State by state, the GOP is working at a fever pitch to kill democracy in America. The GOP will replace democracy with corporate theocracy. Every Republican governor throughout the country, backed and funded by the largest and richest of corporations, has now partnered with fundamentalist Christians to achieve the goal. By creating a myriad of new laws designed to undermine federal jurisdiction, each state then becomes a little country unto itself and at the helm will be dictatorial governors acting on behalf of corporations and religious interests.
The GOP governors are pushing legislation intended to control immigration, change and limit who is eligible to vote, even legislating morality and destroying collective bargaining rights. In addition to a direct assault on the rights of women, they are cutting funds to the poor, sick and elderly, and at the same time granting tax breaks and relaxation of regulations for big business. As if that is not enough, they are seizing and privatizing schools, outsourcing public sector jobs, selling community assets, all under the guise of fiscal crisis and smaller government. Smaller government? The end game is simple: The death of democracy and the rise of a new corporate theocracy.
Corporate theocracy is a government owned and operated by corporations and the wealthiest of citizens, joined in governance with the far Christian right. The GOP and the corporations (the money factor) are aware that Christian fundamentalists (the morality factor) are a powerful bloc within the party and because of their voting power, the corporations, who have no interest in God or His laws, have joined forces. Both have sold their souls to the devil, so to speak, to forward their individual agendas. The corporations make unlimited money on the backs of middle and lower class America, and the fundamentalists get to legislate morality and create a religious state.
This system of government is most similar to the government of Iran, with the major difference being that in Iran, religion controls the corporations. The GOP and their agenda makers have not yet determined who will ultimately be the supreme ruler in America, religion or business, but for now each is getting what they want most: control of the masses.
The GOP is attempting this coup, state by state, thereby making it more difficult for the federal government to intervene before it is too late. By the time the federal government is able to successfully stop this coup, it will be complete. The laws in each state will have so degraded the powers of the centralized federal government, that this country will resemble a patchwork quilt, each square completely different and sewn together at the whim of the seamstress.
Which state will be the best to live in? Will you want to live in any of them? Rights will vary greatly, depending on the boldness of each state's governor. Scott Walker, GOP, started this process in Wisconsin, but Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder, seemed to take over where Walker left off. Quickly, LePage, Kasich, Daniels and Rick Scott have climbed aboard the God's Company train.
Each and every state that is controlled by a Republican governor has embarked in a specific manner, each, either quietly destroying Democracy or making great waves, depending on each governor's love of publicity or affinity for the spotlight. They have several points of attack, but they are all proceeding according to the same master plan, designed by the real masters behind the movement.
They all have the following legislative goals in common:
- Remove and restrict the ability of workers to collectively bargain. Destroy unions and severely limit any political power they may wield. States in the news have been Wisconsin and Michigan. But there are several others that have either passed legislation limiting bargaining or are proposing. They include: Indiana, Idaho, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, etc.
- Under the pretense of fiscal responsibility, seize control of cities and fire the locally elected governments. Remove from them any legislative powers. Fire city employees and render any labor contracts null and void, to include control of pension and health benefits to already retired employees. This right can extend so far as to eliminate pensions that are already being paid out, and replacing them with either a 401K or cash buyout option. Detroit's pensioners are suing, afraid that their pensions will be seized.
- Grant the governor the unlimited ability to sell city or state-owned assets to corporations for pennies on the dollar. The assets can include prisons, hospitals, schools, parks, any publicly-owned properties, energy and water companies, and state-owned liquor stores. Allow the buying corporations the right to suspend any and all regulations in order to 'rehabilitate' their newly acquired assets, so that the corporations can quickly turn a profit. Allow the governor the authority to dissolve entire cities and combine the victim city with another; a redistricting, if you will. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio, most notably, with several states seeking to privatize and sell everything from state owned liquor stores to bridges. Even more than privatizing assets, Wisconsin's governor plans to privatize the state's food stamp program.
- Close schools at will, again under the guise of fiscal crisis. Provide the governor with sole authority to hire and fire personnel, suspend and eliminate any labor contracts. In addition, give the governor the authority to combine school districts and eliminate all local control. Dismiss locally elected school boards at will. Sell schools to private corporations. Michigan has enacted an emergency managers act that has already enabled them to close schools or sell them to corporations. Many other states have fiscal emergency laws on the books, but none have been as bold as Michigan's Snyder.
- Legislate the right to choose; either outlawing abortion completely, or putting up so many roadblocks that the procedure becomes impossible to access in the state. Enact punitive laws for abortion seekers or providers. According to the Huffington Post, of 916 measures across the country that have to do with reproductive rights, 56% seek to limit or prohibit abortion. Among the states involved are Indiana, Alaska, Kentucky, Florida, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and most notably Louisiana.
- Eliminate or curtail access to low-cost medical screening programs for low-income women, the elderly and children. Cut or eliminate medicaid programs at will. Resrict eligibility for medicaid, tightening requirements, so that millions are cut from the rolls. Eliminate or curtail family planning services, including access to birth control. Colorado, Indiana, Tennesee, and Utah are just a few that have pending bills that will cut cancer screening and birth control programs.
- Grant the governor the authority to redistribute or appropriate medicaid funds, in any way that they see fit. Instead of providing medical care, grant the governor the power to divert those funds to abstinence programs in schools or any other programs the governor sees as better options than medical care for the indigent. Scott Walker, Wisconsin, has already passed legislation that grants him the power to change Medicaid laws. Paul Ryan's Path to Prosperity seeks to cut Medicaid funding and allow states to determine how to spend Medicaid funding.
- Change voter eligibilty requirements for citizens. Require specific forms of state issued identification cards that are costly or difficult to obtain. The Brennan Center states that 20 million people do not have state-issued ID cards. Limit the requirements of voter registration so that voter registration drives become impossible to run. Almost every GOP controlled state has introduced legislation that will deny voter access.
- Grant the governor power to regulate the legality and requirements of civil marriage.
- Raise taxes on seniors and middle income wage earners. Eliminate earned income tax credits that are given to low income wage earners. Tax senior pensions. Michigan has eliminated the earned income tax credit, is seeking to tax the pensions of seniors, while the state of Florida has increased taxes paid by seniors.
- Change the unemployment compensation laws in the state. Shorten the amount of time a person may collect benefits. The faster these unemployed slackers lose their homes, the quicker the banks can foreclose.
- Return prayer to schools. Christian prayer. That way anyone of other faiths or no faith will know, from the time they are children, that this country welcomes Christians only.
- Reform education to disavow the teaching of evolution; instead teach creationism. Along with that, if your schools are going to offer sex education, do not allow the use of the words homosexual or gay. Do Not allow the mention of those words to appear in the same sentence with alternate lifestyles. In fact, prohibit any mention of alternate lifestyles. Heterosexual marriage is the only lifestyle acceptable or appropriate. Disallow any discussion of birth control, with the exception of abstinence. Outside of marriage, sexual experimentation is to be discouraged. Abstinence is to be exclusively promoted.
- Reform education curriculum to remove any mention of climate change. Remind and indoctrinate children that any evidence of climate change is flawed.
- Create and pass restrictive immigration laws, that target individual illegal immigrants. In spite of the fact that immigration laws and their enforcement fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, states have and must continue to take the position that the federal government is not acting, therefore states have the right to protect themselves. While enacting strictly targeting individuals, do not prosecute businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Business and corporations count on the savings they enjoy by employing cheap labor. Most notably is the Arizona 'Papers Please Law'.
- Pass legislation that loosens any control of guns or their purchase. Again, refer to Arizona.
If any of these proposals sound far-fetched, you are mistaken. These laws are being or have been enacted in many, many GOP controlled states. If the proposals are not frightening, then you have already determined that democracy in America is no longer advantageous. Democracy is not the correct choice for this country. The corporations and the religious right already have you in their grips and under their control. They have convinced you to vote against your best interests. Democracy is dying in the United States. It is being killed by GOP extremists who are now considered mainstream. Those of you that find this legislation appealing want a corporate theocracy.
For those of you who dislike the thought of democracy's demise, the time to sit back is over. You must take a stand! You must speak up every chance you have, or you will be a partner in this murder. You will be writing the epitaph on the tombstone of the America you insist you love!
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