For the last ~25 years, the GOPs governing principle has been to break government and render it ineffective, so as to create a self fulfilling prophecy that “govt doesn’t work”. Of course it doesn’t work when you intentionally sabotage it.

One way you do this is by explicitly and implicitly attacking/undermining any notion of the common good, eg pub schools & healthcare etc. The outgrowth of this Is an intentionally dysfunctional government made so by supposed leaders.

A national effect of this is a demonizing of “others” whoever that might need to be. This isn’t a flaw in the philosophy; it’s a guiding principle and a functional consequence. This leads to one of our two major parties fundamental governing principle becoming spite.

Spite as guiding principle is most clearly seen nationally in Mitch McConnell and here in NC with Phil Berger. Spite is the essential motivation behind what they do, and it’s an outgrowth of their prime motive to break government.

The lack of good governance isn’t due to mistakes or incompetence; it’s the result of a quarter century of intentional efforts to cripple government and make people hate it. Well, I do hate it it, and they’re the reason why. Not because the government is inherently bad...

...but because they have taken our civic body and bludgeoned it repeatedly. The fact that the US response to this virus has been so deadly tragic and an infuriating contrast w the rest of the industrial world is precisely because it’s a consequence of this mode of governing.

That’s why so many more Americans are being infected/dying from this disease than anywhere else in the world. It is a direct effect of the intentional dismantling of any idea of common good or of functioning govt. It was done on purpose and that’s why covid is wrecking the USA

I’m not a historian, but I am a history teacher and I know some stuff abt US history. For over a century, the problem in our politics was the Democratic Party. If you would ask me at any point during that time how to make America better, the first answer is to not vote for them

But I’m alive right now, and the basic problem in our politics for the last 25 years has been the Republican party. I’m not a member of any party and never have been. But I’ll tell you that the basic step one to turn things around is to not vote for them.

You can call me partisan if you want, but parties are institutions that have leadership and power in our society and when they do wrong they need to be corrected/removed by the people. None are above critique. Partisans think everyone sees the world as they do. Thankfully we dont

There’s a time and space to spin details and get philosophical and parse out specific issues, & I’m glad to do that,but they all lead here. People try to dress this conclusion up in intellectual or rational clothing. Unfortunately or not in our current moment it’s that simple.

I don’t like that we’ve gotten to this point. I would hope that the rotten carcass of the GOP can heal itself and become a positive force as it once was in our politics. I’m not optimistic. 45 isn’t the problem; he’s a symptom and the natural consequence of what they’ve wrought.

This is not about electing Democrats: I’m not a big fan of theirs either but they are not the problem in this moment. This is about punishing the GOP who have held political power in the last quarter century for fundamentally crippling our body politic and government

This malevolent sabotage of our public life has had the crippling effect of causing us as a nation to land so far short of our national potential. That is most starkly evident in this season with the pandemic, but that is by far not the only instance.

Miss me with your bothsidesism & whattabouts. Those are tactics of weak arguments that evade the point. Do better. Also miss me with things that you wish were true about American history but aren’t.
You and we can do better, but step one comes first.

It’s cause & effect y’all

"Our government may at some time be in the hands of a bad man. When in the hands of a good man it is all well enough. . . . We ought to have our government so shaped that even when in the hands of a bad man we shall be safe.”

Douglass, 1866