#Republicans are at war with the rest of us

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[republicansaretheproblem]

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[sordidamok]

Trump isn't trying to appeal to undecided voters. He isn't trying to win anybody over. Everybody knows who he is at this point.

The last time he lost, his mob got into the Capitol, but then they started taking selfies, stealing stuff and smearing their shit on the walls. They completely failed to kill the Representatives and Senators that Trump sent them there to kill. The coup failed because the foot soldiers were easily distracted.

The next time Trump loses, he wants his goons to be amped up and bloodthirsty. Expect him to get more extreme as November gets closer.

Yes, we should vote. Absolutely. But we should also expect another attack on democracy.

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Republicans are putting medical debt on your credit report after Biden removed it. REPUBLICANS ARE AT WAR WITH THE REST OF US!

[rejectingrepublicans]

[sordidamok]

Anybody with any integrity left the GOP a long time ago.

Rape culture potitics run by a bankrupt criminal.

[robertreich]

Friends, After Trump and Vance’s disgraceful treatment of President Zelensky last Friday, some of you might feel ashamed of America. You might even feel ashamed to be an American. The proper locus of shame is Trump and Vance. I’m ashamed that they, along with Elon Musk, are now leading our nation. I’m also ashamed that their Republican lackeys in Congress are enabling and encouraging them. I’m ashamed that Democrats in Congress are so supine. Yet I urge you not to give in to the sort of resignation or cynicism that believes nothing can be done — that we are powerless and have no choice but to watch our nation and everything it has stood for be hijacked by Trump, Vance, and Musk. We have enormous power and many choices. When the American people understand what is happening — as they are beginning to — no Republican in Congress will be safe. Even now, majorities of independents and Democrats, and even some 30 percent of Republican voters, believe we must stand with Ukraine. The fundamental choice has not been as stark since World War II: democracy and freedom, or dictatorship and tyranny. Trump and his sycophants are siding with the latter. The rest of us must loudly, proudly, and boldly proclaim our allegiance to the former. Trump is emboldening the dark forces of dictatorship everywhere. Taiwan is reporting more Chinese military drills around the island. Europe and all free people around the world must rally at this time of American emergency. If the United States won’t seize Russia’s frozen assets and put them into an account for Ukraine to pay for further arms, Europeans must do this and let Ukraine buy from European defense contractors. A final thought. What we are witnessing from Trump and Vance and Musk — their bellicose bullying, their outright lies, their fear-mongering, their disrespect and disdain for others, their emboldening of dictators around the world — is not all bad if it awakens America. The more Americans see and absorb the horrors of this regime, the greater the likelihood we will mobilize against it. Not all of us, of course, but the great majority. As bad as this regime gets, it will clarify for Americans what is happening to this country, and what we must do to get it back on the track toward social justice, democracy, and widespread prosperity. Yes, the regime is harming many innocent people. Its lawless cruelty is sickening. But there will be a reckoning. I have always believed America is not a nation of bullies. We have protected the vulnerable, comforted the afflicted, granted refuge to those fleeing violence and persecution, and given voice to those who otherwise would not be heard. These ideals are found in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Emma Lazarus’s poem affixed to the Statue of Liberty, FDR’s second inaugural address, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” sermon at the 1963 March on Washington. They connect us with previous generations of Americans who risked everything —some of whom sacrificed their lives — to preserve democracy and achieve a greater good. Do not feel shame in America. Feel pride in the ideals we share. Feel honored that you are an activist warrior on the right side of history. Feel strength in our conviction. Feel power in our cause. We will prevail against Trump — against his bullying, his brutality, and his barbarity. What are your thoughts?

[mesetacadre]

A brief look at the history of liberal democracy will show that oppression of minorities and the absence of certain rights is not only compatible with but even the norm for liberal democracies. This expansion in broad rights is a relatively very recent development, awarded by the expansion and enrichment of the worker aristocracy originated under the pressure of the socialist USSR and Eastern Europe mostly spearheaded by social-democracy. Denounce the loss of rights, of course, and don't just grow depressedly despondent or delude yourself by getting an aesthetically progressive hobby. But to properly deliver that demand you need to be aware of how it comes to be. It's not "the end of democracy", nor is it fascistic when you lose rights. Liberal democracy started constituting a reactionary force as soon as the proletariat was consolidated as a class within capitalism in the mid-late 19th century, which means that you can't take the mantle of the defense of liberal democracy in the struggle to gain or keep these rights, because liberal democracy simply is not on that side of the struggle.

Neither Trump nor the US Republican party have invented the regression in rights, and they are not doing this because they're all personally evil. In a context of economic stagnation and a beginning of a recession, plus the gearing up of a war economy, social spending is cut, and the precarity the capitalist class demands to achieve a temporary boost in the falling rate of profit creates social discontent. This discontent is distracted and rerouted to reactionary sentiments, useful to the capitalist class, such as the mounting xenophobia, blaming the cheap labor brought by immigrants that the capitalist class simultaneously needs to maintain the rate of profit at an acceptable level. They play into nationalism to insulate each country's working class from the rest of the world and to convince workers their interests and their nation's (their nation's capitalists') interests are the same. They play into homophobia and transphobia to further divide and distract the working class, and to keep those minorities exerting a downwards pressure on wages and conditions as they're forced into desperation. They play into the fairy tale of a democracy to defend as well. They convince millions and millions that the other party, whichever it is, will save you from the evil doing of all the other parties. They tell you to defend the very apparatus that attacks and represses you and your fellow workers, the apparatus that has, since its birth, served the interests of a single class, the capitalist class. The US Democrats, the green parties, the socialdemocrats, the feminists and their mothers all defend the interests of whichever sector of the capitalist class by binding those to the institutions of workers.

Donald Trump is not a fascist. Even if part of his support base is, even if his campaign donors also fund actual fascists abroad and salute Hitler, he isn't one because he doesn't need to be. If liberal democracy can protect the reflux of the capitalist system into a more brutal one, then it has no need to put a fascist gorilla in charge. Do not be convinced that liberal democracy is something to be defended and something antithetical to the most reactionary tendencies in a society, because it isn't. It has never served your class interests and it never will. Only a classist, organized opposition can truly defend you. It doesn't even have to complete an overthrow, all of the rights you enjoy as a worker, especially the most robust ones, have been taken from their claws through an organized class opposition. The only rights a liberal democracy has ever awarded by its own volition are the rights of the capitalists. The right to own the press, the right to employ a workforce, the right to private property, etc, because it originally had to take the reins away from the feudal forms of the economy. And it is only through those partial, organized and classist struggles that we can work towards ridding ourselves of the government of the industrialist and of the corner store owner. Not by having a good time with your 5 friends, not by doing whatever you feel like doing whenever you want. By creating a collective strategy of the working class, in the single party of the working class. This is not a dream, it has a vast historical precedent from which we can only learn from.

[qqueenofhades]

hi I hope you don't mind but I would love to hear your long tired historian rant you mentioned in your tags on that one post, if you feel in the mood to share? (no pressure!)

(also thank you for existing, you do wonderful work and the world is a better place for you being in it)

Aha. Well. For context, the mention of said rant was in relation to this post:

Basically, this post struck a nerve because of how it exactly encapsulates the anti-intellectual, anti-academia, anti-historical, anti-reality thinking that is absolutely rampant in social media spaces, even and especially spaces that identify as leftist, liberal, or otherwise "superior" to the right wing when it comes to identifying fake news or misinformation. (Example A: anything ever written by a self-proclaimed leftist on Twitter.) We all know that there are huge problems with the American public school system (and the people writing this are almost always American) and the American practice of education in general, and that yes, there are many things that happened in the past (or y'know, the present!) that are not taught very well, or at all. But because the American public school system is so decentralized and largely autonomous, incredibly dependent on the temperament of local superintendents and/or school boards, taxation and funding, availability of teachers, requirement of useless standardized tests, etc., it is very difficult (if not outright impossible) to claim that this is the result of a Unified Grand Conspiracy To Not Teach Real History To The Youth In Order To Make Them Mindlessly Support Capitalism. That is the exact sort of deranged conspiratorial thinking that the right wing does and fits everything into a sinister narrative about how "They" are planning to keep you ignorant and therefore nothing harmful that you ever think or do is really your fault. It's not good.

(Whoosh. That was very calm and reasonable of me. For the rest of this post, please just picture Captain Holt "apparently that's a trigger for me" dot gif.)

Also: even in public school, and despite the Republicans' best efforts, there are plenty of opportunities to study complex or "controversial" subjects. For example, I spend a week every June grading AP Euro History exams with a lot of other educators in a giant windowless steel box (woo-hoo, fun times!) Every year, there are questions on the exam about women's rights, imperialism and exploitation, slavery/race relations, the development of capitalism and the current economic model, religion and science, the history of labor, and other topics that would be considered "controversial" if you're an idiot. This is an exam taken by high school students in all grades from across the country, and there are also AP World History and APUSH (US history) exams every year which are doubtless making an effort to address similar themes. This is an advanced program, yes, but it's widely available to many schools and is not a result of a sinister plot to keep the youth from discovering the truth. Also: you live in an era of absolutely unprecedented access to information. Put down the ChatGPT bullshit generator and visit a goddamn public library. Or even open Wikipedia. The tools are there for you to start educating yourself and they are so easy to find!!!!!

The "Historians Are Hiding The Truth!!!" narrative becomes even more ridiculous in university-level or professional academic historical-study spaces, especially when historical educators and associations (such as the American Historical Association) have been at the forefront of pushing back against right-wing efforts to censor history, punish teachers, and remove culture-war subjects from classrooms. Also as someone who has advanced degrees in history, has taught/worked in several universities in different countries, writes and publishes historical research, and otherwise participates professionally in the field: trust me, we aren't "hiding" shit. There are vigorous debates and disagreements on various bogglingly obscure subjects and points of clarification and so forth, but that doesn't mean we're not talking about them (trust me, we're often talking about them too much). If you're issuing confident blanket statements about how "historians are conspiring to hide x," you're an idiot.

This also has dangerous repercussions in the field of, say, politics and civics, where a lot of absolutely braindead Online Leftists have spent the last four years posting deranged nonsense on social media and then, whenever they're called out on it for that not actually being how anything works at all, whining that "I was never taught this!!!" (And yet, it somehow never actually changes their perspective or their theories....) They whine about how "they didn't know this" and it was someone else's fault, they make up total fantasy about what the Biden administration did or should have done and now are still happy about Trump coming back because "It will teach the Democrats a lesson!!!" and otherwise accelerating us oh-so-quickly down that slippery slippery fascism slope. Their weaponized ignorance and their magical fantasies about what "should" have happened often come back to this same learned helplessness, where it's everyone else's fault (especially Capitalism's) that they're total wankers. Look: I'm not a goddamn fan of capitalism either. But we all grew up in this same system, and some of us aren't raving idiots, so at some point, you have to take the tiniest modicum of personal responsibility for the information you seek out, the content you consume, the opinions you propagate, and the people you surround yourself with. Shocking.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Online Leftists are actively and unrepentantly enabling American fascism and should be treated in the same way as we treat MAGA when it comes to deciding what is good or worthwhile information. This is because their entire political philosophy (insofar as their beliefs can be dignified with the term) is based on the "make shit up and remove it from any basic empirical references, grounding in reality, or 'should I run the most basic Google search and see if I'm completely talking out of my ass in a distorted social media echo chamber? Nah I'm good' " technique. This is, as the original tweet above references, trying to retcon sheer malicious laziness and stupidity into grand ideological theories about how it's actually "better" that they don't know a damn thing and won't shut up. It's your evil history teacher's fault, or "academics are all rich and elitist" (ask any academic-precariat person like me and we will laugh hollowly and then throw monkey poop at you), or "They" wouldn't let you learn this, or on and on. Even in our terrible, awful, no-good very-bad timeline, there are still ample tools to educate yourself, to learn how to filter out bad information and junk news, and otherwise gird yourself even a little for the even-more-massive assault on empirical reality that we are about to experience in the next four years (ugh). I suggest you take advantage of them.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Blue states should play “constitutional hardball”

NEXT WEDNESDAY (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, GEORGIA, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

Nothing's more frustrating that watching the GOP smash norms and decency to advance policies that harm millions of Americas, unless it's that, plus Democratic officials stamping their feet and saying, "C'mon guys, play fair."

The GOP's game is called "constitutional hardball." Think: Mitch McConnell refusing to hold confirmation hearings on Obama's federal judiciary appointments, not never for Merrick Garland's Supreme Court seat – then filling the Federal judiciary with the least-qualified, most FedSoc-addled lunatics in US history, all for lifetime appointments.

As bad as this is at the federal level, it's even worse at in the states, especially the Republican "trifecta" states where the GOP holds the governorship and the state house and senate, where shameless gerrymandering and legislative attacks on hard-won ballot measures are the order of the day. GOP-held state governments engage in rampant interstate aggression, targeting out-of-state abortion providers, publishers, and journalists.

This is a one-sided Cold Civil War, because state Dems, for the most part, are unwilling to play hardball in return (the closest they come is when, say, California sets strict emissions controls and manufacturers adopt them nationwide, rather than making special cars for the giant California market). Republicans engage in constitutional hardball and Dems refuse to fight back, a phenomenon called "asymmetrical constitutional hardball":

https://columbialawreview.org/content/asymmetric-constitutional-hardball/

Writing for The American Prospect, Arkadi Gerney and Sarah Knight make the case for symmetrical constitutional hardball:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-18-playing-hardball/

The pair argue first, that the best way to get Republican state houses to play fair is to credibly threaten them with retaliatory action. They cite the recent attempt at a last-minute change the way that Nebraska's Electoral College votes are apportioned, which would have given all of five the state's EC votes to Trump. Maine threatened to effect the same change to its Electoral College system, which would have given all four of its EC votes to Harris. Nebraska surrendered.

But there's also a second advantage to playing Constitutional Hardball: it makes blue states better. For example, Minnesota gives free college tuition to exceptional low/middle-income students. Neighboring North Dakota got tired of losing all its smartest kids Minnesota schools and created its own subsidy. As Gerney and Knight point out, Minnesota (and other blue states) still has a huge advantage when it comes to attracting top talent, because attending university in a state with legal abortion is vastly preferable (and safer) than doing a degree in a forced-birth state.

Red states are bent on making life horrible for some really great people. The hardworking, talented Haitian migrants caught in the Springfield pogroms that Trump incited would be a fine addition to any blue state town – anyone who's got the gumption to haul ass out of a failed state and make their all the way to Springfield is gonna be a fantastic neighbor, citizen and worker, just like my refugee grandparents and father, who endured a million times more hardship than their neighbors ever did, getting to Toronto, finding jobs, and starting their family.

Influxes of young, hardworking immigrants are especially good for rural towns with dwindling populations. No wonder rural towns with above-average net migration swung for Biden in 2020.

All over America, families are despairing of their lives in red states. Whether you're worried that you or someone you love might need to terminate a pregnancy, or you're worried about gender-affirming care for you or a loved one, you can put your worries to rest in a blue state. Same goes for nurses and doctors who are worried they can't do medicine unless it accords with the imaginary dictates of Bronze Age prophets as claimed by pencil-neck Hitler wannabe Bible-thumper with a private jet and a face from Walmart. Fill the blue states with great schools, libraries and hospitals, and invite everyone who wants to do their job in a free country to come and work at 'em. Line every state border with abortion and mifepristone clinics, and set up billboards advertising the quality of life, the jobs, and the freedom in blue state America.

Every blue state public pension fund should ban investments in fossil fuels, and invest like crazy in renewables, especially in Texas, to hasten the bankrupting of the petro-kleptocracy that controls the state. Blue states should tack surcharges on goods imported from "right to work" states where unions are effectively banned, to compensate for the additional product testing needed to ensure that scab products are safe to use (ahem, Boeing).

Create joint occupational licensure rules across blue states: if you're certified as a teacher, nurse, hairdresser or auto-mechanic in New York, you should be able to carry that certification with you to Minnesota, California, or Maine. Create multi-state funding pools to build public housing. Offer med-school scholarships to the smartest red state kids, at universities where they'll learn evidence-based obstetrics rather than the Lysenokist nonsense taught at the Roy Moore College of Pediatrics and Obstetrics.

Dems have to get over their fear of "states' rights" and start playing state-level hardball. This doesn't mean escalating cruelty. Quite the contrary: every cruel measure enacted as red state red meat is a chance for blue states to extend a kindness, and capture even more of the best, brightest and kindest of the nation, creating a race to the top that Republicans can only win by abandoning their performative cruelty and corruption.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/18/states-rights/#cold-civil-war

[hopepunk-humanity]

this is hope-punk to me but i'm not quite sure how this'll fit with the rest of the blog so i'm anon-ing. this is very heavy into the US's situation right now, so anyone that that may make spiral, maybe sit this one out

y'all know about the attempted "buy-out" of govt workers? my parents are govt employees. my mom told me the night before about the mass emails sent out basically saying "hey guysss if you quit now we'll pay your through september pretty pretty please quit"

mass emails don't usually get sent out from the OPM like this. workers receive emails from the individual department heads.

this is a massive fuck-up, because people knew it was fishy immediately. some even thought it was fake. people are confused and angry. my mom said "they're so tech-savvy yet they can't even write a convincing email", and thousands of other workers are saying the same. because this email is the exact same email that Melon Husk sent out to Twitter employees before he cut them

but this isn't Twitter. this is the entire US government workforce that hundreds of millions of people rely on to do their jobs every single day.

mind you, the govt is gonna run out of money March 15th (if the debt ceiling isn't raised). they CANNOT pay any workers who resign through september, if they pay them at all, which senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) is openly highly skeptical of and there is a video of him on the senate floor telling government workers to not take the deal, echoing exactly what federal unions are telling everyone

and now tens of thousands (probably hundreds, if i'm being honest) of govt workers are standing firm. they know what this means. the fed subreddit is just filled with "stand firm! hold the line!" posts and propaganda that i fucking love to see. one post has over 60k upvotes on it. saw dozens of comments that all say something like "i've been begging for a way out for the past few weeks but this email just reignited my passion for public service and upholding the law".

this is a war on the american people and they are ready to stand up to it. they know mass resignations will fuck up so much shit, and that there is NOT enough people wanting to work for the government to fill those holes.

as of 2pm today (1/29/25), a lawsuit has been filed by the AFGE about Trump trying to politicize the civil service, with special emphasis on how he's going about it. this will not go down quietly. add that to the list of every other lawsuit being filed against him

my mom sent out "keep calm and carry on" to her team and offered guidance if anyone was thinking about resigning (mainly, her younger team members who don't have tenure - understandable). this is a tumultuous time that is scary. my mom is never phased but she is so over this bullshit, as is my dad

this administration is trying to scare/threaten people into quitting because they know a gutting is not going to be easy or even possible and to be completely honest, that email was absolutely a threat to people's jobs.

this is a grand stand of solidarity to the american citizens these people took an OATH to work for. they are tired but they are re-fired up to fight this administration with everything.

and do you know what fighting tyranny looks like for government workers? doing their jobs well. making sure people get what they need. standing up for the constitution. because for some goddamn reason, the clown show believes that government workers just sit at a desk all day and do absolutely NOTHING

Donny may be smarter this time 'round and he knows what he wants, but he has no idea how to get any of it.

bottom-line is, a large chunk of federal workers are in republican-lead states in roles that encompass every department. a lot of government work involves blue-collar workers that get paid jack shit and are NOT partisan in any capacity. this is going to fuck people up, REGARDLESS of political affiliation

so stand behind the government workers who do so much. they need us just as much as we need them. and trust, WE NEED THEM.

if you want us to be okay, you have to believe that we CAN be okay first. and i'm believing that we will come out onto the other side of this. because american citizens hold all the power here, and not him, and this (so far failed) government takeover is just proving that even more. he is overconfident.

in the darkness, this is a spark of hope. people know what we have to lose and they are FIGHTING for it

As someone who was trying to get a federal job before this mess forced me to put those efforts on hold for now, I've been watching this situation unfold closely. I'm thrilled with what I've seen from the federal workforce. It makes me all the more confident that this is the career I want, because the people already there have the same mindset about it. It assures me, too, that there a huge swathes of the government (far more people than in congress) who have this country's best interests at heart.

Suffice to say, it's been really difficult to be hopeful about the U.S. government for the past several years. But for me at least, the federal workers are re-writing the narrative.

Hold the line. Don't resign.

[presidentkamala]

With the likes of that idiot named big balls still in the gov't and the rest of the current administration's bullshit, what is it going to take for you to see that the us is utterly lost? That no matter how many special or midterm elections the Democrats can secure, that the half of the voting population wanted this? That the very nature of these "citizens" are poised to choose the worst choice and not care about themselves and others? That the majority of the news outlets are more beholden to sensationalism than the truth? That peter thiel/putin finally can dictate republicans to destroy this country? That the fucking neo-confederates and neo-nazis finally conquered the us?

Ok. I'm getting ANOTHER wave of anons that are all Like This so im gonna answer this in good faith. Im not trying to be condescending here either - but I need you to do 2 things for me:

1) imagine saying this to any black or trans person working towards civil rights this country. Ask them when they'll get it through their thick skulls that there's no point and that the US is "utterly lost". Help them out by lifting the veil of illusion they've been operating under! It's pointless, right, they should just accept the white supremacist system that surrounds them. Tell a holocaust survivor in this country that the neo-nazis have "conquered" the US. And notice that if you did say this to them, you would sound just like the enemy.

2) Read some first-hand accounts, not just from the big events like wwii or the civil war, but from the long decades before and after, when people experienced entire lifetimes without getting free or seeing their visions come to life. Take the time to really connect with some of the longform accounting about what happed AFTER reconstruction, what it was like for medical professionals who were trying to understand the Spanish Flu, etc). I think the insanity & whiplash and intensity of our current moment makes it hard to look away, but hearing from other people acroes time isnt just soothing & personally comforting, but also extremely useful and vital to place yourself in a bigger and more popular movement.

as important as it is to be awake to our grim reality, ACCEPTING it now, when we're barely 6 months into this next term, is tantamount to capitulation, to me. You NEED to step back, re-assess your commitment to your values, and either decide that handing over the victory of your heart & mind to these scumbags is more comfortable than fighting back, OR buck the fuck up and sign up for something local that isnt a 2 hr symbolic protest outside a tesla dealership.

[rejectingrepublicans]

[sordidamok]

This is the same CPAC that neo-nazis openly attended, and were welcomed.

Dozens of GOP Congressmen, mostly those associated with the MAGA movement, were present at CPAC where more than one speaker openly called for the overthrow of democracy.

Has anyone asked them what they think of that?

[contemplatingoutlander]

In reading over the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), it is clear that the Trump administration is stomping all over human rights in this country. Below are just a few of the human rights described in the UDHR that the Trump and the Republicans are abusing. I encourage people to read the whole Declaration to see other human rights that Trump and the GOP are violating.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

[The Trump administration is subjecting some immigrants to cruel and inhuman conditions (e.g., "Alligator Alcatraz," transporting immigrants--most without criminal records to CECOT prison in El Salvador, etc.]

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

[ICE abuses Article 9 every day.]

Article 14

Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

[Trump has been attempting to shut down asylum at the border. He has also done away with protected status for certain populations that could be subjected to torture, death or imprisonment if they returned home--such as the Afghans who helped us when we were in Afghanistan.]

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

[Trump does not believe that university students have the right to oppose the war in Gaza. Trump has also issued orders limiting academic freedom, including orders against diversity training or teaching CRT. Trump would like to be able to silence his critics in the mainstream media, is using lawsuits against them, and has threatened their media licenses. Trump has said that certain people with opposing views in the US are "the enemy within." He has suggested that he might use the DOJ and FBI against these people.]

Article 23

Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

[Trump has always been anti-union, and is slowly working to dismantle and/or undermine the Labor Dept. and OSHA. Republicans have worked vigorously against raising the minimum wage. The Trump Civil Rights offices are no longer looking into cases of job discrimination for marginalized groups. They only seem interested in "discrimination" against whites--especially white men. ]

[See more below the cut.]

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

[In the US, private employers are not required to give their workers holidays with pay. In the EU, private employers must give workers holidays with pay. Workers are also guaranteed a minimum of 4 weeks of vacation. Paid sick leave and family leave are also mandated. In the US, we have no guarantee of vacation, sick time, family leave, etc., mostly due to Republican opposition. Republicans call all of these policies "radical let" or "socialism." They are just human rights. Republican policies have also supported the gig economy, which provides workers with no benefits, and so many have to work ridiculous hours to make ends meet.]

Article 25

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

[The US is the only developed, democratic nation without universal healthcare. And now the GOP voted to cut back Medicaid and to cut subsidies to insurance through the ACA, making insurance unaffordable for many people. The Republicans refuse to raise the cap on the Payroll Tax for wealthy Americans, which is a major reason that Social Security might become insolvent in a decade. Republicans have always cared more about protecting embryos and fetuses than in protecting children after they are born. They are fine with cutting school lunch programs, CHIP, and SNAP--all which affect children.]

Article 26

Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

[Republicans have undermined funding for state universities ever since Reagan realized that Republicans didn't want an "educated proletariate." This created the student debt crisis and has made higher education unaffordable for many--thereby NOT making higher education "equally accessible." Republican attacks on social-emotional learning (SEL) are connected with their anti-CRT and DEI initiatives. In other words, Republicans oppose education that promotes "understanding" and "tolerance."]

I could go on and on. But it has been Republicans who have prevented the US from instituting more humane policies that other democratic, developed nations provide for their citizens.

Republicans have brainwashed a large segment of the population into thinking that social democratic policies, like universal healthcare, is pure "socialism" or "communism."

The reality is that social democratic policies honor human rights. Republican policies that provide tax breaks to the wealthy at the expense of the needs of low to middle income citizens do NOT honor human rights.

America, particularly under the Trump regime is a rogue nation when it comes to human rights.