(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Hey Republicans, Would You Care/Dare To Expand On That? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-08-25 Dave McCormick is a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in my state of Pennsylvania against incumbent Democrat Bob Casey. McCormick is a PA native who moved away, made tons of money as a hedge fund executive, and has relocated back here from New Jersey in the hope of being elected. It’s his second try. He lost in the GOP primary two years ago. Yesterday, I got a flier in the mail supporting McCormick. It’s from Americans for Prosperity Action, which is affiliated with Republican megadonor Charles Koch, because why wouldn’t a billionaire from Wichita, Kan., want to control a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania? It’s easy to see why when you consider Koch’s advocacy for lower taxes and deregulation of the fossil fuel industry, of which he is heavily involved. Not surprisingly, “unleashing American energy” and “costly regulations” are mentioned in the McCormick flier. The thing is, the United States last year produced more oil than any other country in history. How much oil does Chuck Koch think we need? Does the oil industry really want to flood the market with more of its product considering the role that supply and demand plays in the price of gasoline? Someone ought to ask McCormick that, as well as how many of these cursed regulations he can name that have nothing to do with the fossil fuel industry. And what about his position on developing alternative energy sources to combat climate change, considering that would mean less gasoline usage? You see, McCormick and the Republicans have their talking points, they say them, and they stop, but they don’t tell you the whole story. They can’t, because then it would be too easy to expose their lies and hypocrisy. Let’s look at a couple of other examples. Republicans have been attacking President Joe Biden about inflation, as if a president can just wave a magic wand and make it come and go. McCormick’s flier says it’s due to “reckless policies.” It attacks “big-government spending.” First of all, inflation is going down, but you’ll never hear a Republican tell you that. They also won’t tell you what these so-called reckless policies are. And they don’t make it clear what spending they don’t like and what they think the country can live with. The truth is we know the spending they don’t like: anything that helps people in need, Social Security and Medicare, and anything that advances efforts to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Biden has had a record of legislative success unparalleled since Lyndon Johnson, or maybe even Franklin Roosevelt. Which of these pieces of legislation is the reason eggs and bread cost more? The American Rescue Plan, necessitated by the economic and health disaster left by his predecessor, Donald Trump? The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and all the good it’s doing and the jobs it’s creating? The Chips and Science Act, which is intended to return critical microchip manufacturing to the United States after several decades of companies offshoring the technology? The previously mentioned Inflation Reduction Act, which, in addition to its investments in clean energy, cuts drug costs for seniors on Medicare? Well, which is it? Another area of McCormick/GOP bullshit is the southern border. Does the system need fixed? Yes. What will Republicans do to fix it? Now that they’ve followed Trump’s order to reject a border bill developed through bipartisan negotiations, what better ideas do they have? Trump’s idiotic, cruelty infused mass deportation scheme? Do they even want to fix the problem? Obviously, they don’t want that to happen before the election, because I guess all those rapists and murderers and drugs flowing into the country and, according to McCormick’s flier, the need to “protect our communities,” can wait a few months as we listen to Trump insult Kamala Harris while offering no real solutions to this or any other issue facing this country. A few other facts that Republicans like to leave out: border crossings are down from when Trump left office, crime in this country is down since Trump left office, immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate that American citizens, and illegal immigrants commit them at an even lower rate. The truth may set you free, but Republicans know it won’t help them win elections, and that’s the only thing that counts with these guys. *** I don’t like McCormick, his policies, or the people who give him money. It doesn’t help that I have to endure his (and to be fair Casey’s) seemingly endless commercials while I’m watching Morning Joe. Here’s the point: at a time when reporters too often will let Trump bloviate at a “press conference” with little or no pushback, when we have a Right-wing media machine spewing out a continuous series of lies and distortions, when Republican politicians are all too happy to tell just part of the story at best and lies at worse, we need to both seek and demand facts and context. That’s our responsibility: To turn to the honest sources of information available to us (no, that doesn’t include Facebook) and educate ourselves. McCormick’s flier calls him “A Senator Pennsylvania Can Count On.” That sounds good, until you realize what you can count on from this guy and his ilk is their efforts to snow you into a misunderstanding of the issues and the facts. In Pennsylvania, we call that a con job. I don’t know what they call it in New Jersey. *** Thank you for reading my post. You can see my other writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. 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