Stop the World, So I Can Get Off

Dr. Errington Thompson is a critical care trauma surgeon, author, and talk show host. Listen to the Errington Thompson Show, available through Podcast and download at: www.whereistheoutrage.net

by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

I like things to be logical.

In April 1999, two Columbine, Colorado students open fire on their fellow students and teachers. The violence at the high school broke our hearts. And we all agree that this kind of violence must be stopped. So, since Columbine, what have we done?

Logic would lead us to have done something. In fact, we’ve done nothing. Not a thing. So, nine people are massacred in church in Charleston. Violence racks a community college in Oregon, and another nine people are dead. What will we do this time? Anything?

We have no one to blame but ourselves.

Trumping logic

Logic is clearly not dominating the current presidential race, which is making the whole ordeal difficult to watch. Donald Trump continues to lead the GOP field. He’s running for president as if it were a reality-TV contest—and people all over the country are responding by supporting him. Every week, he seems to come up with a new way to get attention, whether it is insulting former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina’s looks or attacking Senator John McCain for being considered a war hero, or taking on Fox News. Sorry, folks, but this isn’t leadership.

Donald Trump’s plan to tackle one of the most complex issues facing our society today is to simply deport 11 million economic refugees (undocumented immigrants). How do you move 11 million people, and then make arrangements to “let the good ones back in?” For some reason, my mind keeps associating Trump’s plan with the Trail of Tears.

Trumponomics

Trump’s economic plan? It would eliminate the estate tax entirely (saving his heirs three billion dollars, if he actually is worth the $10 billion he claims); slash top tax rates for the wealthiest families in the country from 36% to 25%, or almost a third (saving him another $25 million PER YEAR if his actual annual income is $250,000,000); and ultimately defund every program Americans rely on for our quality of life, ranging from public schools to roads and bridges, to the FDA’s food, health, and safety regulations, to clean water and air.

Trump’s plan would cut federal revenue by three trillion dollars—$3,000,000,000,000—over ten years. It’s Bushonomics on steroids, and we all know how that worked out.

Foreign policy? He’s picked up a lot by “watching the guys on TV who know what they’re talking about.” The top people. He knows very important Indians who like the name “Redskins” for the football team, so it should never be changed. He knows “the top people” in the black community who want taxes lowered for billionaires because they understand that will send the economy through the roof. He’s heard from “the top people” in the military that we should send troops to destroy ISIL. This is an empty suit, filled with self-important bluster and nothing more. And he’s at the top of the polls among the Republican electorate.

One American interviewed at a recent Trump rally said that she supported Trump because he loved America. What? Your neighbor down the street—who mows his yard in shorts that were too tight 20 years ago—loves America, too, but I doubt I would vote for him for president.

As far as I know, Donald Trump hasn’t said anything thoughtful, intelligent, or even honest over the past six months. Maybe ever. Or maybe, despite wall-to-wall 24/7 coverage of his every utterance, I’ve just missed his brilliance. Apparently, The Donald’s crude mouth trumps the need for logic.

Bush-league logic

Then there is Jeb Bush. Jeb! Bush. (Because Jeb’s campaign has added an exclamation point to his name, I will, too.) Jeb! is supposed to be a polished politician. According to his own family, compared to George W., Jeb! is “the smart one.” Yet, he continually says things that don’t make any sense.

Like Trump, Jeb! was asked about the controversial name of Washington’s football team, the Redskins. Jeb! answered, “It’s a sport, for crying out loud. It’s a football team.” So I guess Jeb! is saying that even if real Indians (not Trump’s “top Indians”), find the term “Redskins” offensive, we are supposed to ignore their input and their feelings because it’s only a sports team? Then he was asked about the mass shooting in Colorado. “Stuff happens,” he said, just shrugging off the deliberate murder of nine people and their families’ unbearable grief.

Last week, Jeb! Was asked how he was going to get black people excited about his campaign. Jeb! answered, “Our message is one of hope and aspiration. It isn’t one of division and, ‘Get in line, and we’ll take care of you with free stuff.’” Really? Free stuff?

Is this really what Jeb! thinks African Americans want? Wasn’t this the same idiocy that Mitt Romney said during his losing campaign? Maybe if these guys ever met a black American who isn’t already wealthy and successful they’d find out that African Americans want A) opportunity; B) a good education; C) a decent job; D) financial security; E) respect; F) equality … all the things Jeb! and his friends take for granted, and that black Americans have been fighting for for generations.

Stereotyping black Americans did not seem to be winning strategy for Mitt. Why does Jeb! think it’s winning strategy for him? Where is the logic?

I understand that politicians are asked hundreds of stupid, mind-numbing questions every day. But Jeb! has been planning to run for president for years, if not decades. It was Jeb!, not George, whom his parents groomed for it back in the 1980s.

So, if running for president is his job, how come he still hasn’t figured out how to answer questions thoughtfully and rationally? As former Texas governor Anne Richards said about his brother George, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth. It really is that simple.

Logic from a “man of science”

I have tried to simply ignore Ben Carson. He was a brilliant neurosurgeon who has become the Republican’s Republican. He has taken an extreme-right position on basically everything. Evolution? He doesn’t believe in it. The Big Bang, which is the fundamental scientific theory of how the universe began? Dr. Carson thinks it is a fairy tale. ObamaCare is “worse than slavery.” All of these statements could be ignored, but as soon as we start to ignore one, Carson one-ups himself again.

His latest statement (as of press time) basically asserts that an American who happens to be Muslim can not and should not be allowed to be president. Once again, logic has been thrown out the window. In this case, so has the Constitution, which clearly states that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

The logic of compromise

Folks, this is America, where we can disagree over policy and how to get things done but still work together for the common good. Our democracy was built on compromise. Replacing the Articles of Confederation with the U.S. Constitution required give and take by all sides. Not even George Washington got everything he wanted in the Constitution.

But before we figure out how to get where we want to go, we have to be able to agree on facts. And surely there must be a group of facts that we can all agree on. Yet the current crop of Republican candidates doesn’t believe in facts.

Logic – facts = insanity

By all evidence, by every measure, our invasion and occupation and “liberation” of Iraq was and is a failure. Our engagement in Afghanistan probably needs to be thrown into the failure category, also.

Every scrap of economic evidence, every piece of empirical data, proves that tax cuts for the rich simply make the rich richer and hurt rather than help the middle class. Americans (blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, and every other group) are working harder than ever to make ends meet as the economy slowly improves—but not getting ahead.

We have the “laboratories of the states to test the “trickle-down” hypothesis: Wisconsin, Kansas, and Louisiana are Reaganomic playpens—tax cuts for the rich, slashed funding for everything, selling off state assets—and all three have some of the lowest growth rates, highest unemployment, lowest wages, fewest new businesses, and poorest education and health outcomes in the country. Their immediate neighbors Minnesota, Colorado, and Texas have followed traditional economics, and all three are booming!

Here are a few more facts for which there is actual, real evidence:

Trickle-down economics only trickles up to the wealthy.
Citizens United has allowed the wealthy and powerful to buy our entire government, lock, stock, and barrel.
Climate change is in part (mostly) caused by mankind burning fossil fuels.
Greed, lack of federal oversight, and the elimination of Depression-era protections for the financial system led to the Great Recession.
NAFTA caused the “giant sucking sound” of millions of jobs going to Mexico.
Easy access to guns, including access by the mentally ill, has played a role in the mass shootings that we have seen over the past decade or so.