6 Really Important Things Said at the RNC That Will Impact Your Life
The four day long comedy of errors that has been the Republican National Convention came to a merciful end Thursday night. Since much of our attention has been spent on distractions like plagiarism, strange salutes, and the theatrics of Donald Trump it is easy to lose sight of the actual policies that were being discussed at the RNC. Let's take a look at some of the ideas championed by the speakers at the convention and how they could affect your life if a Trump regime were to become a reality.
Gut Public Schools
While his father's speeches are usually light on policy and heavy on terrible slogans, Donald Trump Jr. was clearly positioning himself for a political future when he spoke at the convention. Young Donald by getting deep into issues from Dodd-Frank to charter schools.
Junior is jumping on the GOP bandwagon of increasing private and charter school options while cutting funds for public schools. These policies have led to heavy disparities in education between the rich and the poor. Donald the Younger referred to students as "customers" and said "They let parents choose where to send their own children to school. That's called competition. It's called the free market." The Trumpian idea of education for the poor feels like they're turning the system into some competitive reality show with our children's educational future at stake.
Destroy Workers' Rights
How does the GOP really feel about unions? Scott Walker's claim to fame is treating teachers so poorly that they stormed the state capital in protest. Rather than wear this moment in his legacy as a mark of shame, he brags about it to this day. He has led the charge for increasing "right to work" legislation which renders unions ineffective. He tells the crowd, "We were tired of the big government union bosses running our state and local governments ... We returned [power] firmly to the hands of hardworking tax payers."
When workers lose power, tax payers don't save: management lines their pockets. Unions have been dealt big blows in recent years, and if Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia hadn't passed, they would be in even worse shape.
Privatize Healthcare and Leave Millions Uninsured.
Ted Cruz made headlines by declining to endorse Trump following their bitter primary feud. While he was busy throwing shade, he also rattled off a series of policies that most Americans don't want.
He promised, "On healthcare, your freedom to choose your own doctor without Obamacare." What he didn't mention is that Republicans have not come up with a credible alternative to Obamacare, and advocate a move toward a privatized healthcare model with "health savings accounts." These type of plans leave millions uninsured and can bankrupt a middle class family with a a modest procedure. Another Cruz talking point, "Your freedom to provide for your family without the IRS beating down your door," sounds like a great statement. In reality, deregulation allows for loopholes and the moving of money overseas for the rich while throwing scraps to the working class. There are already trillions of dollars made in the U.S. that goes untaxed. The Republicans plan to add trillions more.
Neutralize the Black Lives Matter Movement
A number of law enforcement figures including David Clarke and Joe Arpaio were trotted out to talk about how we need to equip law enforcement to do their jobs in this insanely dangerous American that most of us don't actually live in. These two talking heads for the Blue Lives Matter movement played their role in pushing out the law and order agenda for Donald Trump. The language they used masked their real goal: allow the law enforcement status quo to remain unchanged. Republicans imagine a police state with no body cameras, a militarized law enforcement apparatus, systemic racism, private prisons, and zero accountability. If the GOP has their way, the Black Lives Matter movement will amount to nothing.
Severely Restrict Immigration
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was one of few speakers who limited his remarks to specific issues rather than vague patriotic grandstanding. The Senator spoke on immigration and trade. He led with what sounded reasonable "Is it too much to ask that we slow down and protect our national security and jobs?" What does this look like? Under the Trump regime, this means a wall along the Mexican border and paramilitary raids on immigrant families. In case you have any doubt that this is what he meant, he launched his closing salvo with "Trump will build the wall."
Endless War
No one likes to read news stories about mass murder. But, the Republican stance is that the United States has a responsibility to end Islamic terror all over the world. The real life ramifications is this could be not just expanding our activities in Afghanistan and Iraq, but taking an active, unilateral role in rooting out terror the world over. This military industrial complex will be cheered on by Senators like Ron Johnson who will wrap themselves in the bloody flag while scaremongering their way through speeches. Johnson served up the same old tough talk about going to war.
"We must remain fully committed to destroying Islamic terrorists wherever they hide ... This is not someone else's fight. This is our fight and it's a fight we must win."
Essentially, they will see the $2 trillion we've spent already and raise you however much it takes.
Watch people of all races get candid about their interactions with the police in the video below.