Today, we’re talking populism, which is a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
DISREGARDED BY ESTABLISHED ELITE GROUPS….HMMM.
Does boarding school, Stanford University, Yale Law and “studying abroad at Oxford” count? How about Princeton University and something called the “Colonial club?” Have you ever seen a bumper sticker for the colonial club on a F-150?
Quick note here, most folks don’t care about where you went to school as long as you’re not a greedy self serving jerk. But the hypocrisy is just too dang blatant not to be pointed out.
Have people from Princeton, Yale, Harvard etc. gone on to do many good things for hard working regular working class people? Yes, they have.
But when these guys rail against the “elite” who the hell do they think they are talking about? It’s the rich-kid-dinner-jacket class they came from. It’s THEM.
On top of that, real populists would proudly support legislation and policy to help working people. Bills like CHIPS and the Inflation Reduction Act and policies to reduce the cost of basic necessities like gas and medicine were railed against by Republican politicians claiming to be populists.
If you’re going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. And these fake populists just aren’t doing it.
Whether it’s Tucker Carlson making $35 million a year from a billionaire owning a TV station.
Or Josh Hawley selfishly pandering to an angry mob before breaking the record for 100 yard jog while exiting stage left before the masses got too close to him.
Or how about Ted Cruz vacationing in Mexico during deadly power outages and emergency disasters in Texas.
Most of these guys hate the public sector because they don't need it. They went to private school, they belong to private clubs and they are politically motivated by their private equity buddies to make sure those pesky taxes aren’t paid on billions of dollars of income while the rest of us foot the bill.
That’s not populism. That’s performative!
YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:
PBM and DRUG PRICES
If you haven’t watched this video on how Pharmacy Benefit Managers are vertically integrated, it’s worth your two minutes.
Also, you know things are bad when a Billionaire tells you that “You should not have to pick between your rent, your food, or your medicine.”
OIL COMPANIES
In the two minutes it takes to fill your gas tank, ExxonMobil will make roughly $270,000. It’s not just ExxonMobil; BP earnings tripled to $8.45 billion from $2.80 billion in the same period a year earlier.
MALE LEGISLATORS
You trust your mother with everything up to and including wiping your butt until you can do it on your own so...yeah I think she can handle figuring out a fair tax structure without damaging the country too much. Here’s a good OpEd about the importance of electing more moms.
HEALTHCARE IN AMERICA
In America, we spend the most money per person on healthcare. However, we’re not getting a very good bang for our buck:
***If you have a healthcare story or see a healthcare story posted on social media that needs more attention, please comment below and we will reach out.
BEFORE YOU GO
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Standing Tall for All,
J.D. Scholten
I'm a 73 year old Democrat, sometimes it is easier to blame the Republicans than take responsibility to do the right thing by Democrats. How many Democratic politicians even read the platform? For that matter, how many even understand the constitution they swear to uphold? It seems the understanding has switched from the power is in the hands of the "People" to the power is in the hands of the people with money who can finance my campaign! Ass kissing farmers has become a mainstay in Iowa politics, both left and right! And yes, we are probably, make that usually, getting screwed!