) and has returned virtually NOTHING to those Middle East countries supplying the funds.

Trump, himself, is alleged to have gained MILLIONS off his office in his first term, amounts some are suggesting will be significantly MORE this time around. Apparently, the IRS has not (after 8 years) finished the audit of Trump’s taxes and, under normal circumstances, Trump’s foreign entanglements would prevent him from getting a security clearance. After all, he not only attempted to steal some of the country’s most sensitive top secret documents, but he continually refused to return them causing a multi-pronged indictment which included charges he violated the Espionage Act. And, yet, the American people chose to put him back in the “White House” – once again instead of a much more qualified WOMAN. People in Europe are wondering what on earth has gone wrong in America.

I’ve pointed this out here at least a couple times, while democrats are in a state of confusion wondering “what went wrong,” they just haven’t, at least from what I’ve seen, come to the reality of how much POWER Elon Musk has by virtue of his BILLIONS of dollars in “fun money” and over 200 MILLION Social Media followers on his own platform which has become a cesspool of Nazi sympathisers since he took over. Musk infused over $275 MILLION into Trump’s (and the republicans’) campaigns, including his vote buying scheme throughout the so-called “swing states.”

If you’ve read any of Project 2025 you would possibly understand why I’ve been pointing out Trump is going to be the “puppet” and those OLIGARCHS involved in preparing Project 2025 will be the puppeteers. Well, we haven’t even made it to January 20th, 2025 and Trump is already showing how vulnerable he is. It’s like make him a compliment or give him money and he’ll go along with whatever. He has no moral compass and, I’m certain, is still giving the sighs of relief winning the election has done to the MANY felony charges he was facing up to the day of the election. I’m not sure Trump gives a s@#t about anything moving forward – other than skimming as many “emoluments” as he can from the next four years.

So, the next four years are going to leave many people (presumably like me) trying to figure out who really is in charge in the “White House.” Those responsible for Project 2025, I’m fairly certain, are going to be operating in the “shadows.” However, it appears Elon Musk REALLY likes being in the limelight. In fact, there are many who are already calling Musk the actual president and Trump his vice president. In the torpedoing of the “Continuing Resolution” which was agreed upon by both parties in an attempt to avoid a “Christmas” government shutdown Trump had to make a desperate play in order to make it look like he was actually the one doing the “torpedoing”

I have to wonder, how long will Trump put up with Musk appearing to be the actual “president elect?” In the past Trump’s need to ALWAYS be the center of attention has caused people to be jettisoned – for doing far less than Musk has already done. I mean, now House republicans are suggesting Elon Musk to be the next Speaker of the House. What will MAGA land think of that? Once again, Trump is “draining the swamp” by surrounding himself by a bunch of BILLIONAIRES. Will that go over well with all those union workers who voted for Trump?

And, of course, there’s – as there always is – always more with republicans. Trying to move into the space now occupied by Musk is none other than Jeff Bezos. And, sure enough, right on cue Amazon Truck drivers have gone on strike and Bezos will attempt to “break the union.” I’m sure he’s already found some non-union (“scabs”) workers to fill in for those who walked out. In that regard Bezos and Musk are like “blood brothers.”

However, don’t get anything wrong about all the chaos which is now going on in D.C. Trump and the “puppet masters” will do whatever they can to bypass this thing they absolutely dislike, the U.S. Constitution. Trump (and those behind Project 2025) have every intention of turning this nation into a fascist state. Musk is becoming a problem in the sense he’s taking the limelight away from Trump, but you have to understand Musk is the person who turned his “silver spoon” into one made of gold. He entered the U.S. as what amounts to an illegal immigrant and, likely, made false statements when applying for U.S. citizenship. He’s a South African who grew up during apartheid – and, it appears would like to saddle “we the people” with his preferred type of government.

This will get complicated as we see this ambition by similar narcissists who are already fighting for the headlines come to a head. Can Trump, at this point, torpedo Musk? Knowing it was largely due to Musk’s MONEY which put him in the “White House.” Is Trump willing to risk pissing off Musk’s 200 MILLION Social Media followers? Has Trump been masterfully backed into a corner, with no way out, by Elon Musk? Will the American people stand for a bunch of OVERT BILLIONAIRES actually running the country – when they still envision the make believe “swamp” being drained.

And, I’ll end this with a quick look at the pathetically cowardly Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House – for now. Here’s a little history less for anyone interested. Appeasement NEVER works. It didn’t work for Neville Chamberlain back in the 1930’s, it won’t work with Trump via Vladimir Putin, and also, it appears Trump is appeasing Musk (and others) and that won’t work. (In the interest of bipartisanship, it didn’t work for Joe Biden in appeasing Bibi Netanyahu regarding the Israeli’s WAR CRIMES in GAZA.)

The American government is going to be a combination of a “clown show” and, for the first time in my lifetime, going over the edge toward a government which operates outside the parameters of the Constitution. Those behind Project 2025 have been pushing in that direction for years and, what’s not clear to me is whether Musk will make it harder for them to do this. And, as I’ve mentioned here, will Trump be able to cede the spotlight to Musk? Keep in mind, the “razor thin” majority republicans hold in the House will be even THINNER in the next Congress. Considering Matt Gaetz resigned and two members have been nominated to Trump’s cabinet, they have about ONE vote to spare in passing anything. I have to do this: I told you so! Trump is going to be the PUPPET. I just didn’t consider Elon Musk would be one of the PUPPETEERS!

Final Thought: Musk wants to remove ALL (or as much as he can) government assistance to who Jesus referred to as “the least of these.” Here’s some of what the republicans pulled from the Continuing Resolution which reached bipartisan agreement before Musk torpedoed it. (Remember, he threatened ANY republican who voted for it with a Musk supported primary challenger) Here’s some of what Musk didn’t like: Money for research on child cancer, a provision to criminalize using AI to create “pornographic” images, other provisions designed to reduce the cost of health care and prescription drugs, a provision for the federal government to transfer the property where the OLD RFK stadium is located to the D.C. government so it can be re-developed, a provision to rebuild the bridge in Baltimore destroyed last year by a container ship, disaster relief for hurricane and wild fire victims, a provision to prevent (people like Musk) American investment and sharing of technology in China, and, of course, a PAY RAISE for members of Congress among other things.

Today, I listened to maybe the most disingenuous politician EVER, JD Vance attempting to convince (likely Fox viewers) people the ensuing government shutdown is the fault of democrats. Of course, republicans have been in charge of the House for two years and the ONLY legislation of any merit passed during that time has been passed with the votes coming from democrats. That will CONTINUE to be the case. How STUPID do these republicans feel “we the people” are? Well, based on the words coming from the mouth of JD Vance it’s extremely STUPID. Hell, the republicans couldn’t even pass the bill supported by Musk and Trump – 38 republicans voted against it. (Is that the fault of democrats?) And, keep in mind, while they’re trying to rush this bill through, a two thirds vote is required for passage. Naturally, that means passing a bill requires democrats’ votes.

And, get a load of this: Trump, who just a few months ago was encouraging republicans to take America over the edge of economic reality by refusing to raise the “debt ceiling” during Biden’s administration – similar to him blowing up the immigration bill put together by the Senate’s most conservative republican member – so he (Trump) could have a campaign issue – the people be damned. So, true to Trump’s form, he’s insisting any Continuing Resolution includes a suspension of the debt ceiling or removal of it all together – why do you think that? OK, I’ll tell you why. Trump has plans to blow up the national debt even MORE than he did the first time. As ALWAYS happens during republican administrations (since Reagan) there’s going to be a new “tax cut for the rich.” This one will be on top of extending the last tax cut for the rich. Trump won’t be president for over a month and, yet, he’s reminding us of his INCOMPETENCE. Yikes!!! Stay tuned!!

I’m 77 years old and I’ve spent (almost) every day of my life in the United States of America. Over the years I’ve come to cherish the reality I’ve been living in a country where “freedom” is foundational. (OK, that “reality” has been evolving) Yet, with the Donald Trump’s Assault on this nation some very troubling “realities” are emerging. The one I’m presently focused (and, almost depressed by) on is the bipartisan cowardice we’re seeing in our “leaders” back in Washington D.C. in the face of Trump’s impending second reign on this nation.

Let me explain. I first want to start with Jack Smith, the supposed “nose to the grindstone” type of prosecutor who has doggedly pursued justice in regard to Trump’s attempted coup d’etat and his STEALING some of our nation’s most secret documents – some of which are still missing – and sharing them with who knows who.

As an aside – do you think Trump could possibly have been tempted to share those MISSING documents with others? Remember, it’s been reported Trump had at least 7 phone conversations with Vladimir Putin during the Biden administration. Suggesting that’s illegal (Logan Act: Any citizen of the  United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both) would at this point be laughable – because Trump has been granted a king’s authority by our suspect SCOTUS – Trump will NEVER face accountability for his criminal conduct unless Alvin Bragg and the New York justice system awaits his removal from office. If you’ve watched Bibi Netanyahu in Israel, you’ll allow me to think Trump will attempt to NEVER be removed from office – even when he gets to the point of drooling while he’s presenting “we the people” another “word salad.”

Back to my point. Why am I placing Jack Smith into this bevy of “leaders” who are caving in the face of Trump’s “victory” in the 2024 election? Well, to me, the FACT Smith has had the indictments – returned from Grand Juries – dismissed because Trump will soon be president once again is pure cowardice. Mr. Smith, in my view, SHOULD have forced Trump to cause his Attorney General – whoever that end’s up being – to dismiss the cases. It is really irking me as I watch all these people back there refusing to stand up to this “deplorable” president elect. He’s not even in office yet.

Of course, Merrick Garland is likely right in the middle of that decision by Mr. Smith. I mean, it’s obvious the Justice Department would NEVER have investigated Trump had Mr. Garland’s timidity prevailed. Clearly the Select Committee on the January 6th INSURRECTION forced his hand. They made Trump’s criminal conduct “clear as a bell.” So, was it Garland who ordered Smith to move to dismiss these charges? Likely, but will we ever know? As a “booby prize” maybe Garland will be so “courageous” as to allow Smith’s report to be made public. Don’t hold your breath!

When it comes to American politics, there’s always more. Now we have Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI, showing his true Washington D.C. colors. Trump has made public his plans to nominate (the uniquely unqualifed) Kash Patel – he the author of “children’s books” about him and “King Donald” – to be the next head of the FBI. Patel’s plans are to fire what amounts to the “head” (meaning the leadership) of the FBi and “weaponize” the FBI to “go after” Trump’s “enemies.” Now, just give that a bit of J Edgar Hoover thought. He also wants to end the FBI’s counter intelligence division. Not very “intelligent.”

So, Mr. Wray is going to make doing this easy for Trump by resigning at the end of Biden’s term as president. Here we go again – just like Smith, Wray is refusing to make Trump FIRE him – which can only be done for “cause.” FBI directors have 10 year terms in an effort to prevent “politics” from polluting the institution. Apparently, Wray is tired/afraid of the MAGA “forces” doxxing him or something. From my perspective, evidence of Trump’s criminal conduct SHOULD be “memorialized” so that these cases could be pursued once he’s out of office. But, hell no, not with the cowards who seem to have permeated our nation’s highest offices. I can guarantee you, Wray and the FBI are not doing this. Here’s the reality: Our president-elect is a common CRIMINAL (according to the jury in Manhattan)

I’m listening to democratic leaders in Congress talking as if these are normal times – that they’ll try to find ways to go along with Trump’s agenda. For God’s sake, have they not read Project 2025? I keep saying this is why I’ve NEVER been a democrat. Now, don’t get me totally wrong – based on the prevailing definitions, I’m clearly a liberal. But, I’ve been saying for years (at least 20 years) democrats need to understand there is a war going on for the soul of this nation. Biden “gets it” but the democratic party abandoned him and now, in many circles, they’re blaming him for Trump being the president in 2025. They need to look in the mirror!

Democrats didn’t have the guts to run on ALL the successes of Biden’s administration – successes Trump will soon be taking credit for (and, democrats will sit idly by while he does it) and now, I’ve seen more than one of them suggesting Biden should pardon Trump. John Fedderman had the gall to suggest Biden pardon Trump for the 34 FELONIES he’s been CONVICTED of in Manhattan. Well, thankfully, Biden CAN’T pardon Trump for those because they are “state” crimes NOT “federal” crimes. And, let me re-emphasize, they’re CRIMES – brought by a Grand Jury – and CONVICTIONS – by a unanimous “jury of Trump’s peers.”

Obviously, MILLIONS of Americans are willing to look the other way from Trump’s “mob boss” type of criminal activity, but I’m not one of them. And, of course, it’s going to get worse thanks to the right wing SCOTUS “we the people” have allowed ourselves to be “saddled” with. But, these instances of Smith and Wray simply abandoning what SHOULD be forced upon Trump and SHOULD force him to ILLEGALLY make Smith’s indictments and Wray’s term as FBI director “go away” don’t “scream” courage. Robert Mueller, at least, “memorialized” Trump’s alleged OBSTRUCTION of his investigation so that it could be prosecuted at a later date should we have had an Attorney General with a spine. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re correct. The republicans are lining up to kiss Trump’s ass – but we’ve known for YEARS they are a bunch of hypocritical cowards!

I’m not even sure if I view this, anymore, as the threat to the rule of law I viewed even after Trump’s “re-election” became a reality. The rule of law in America is about to be obliterated along the follwing lines – “rule of law for me but not for thee.” (Of course, if you’re an African American you’re probably thinking “welcome to my world.”) I’ve listed in the archives the number of “groups” of Americans who “swung” Trump’s way in the face of the BOMBARDMENT on Social Media by Elon Musk in the last three or so weeks of the campaign and, sadly, many of them will be among the most affected by the “stuff” Trump (and Musk) and the republicans have in mind for “we the people.” Rest assured, Musk and the other OLIGARCHS won’t be affected. They are planning to GUT Social Security and Medicare – for starters.

Final Thought: The worst part of all this, to me, is the parallels to the rising of the Third Reich in 1930’s Germany. (Remember, Trump is a second generation German immigrant) His “base” is largely made up of Evangelical “Christians” who, in my view, have “sold their soul to the devil.” It’s vitually impossible for one of them to convince me Trump is “from God.” If he is, then he’s the Anti-Christ. I need to read Revelations once again! Occasionally, I have a former republican friend who I used to meet for breakfast on a regular basis who, at first, acknowledged what a despicable person Trump is, but like most of the republicans in the cult, once Trump had the nomination back in 2016, he “jumped in” with both feet.

Our relationship lived on until the COVID pandemic closed down the restaurant we would meet at – he ended up referring to COVID as “the flu” despite 4000 Americans per day DYING largely due to Trump’s incompetence. Occasionally, he comments here using a tacky German fake name referring to me as being “radical.” To him, Trump apparently is “normal.” The LYING, the CHEATING, the ADULTERY, the sexual ASSAULT, the covetnous (yes, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Viktor Orban), the brazen idolatry, etc. etc. None of this matters to my former friend or to so many of the “Christians” supporting Trump.

I mean MANY of those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 beating the Capitol and Metropolitan Police officers with varying degrees of weapons – injuring over 140 of them (four would be dead within a week or two) some to the extent they were unable to return to work, call themselves “Christians.” Are they “Old Testament” Christians who believe they’re in a “holy war?” Give me a break! Apparently, (and my former friend actually said this to me) they just don’t believe in our “democracy.”

The republican party has slowly put a “noose” around our system of government – led by groups like the Koch Brothers – (now brother) original members of the John Birch Society – who’ve been scheming for years to bring this outcome which threatens the very fabric of our society. (They call it the “permanent republican majority”) Will republicans in Congress grow a spine? Don’t count on it – in fact you can count on this – they’ll go along with anything which keeps them in power. (Trump’s “goon squad” – which now includes Musk – will challenge any republican who doesn’t do as he/she’s told – example, Joni Ernst’s vote for Pete Hegseth) And, keep in mind, the “goon squad” will soon include the January 6th CRIMINALS who are going to be pardoned on Trump’s first day in office. The Proud Boy CRIMINALS who not only attempted a coup but who bashed in the heads of Police Officers as they did it.

Speaking of “courage,” I read reports today that Mark Zuckerberg is now funneling MONEY to Trump’s “transition team.” Go figure! I rest my case. Stay tuned…..

When I read about/listen to the BILLIONAIRES who’ve lined up behind Trump I often get a bit sick to my stomach. I would completely stop paying attention to what the American people have inflicted upon themselves – except that I have children and grandchildren. Today, it was an article regarding an interview Jeff Bezos gave in New York to, I believe, Andrew Ross Sorkin – I think of the Times. I’m not going to read it again because my stomach can’t take it.

And, of course, in the eyes of someone like Bezos I should, at the ripe old age of 77, go back into teaching and keep my mouth/”pen” shut. (OK, I don’t write with a “pen”) Bezos is “optimistic” about Trump , calling him “calmer” than in his first term. He defended his decision two weeks out from the election to prevent the Washington Post, which he “owns,” from making an endorsement of Kamala Harris – for nearly 50 years, every presidential election the Post has made an endorsement, and, of course, Bezos was the FIRST to congratulate Trump on his “victory.”

One of the things that stuck out to me was Bezos saying the paper isn’t doing well financially right now – maybe his decision to intervene is a large part of the reason. I was among 250,000 subscribers who canceled their subscription after the Bezos decision. In just the first few days. Maybe his plan to make it profitable once again will involve pandering to the MAGA crowd. What a suckup! Just the overview of his comments shows a man who, despite his claims to the contrary, is all about the MONEY. And, I can virtually guarantee you, the Trump/Musk partnership brought Bezos along like a strike of lightning. I mean Bezos’ “Blue Origin” space company is second fiddle to Musk’s “Space X” and, I’m sure, Bezos’ sucking up to Trump is aimed at preventing Musk from, you know, doing something “untoward.”

Musk is winning the “I’m the richest person in the world” from Bezos partly because Bezos apparently had a midlife crisis which caused the dissoloution of his marriage – to a wife who was integrally involved in the success of Amazon.com. By my calculation her 4% stake in Amazon, at its present value would be worth about $84 BILLION. Now, maybe one of the reason she got divorced from Bezos (her name is Mackensie Scott) is her level of philanthropy. She’s been giving her wealth away to non profits since the divorce – but, had they stayed married Bezos might be numero uno. I think he looked at the possibilities of what Musk might do and it made his stomach a bit queezy.

Shortly after Bezos caved to the idea of being OK with America as a fascist state – as long as Trump’s administration “cuts regulations” (so he can make more money? Or, maybe so the government anti-monopoly people would get off his ass? Do you really think he cares one way or the other about the lurid details outlined in Project 2025? I wrote the other day about all the groups who ended up pushing Trump “over the finish line” with me guessing close to zero of them actually had read Project 22025. My guess is Bezos hasn’t read it – or maybe he has and is just playing dumb.

He might be playing dumb because along with Musk and Zuckerberg, and the other American OLIGARCHS – when the economy goes into the dumpster they will all be swooping in to, as I’ve said before, “pick up the scraps.” If you think the corporate ownership of housing – which has been pushing up prices since the last recession – cause by the Bush/Cheney administration – is bad, my prediction is: “You haven’t seen nothing yet.”

In my view, it’s via a lack of messaging ability ALONG WITH the almost yearly – during election years – habit of democrats to be afraid of their own shadows. They don’t have the courage to defend their own fundamental beliefs. Now, I have to admit I was encouraged, from a pragmatic point of view, to see Kamala Harris campaigning with Liz Chaney. Personally, I didn’t find Dick Cheney’s endorsement of Ms. Harris to be of much value at all – in fact, a turnoff to people like me who despised his actions as V.P. back in the “we’re authorizing torture” days of republican “rule.”

I don’t expect people like Bezos to be admitting the reason they aligned themselves behind Trump is for what they will gain via the extension of the so-called “Trump tax cuts” which are due to expire at the end of 2025. Those tax cuts are estimated to peel off another $4+ TRILLION from the wealth of America’s Middle Class MOSTLY into the hands of the OLIGARCHS who have aligned themselves with Trump. (Musk’s “investment” in Trump has already returned a “profit” in the neighborhood of 30 TIMES the $277 MILLION he supposedly “donated” to the campaign.

I doubt Bezos or any of the others consciously understand their alignment with our government is foundational to turning a “democracy” (actually “democratic republic”) into a fascist state. Trust me, the Russians are jumping up and down at what lies ahead in less than 2 months. Do you really believe Putin doesn’t have “Kompromant” on Trump? Or, like me, do you believe the so-called “pee tape” actually exists in the hands of the Kremlin? Here’s my question: Why were the Russians so involved, once again, in helping to get Trump elected. I mean the 80+ bomb threats that showed up at American polling places on election day were traced right back to the Kremlin.

The Russians, once again, were filling as much social media space as they could on Xwitter and Facebook, and, I’m sure other social media platforms. I mean it’s bad enough witnessing an “American” TV network owned by an Australian who’s more interested in young ladies than his business which spews right wing hate (i.e. bullshit), but to have autocrats around the world helping to funnel actual “fake news” via any and all “avenues” of the social media world. And, are these foreign entities sending money to Trump? You’d have to be one of America’s “uneducated voters” to believe otherwise.

Speaking of America’s “uneducated voters” – as a retired Middle School teacher – I was “aghast” at the report saying over half of America’s voting public has an eqivalent education of 6th grade, or less. To me, that’s in large part due to the so-called “No Child Left Behind” initiative of the Bush/Cheney era. I was teaching back then and I referred to it as “Many Children Left Behind.” That legislation actually FORCED schools to focus on standardized testing out of a sense of survival. Me, working in a high poverty school, seeing tests made up by White university educators using words and language my students didn’t/couldn’t understand. Causing many of them to drop out of High School.

I worked in, as I just said, a high poverty school and remember what that legislation did to our curriculum. Far less “project based” learning and more attempts to prepare students to be successful on the standardized tests. It certainly, at a minimum, made learning less fun. And, as someone who expected my students to make an effort to succeed, I, on two or three occasions, suggested students who were “lost” should do the sixth grade again only to be rebuffed by the district administration. Too expensive?

In every instance where I failed to have a student held back I watched that student’s lack of success all the way through High School until they decided to drop out. IN other words, students were pushed through the system without even making an effort to succeed. Schools were forced to adapt to the reality of the standardized testing (standardized to who?) in order to avoid being labeled a “failing school” and facing possible closure.

Failing to “get through” to students like that was difficult for me to “handle.” Early in my career, at a staff meeting, we listened to a school counselor who advised those of us who were fairly new to teaching that “you won’t succeed with every student” and, if you don’t learn how to deal with that reality, you’ll likely “Burn out” in just a few years. And, like in any profession, with experience comes a level of expertise. At least for me, I realized that as the years accumulated I became a better teacher. (Also, I refused to focus on getting my students to “pass the tests”)

But “half the American voting public with a sixth grade or less level of education?” That really bothers me – as a former sixth grade teacher. However, I know several of my peers – from my high school back in the 1960’s who have admitted to me they haven’t read a book since high school – in some instances, except the Bible. Most of the people I know, in my age group, won’t read a book if I give it to them and absolutely don’t want to talk about politics. The people I know who watch Fox “news” actually get angry if you attempt to understand their thought process. I’m talking about so-called “Baby boomers.”

And, it’s my generation who are responsible for Trump. We are the ones who’ve benefited the most from the ability to enter America’s Middle Class – yet we’re willing to leave to our children and grandchildren a country which doesn’t resemble the nation we grew up in. Basically, what’s happening – or going to be happening – is the throwing away of 250 years of self rule. I truly hope I’m wrong about that because I don’t expect to be around to see what’s left standing after Trump finishes his “retribution.” And, keep in mind, he’s like an organized “crime boss.” He could care less about what’s standing when he’s finished – which hopefully will be in four years (or sooner if “we the people” somehow succeed in voting in enough democrats to actually get him impeached (AGAIN) and convicted (the third time). Yes, I “get” that’s very unlikely.

Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg are far from the only OLIGARCHS who are lining up behind Trump. Do you really believe Elon Musk spent between $200 and $300 MILLION to help Trump get elected to help “we the people?” Maybe what it will take to break the cult hold Trump has on MILLIONS of Americans will be for him to succeed in his Project 2025. It really does remind me of the “Robber Baron” days which led to the “Great Depression.” That,, of course, will be unpleasant for us all (well, except the OLIGARCHS) but it might “wake up” some of the MAGA faithful. I mean if they voted for Trump based on the price of “eggs” as the saying goes, “they ain’t seen nothin yet.” (What are all the baby boomers going to think when Trump et al goes after Social Security and Medicare?)

For example, if the Trump administration actually attempts to “round up” the 12 MILLION undocumented members of oiur society – a group of people who are, mostly, a hard working part of the communities where they live – a group of people who pay a lot of taxes and don’t get much in return – a group of people who work in many jobs which would go unfilled without them – a group of “essential workers” – then the “you know what” will be hitting the “fan.” The cost to our economy will be in the MANY BILLIONS of dollars.

The bottom line here is people like Bezos could care less about anything besides their own bottom lines – or in Bezos case the bottom line of the company he vacated the role of CEO a few years back but continues to make him one of the richest (number two) people in the world. He can “sweet talk” about his “optimism” for Trump’s administration all he wants, but I ain’t “buying it.” I’m 77 and I’d really like to focus on other things besides politics at this point in my life. But, I don’t anticipate I’ll be able to do that because what “we the people” did on November 5th is so antithetical to everything I’ve learned in my lifetime. I feel compelled to be part of the “resistance.”

The democrats abandoned the best president in my lifetime in Joe Biden. I’m making a lot of predictions here – many of them dire (and, in all honesty, I hope I’m wrong) – but, my guess is the “fruit” of Biden’s greatest successes will begin to arrive in the first year of Trump’s administration and Trump will take credit for those successes and his cult following will believe him. Plus, the so-called “liberal media” has been so one sided in it’s willingness to – in the M.O. of Fox “news” – fair and balanced that we just had an election where the FACT one of the candidates was a 34 times FELON and it wasn’t hardly even an issue.

The FACT hurricanes, wildfires, and other weather events – like each year becoming the “hottest” year on record wasn’t enough to make the Climate Crisis even an issue – so “we the people” voted in a died in the wool Climate Crisis denier – a person who publicly offered a quid pro quo to oil executives in exchange for a BILLION dollar “donation” to his campaign. One of the candidates was responsible for a right wing SCOTUS which will torment America’s younger voters for their lifetime – with the likelihood it’s going to get much worse before it gets better – and, somehow, the issue of the court wasn’t a key part of the campaign – obviously, in my view, it should have been a MAJOR issue in Ms. Harris’ campaign.

Final Thought; But, would those who just didn’t want a woman as president, have listened had those (Climate, the Court) arguments been made. PLUS, the “Musk total” is still being tabulated, but as of the last count I saw, he forked out over $277 MILLION into Trump’s campaign plus varying campaigns of republicans running for Congress. Kind of makes George Soros seem like a peon. As I’ve written before, young people, women, and Hispanics swung significantly during the last couple weeks of the campaign to Trump. I have maintained Ms. Harris failed to respond to the “transgender surgeries in prison ad” which Trump’s campaign spent $29 MILLION on in the closing weeks of the campaign. I saw it at least a half dozen times (I’m not in a swing state)A and kept waiting for Ms. Harris to point out the “issue” originated in Trump’s first term. A great example of the power of LYING – er misinformation. It’s as if the democrats and republicans are playing by two different rule books.

I’ve been pointing out here for nearly 20 years that if the democrats continue to fail to realize this political battle is a “war” – then they will continue to be, ultimately, the losers in the long run. Al Gore didn’t fight the egregious Court declaring Bush/Cheney the victors in 2000, Barack Obama said “we’re going to look forward instead of back” regarding the TORTURE publicly authorized by GW Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and others – which a court in SPAIN wanted to prosecute. I wasn’t the only one saying the next abuser of our legal system would be worse, and, sure enough, along comes Trump. Now, it’s Trump with the anti-democratic fascist group behind Project 2025 and we’re about to get a view of what Karl Rove referred to as “the permanent republican ‘majority,'” – of course, which is no “majority” at all and will be even less of one going forward. Yikes!!! God help us!

A couple things: First, don’t forget the SCOTUS, in essence, created an “imperial presidency” – specific for Trump. (Part of the fascist takeover or our government – which “we the people” voted into office.) Second: I read an account of Joe Biden’s accomplishments in the “Daily Kos” and I couldn’t help but think of why weren’t they “touted” more during the campaign. The list is long and reminds me, once again, of why I’ve NEVER been a democrat. They seem afraid to “tout” their own successes:

“Joe Biden became President and, following the liberal Democratic blueprint he lowered the cost of medications, expanded overtime guarantees, prevented discriminatory mortgage lending, cracked down on “junk fees” and overdraft charges, bolstered rural economies by directing agencies to promote competition and take on monopolies, penalized college programs that trap students in debt, put $50 billion toward subsidizing microchip production in the U.S., allocated $1.2 trillion into the nation’s infrastructure, took the number of uninsured Americans to an all-time low, added about 15 million jobs, raised the wealth of ordinary families to a record $156.2 trillion, and had by the end of his term income increases outpacing price inflation. That’s just some of what he did specifically for the middle class and omits his record on foreign affairs and climate change. Nevertheless, John Doe (i.e. independent voter who’s benefited from Biden’s agenda) again held his nose and voted for Trump because—the price of eggs.” I’ll say it again, Lord help us!

I tried what seemed endlessly here (and “in real life”) to get people to actually read “Project 2025” and virtually NONE of the people I recommended it to actually did that. I’m guessing the “score card” on this site was somewhat the same. Well, in the short segments I’ve been able to bring myself to watch/listen to on MSNBC – as they, what I’ve referred to as “putting lipstick on a pig” – get closer to reality more and more people are beginingg to understand what’s coming down the “pike” in “2025.”

I tried to point out the people who put that document together weren’t kidding and weren’t fools. They are going to be the “engine” behind Trump’s second administration and they have no respect for America’s 250 years of republican rule. To them, the constitution has become a nuisance which just gets in the way of them forcing their will on “we the people.” They were able to change the narrative from one of the most successful presidencies in our lifetime (Biden’s) and convince almost 50% of America’s voters to re-elect likely the WORST president in America’s history. (OK, right up there with Herbert Hoover).

Speaking of Herbert Hoover, it seems to me that’s exactly where we’re headed next. Trump is planning to combine eviscerating America’s traditional institutions while passing along a (something like) $4.5 TRILLION tax cut to the OLIGARCHS who helped get him elected. And, wouldn’t you know, Jeff Bezos was the first to congratulate Trumpo on his “victory” and shortly thereafter – who shows up at Mar a Lago to “break bread” (likely from McDonald’s) – but Mark Zuckerberg. So, you’ve got BILLIONAIRES lined up to kiss Trump’s ass while the worst of the bunch (Elon Musk) will be in charge of firing all the federal employees he doesn’t like – as he claims he’s going to trim $2 TRILLION from our annual budget. (Just try to imagine where those cuts will come from)

Combining Musk’s plans with Trump’s (and Project 2025’s) plans and you have a recipe for an historic period of recession/depression. The last near depression caused by republicans – thanks to Bush/Cheney in 2008 was bailed out by Barack Obama and, yes, Joe Biden as they pulled “we the people” back from the “brink” of what was then called the “Great Recession.” Of course, there’s nothing “great” about these economic crises if you’re one of the many Americans living from paycheck to paycheck. Which includes a large segment of Trump’s “base.”

This is how either bad the democrats messaging is or how deceitful the republicans message machine is, or both. Joe Biden walked the picket line with the United Auto Workers while Trump congratulated Elon Musk for being the champion of firing workers who wanted/expected collective rights. Musk is a notorious asshole – perfect for the Trump vendetta against America. Yet, 40% of America’s unionized workers voted for Trump. I guarantee you, NONE of them took the time to read Project 2025.

And, it appears women just can’t bring themselves to vote for a woman for president. Just as in 2016 Trump, a serial sexual predator, (by his own admission) received well over 50% of the vote from America’s women voters. That was a hard one for me to understand. Trump has turned being pregnant into a life threatening disease (well, exponentially more than it already was) and, in every state that has voted for reproductive rights, so far, the vote has garnered at least 57% of the vote – yet they voted for Trump again. Clearly MOST American women didn’t take the time to read Project 2025. (When the national abortion ban is voted in, it will supercede all these states’ laws giving women reproductive freedom)

And, let me digress here just a moment. I’m not someone who “believes in abortion.” I believe in allowing women to determine what’s best for themselves by themselves. I don’t view my role in society as to tell someone else what to do regarding their own personal health (or pretty much anything which doesn’t affect someone else) – and, don’t give me the “once the egg and the sperm unite” it’s a human being. That’s the thinking of those who oppose in vitro fertilization. And, “women’s health” goes way beyond the issue of abortion. And, forgive me, watching old white men making these decisions for women is really a bit much. Women are dying all across the “red states” who’ve instituted “Trump abortion bans” – needlessly.

Back to my original thought. There are groups of people who swung toward Trump during either the last stages of the campaign or due to issues like the war in GAZA which, in my view, wasn’t very well thought out by those who cast their vote AGAINST Kamala Harris because of the Biden policy toward Israel. For example, there are large enough groups of Arab Americans and Palestinian Americans in Michigan to swing the vote from Harris to Trump. Well, they succeeded. Now, the ambassador to Israel is going to be Mike Huckabee. He doesn’t even believe Palestinians exist. What’s the old saying? Be careful what you wish for.

And, in Pennsylvania – where Elon Musk was busy throwing his wealth around – amounts that to him are equal to “chicken scratch” – in order to swing young voters toward Trump – i.e. buying votes. And, it worked. Like i’ve said before here, not only was he safe in violating campaign finance laws – because, well, you know – Trump – but, by helping Trump “win” the election all of Musk’s other legal issues with the government went “poof.” Maybe that’s why he’s become so close to Trump – they’re now like blood brothers – they’ve both gotten away with “bloody murder.” (For you without the ability to “think critically” that was a metaphor.)

Do you believe all those young people who voted for Trump had read Project 2025? My guess is close to NONE of them had. Why do I say that? Take the issue of Climate, for example. Do you believe the Climate Crisis is going to affect people like me (and Trump and Musk and Zuckerberg and Bezos and ………….. fill in the blank with an OLIGARCH or a “baby boomer”)? Of course not. I’m nearly as old as Trump and the OLIGARCHS all have island paradises set up to allow them protection from their bad decisions due to their unlimited supplies of MONEY. Zuckerberg is the impoverished one of the group – well, not counting Trump – with a net worth of around $200 BILLION. By the time Musk finishes his dismantling of our institutions he’ll likely be pushing a new worth of $500 BILLION. NONE of these OLIGARCHS seem to be able to get enough MONEY.

Musk and Zuckerberg both opened their Social Media platforms to a torrent of mis/disinformation – much of it, once again, coming from Russia as they were facing the real possibility of a slight increase in their tax obligations – not to mention Biden’s administration had the unmitigated gall to fund more IRS agents to actually focus on some of the richest tax CHEATS in the country – which likely included Trump himself. Yet, young people voted in increased numbers for probably the WORST possible candidate for their long term interests. (Not only the Climate issue, but the SCOTUS, the Education department, voting rights, civil rights, and on and on – once again, I’m pointing out here, they likely didn’t even think about reading Project 2025 – after all, Trump said he didn’t know anything about it. And, they believed him! (Sorry, but that’s STUPID stuff)

What about the Hispanic voters. They swung significantly from Biden/Harris to Trump. Do you think they read Project 2025? OMG – Trump’s actually threatening to deport some of them – or their spouses. And, what about the Dreamers now? I’m certain I had MANY Dreamers in my classroom over the years – some of my favorite all time students. I really hope none of them voted for Trump – although that won’t matter if Trump’s goons actually follow through on mass deportation of productive Americans who SHOULD have a “path toward citizenship.” Trump seems to think he can end “birthright citizenship” – a constitutional guarantee – via an executive order. And, do Hispanics actually believe the SCOTUS will stand up to Trump – when they as much as crowned him the King – while protecting him from his own criminal conduct?

I mean, even in Pennsylvania communities which had large concentrations of Puerto Rico citizens who were voters – guess what? – large segments of them voted for Trump – despite, at his fascist gathering at Madison Square Garden – to commemorate another fascist gathering at the garden back in 1939 (likely attended by his father) – Puerto Rico was referred to as an “island of garbage” floating in the ocean. Silly me – I assumed that would be enough to catch these people of Puerto Rican descent’s attention. Obviously, I was wrong. An astounding number of them voted for Trump.

I’ve stated here many times I’m a Christian who refuses to allow the “Christians” who support Trump to rob me of my belief in Jesus. The past few weeks as I’ve been listening to sermons while sitting in the church with an estimated 70% of those present – including the “elder” who spoke today – who voted for Trump I keep reminding myself that I hope they didn’t read Project 2025 and they’ll someday be like the German “Christians” back in the 1930’s and 40’s who ultimately came to their senses. But, sadly, I see that many of these people treat Trump as an idol. By my reading of the Bible, that’s a “no no.” (And, as humans, we’ve been granted “free will” so, for those Christians who support Trump because of the abortion issue – I don’t believe that will cut it come “judgement day.”

And, as a Christian, do you really believe aligning yourself with people like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, and the OLIGARCHS lining up behind Trump is according to scripture? I haven’t met one “Christian” in person so far (aside from myself) who’s read even the prologue to Project 2025 – just that SHOULD make it clear the document – 900 pages worth – is a roadmap to fascism. And, the authors of the “roadmap” are going to be directing Trump step by step along the way. This should explain it all to you – these guys are fully aligned with Steve Bannon – he who’s been urging fascism around the globe along with his buddy Tucker Carlson. (The same Carlson who was quoted as saying he loathes Trump – finally rid of him – after the INSURRECTION).

The list is long of the groups who will suffer because of the vote of the American people in the 2024 election. We’ve proven for certain how ignorant we can be. And, of course, there are a plethora of people who are the losers – and, I haven’t even mentioned Ukraine – whose people may be the greatest LOSERS of this abomination by the American voting public. When you think of Ukraine I’m sure, unless you are unable to think, you’ll understand why Putin was so involved once again in our elections. His future was likely at stake as much as Trump’s. Now, Trump avoids accountability for an incredible “crime spree” while those who stormed the Capitol and bludgeoned 140 police officers are soon to be going free. Yikes!!!

Final Thought: As usual, I once again have gotten a bit wordy. As I sit here each day and watch the reality of Project 2025 fast approaching I can’t help but wonder how many Americans still have no idea of what the next couple of years (at least) are going to be like. I’ve been lobbying for “we the people” to vote what I have referred to as “Today’s Republican party” into the history books, for about 20 years now. (With Trump, a true American TRAITOR – right next to Benedict Arnold) but they (republicans who despise our constitution) keep coming back like dry rot which isn’t fully removed. It just keeps spreading and getting worse – to the point now where the entire “structure” (the foundation of our government) is at risk. Apparently, it will take something far greater than the DAMAGE republicans have inflicted on “we the people” over the past 40+ years to get the attention of our voters. It’s likely going to get very “dark” over the next few years.

I have to add: In regard to my mention of the “Christians” who support Trump – I keep thinking they will realize – sooner rather than later – that they’ve made a “deal with the devil.” Maybe thiis is God’s way of getting Americans to appreciate what they take for granted and get their focus on “the least of these” as they are commanded in scripture. And, I don’t claim to be an intellectually powerful Christian and I fully understand “I am weak where He is strong” and I’m supposed to deal “with the log in my eye” before I worry about the “spec” in someone else’s eye. That being said, I fully believe, as Christians, you can’t put your belief in BOTH Trump and Jesus. It’s one or the other!

OK, one more thing: Today, thankfully, Joe Biden FINALLY pardoned his son, Hunter, after four years of republicans spinning their wheels trying to connect Hunter’s (minuscule – compared to, for example, Jared Kushner’s – questionable financial dealings) to the sitting President. I “get” that Biden said he wouldn’t pardon Hunter, but that was before he, likely, took a look at Project 2025 and all the whack jobs Trump has nominated for his cabinet positions and other positions in his government. The expected Bulls@#t came from republicans, but I had to take a second look at what Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado said: Something like it’s a sad day when a president pardons a relative (my characterization) – because, “No one’s above the law, not a president or a president’s son.”

That one got to me. I mean it was the case from Colorado disqualifying Trump from the ballot that allowed our esteemed SCOTUS to prove that comment from Polis is pure Bullshit! (Sorry) And, we’re about to see a FLOOD of republicans who are going to prove that “if a republican does it, it must be legal” – tweeking the words of Richard Nixon just a bit. I mean, the tax charges against Hunter came long after he paid the missing taxes back. Should we measure Trump, or his House compatriots like the fool James Comer, by using the same “microscope?” Trust me, for the next few years the Trump administration is going to be taking an axe to our constitutional form of government while Trump, individually, will be attempting to pile up “cash” at an enormous rate – while trying to be like Vladimir. Anyone who can’t see that hasn’t looked at Project 2025 or the OLIGARCHS behind it.