The GOP as Pushy Beggars

That Donald Trump is a bully is obvious. His influence on the Republican Party and conservatives is also apparent. Back in late October 2016 when Trump’s election was still in some doubt in the minds of Democrats, at a press conference in Michigan, Michael Moore explained in clear language why Trump would win: Donald Trump brought to the polls millions of disaffected non-voters and other centerists whose personal losses and disappointments opened them up to a Leader making Promises. Now, the Grand Old Party attempts to energize its loyalists by reacting as a victimized bully.

 

Where do these "matching funds" come from?

Back in 2007, I was elected as a Republican precinct delegate from Ann Arbor Township. It was pretty easy. Ann Arbor is heavily Democrat. There were six slots on the GOP side of the ballot and I was one of four people running. Before moving here, I joined the Austin Tech Republicans luncheon club. Since then, I have been registered on both sides depending on the candidates in the local elections. Austin is heavily Democrat, but sometimes it is important to send the GOP leadership a message in a primary. The same is true of the Democrats. In 2016, I voted for Bernie Sanders as a vote against Hillary Clinton. 

 

Because I still have my Ann Arbor cellphone number, I have been getting these text messages from the Republicans. Their strategy reveals their soul. (And, yes, I block each one. They use a different number the next time.)

 

Now, it's my fault.

Aggressive beggars kept us from moving to Portland, Oregon. Back in 2010, after completing an associate’s, a bachelor’s, and a master’s, work was still hard to find in Michigan. So, we looked around. Portland was nice. The beggars were hard to take. They followed us on the street; sometimes they stood in front of us. Austin was different. With four months of 100-degree highs and no rain, brown was the new green. The beggars in the medians were selling ice water. I liked that entrepreneurial spirit. 

 

Despite the political narratives to the contrary, government in Texas follows the Taxachusetts model. Our senior federal senator, John Cornyn, never met a new law he did not like. We got a problem? Make it illegal. The state legislature made it illegal to buy Tesla automobiles by making it illegal to buy a car from a manufacturer who did not have a dealership in the state. It was the Texas automotive dealers association who got that passed in the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by the Republican governor. That was changed a couple of years ago. Tesla is in orbit now and that plays well in Houston. 

 

Insistent Begging from Trumps Senior and Junior 

Working on a state agency project now, I have been diving into the Texas Compiled Laws, especially the Texas Government Code and the Texas Administrative Code. We have a franchise tax here. If you license your music or your painting or your poetry, you pay a tax on the income. But, if you license mineral rights, you are exempt from the franchise tax. That’s what makes fascism more successful than socialism: they know whose bread to butter.

 

Showing some concern and then blaming others.

The root of the problem is that in essence fascism is just another kind of socialism. Right wing syndicalism and left wing syndicalism are mirror images. Whatever the shades in their rainbows, the radiation is on the same spectrum. 

July 14 -- Bastille Day. I am not going to post all of these as they keep coming in, but this is starting to sound like On the Waterfront.

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Republicans for Voldemort

The bumpersticker is amusing, certainly. It does beg investigation into the epistemology of the message.  I accept that on the surface it is meant to imply that Republicans are for Voldemort, i.e., that Republicans inherently and implicitly support the dark lord.  However, in point of fact, such a claim would be unnecessary, as for instance, "Republicans for Bush" or "Republicans for Palin."  Logic demands that we accept Voldemort as a Democrat and allow that some Republicans favor his reign. I first met this entendre in 1968, in Charleston, South Carolina.  Enrolled at the College of Charleston, and a member of College Democrats, I met adults who told me that they were not racists; and eschewing the Democratic party, they had previously formed "Democrats for Eisenhower."  Thus, "Republicans for Voldemort" must mean that the prince of evil is a Democrat.  I can accept that. 

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Austin Tech Republicans

Usually on the third Friday of most months, the Austin Tech Republicans meet at the Brick Oven in Gateway Plaza across from Arboretum on Research Drive at I-183. [They now meet at "Big Daddy's on Burnet and 183.]

The July 20 meeting featured guest speaker Mario Loyola who authored the National Review cover story on the Supreme Court ruling on “Obamacare.”  Mario Loyola granted that when the ruling came down conservatives expressed instant indignation and liberals expressed instant elation.  However, he said, “instant indignation and instant elation are indicative of inverse understanding of the issues.” 

Mario Loyola works for several think tanks, among them the Texas Public Policy Foundation.  At the meeting, we were given offprints of his National Review cover story and his two papers for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.  In an interactive engagement with the audience, he addressed the premises and problems of both“Obamacare” and the recent Supreme Court decision. 

• When is a tax a penalty for inaction?
• Can the government punish the choice not to act?  (As a practicing Catholic, Mario Loyola hinted at a lot of subtext on free will and choice.) 
• Given the powers of the sovereign, what is a penalty for non-compliance?
• What is “severability” and can it be valid?

Loyola offered his opinion that “three quarters of the dissent” was written in the chambers of Chief Justice John Roberts.  My estimation is that Loyola apparently believes that like Justice John Marshall Harlan, the “great dissenter” famous for his devastating rebuttal of Plessy v. Ferguson, Roberts intended to lay the groundwork for a reversal of Obamacare, while nonetheless at the same time being bound by conservative constitutional theory to honor the 200 years of precedent in support of his majority decision.

That last was the iceberg under the water.  Mario Loyola said that he went back and laboriously re-read every one of the Supreme Court decisions on severability back to Marbury versus Madison.   Severability is the doctrine that the Supreme Court can rule a single clause of a law unconstitutional, while keeping the rest of the law intact.  To Loyola, as to constitutional conservatives, that actually creates a new law, not passed by Congress and not signed by the President.  I asked a question:  “Given that the law is the statement of social contract between the citizen and the state, is it not true that in contract law, the fact that a single clause is invalid does not invalidate the intent of the agreement.”   Mario Loyola said that this question caught him off guard and he would address it later, for which he did not get the opportunity.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation here and physically at 900 Congress Ave #400  Austin, TX 78701 (512) 472-2700. Read "Obamacare:  A guide to the Issues" here.  And read about the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, a guide to the issues here.

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