Scum and Villainy

Look, I'm trying real hard not to label people who disagree with me as evil people.  I understand that a lot of people support political positions that are different than mine for reasons that are moral and may even be good. I lament the destruction of our common values and the polarization that has brought us to what feels like a dangerous precipice for our democratic experiment.  I want to give people who still have the R next to their name some level of grace, because I understand that there are two sides to every conversation and blocking out one side is a bad idea, but come on people...
In four days since the Mueller report is finally (sort of) behind us, the Trump administration has decided to attack the ACA, yet again, despite the fact that doing so would create unmitigated chaos in our already struggling health care system, and despite the fact that their team has demonstrated no suitable replacement, or even an inkling thereof.  Apparently, they have learned nothing from 2018, and have decided to poke the bear yet again. I would simply welcome them to their folly and watch the world burn, but I know how deep and wide the suffering they are going to cause will be for people all over the country, especially in "red" states. Mick Mulvaney appears to have dangled a shiny polished turd from his freedom caucus agenda in front of the orange toddler and Trump promptly forgot his promises that he would protect people with pre-existing conditions.  How is that going to happen exactly if they repeal the ACA?  Maybe we can count on the noblesse oblige of the insurance companies to do the right thing...
(pause while I laugh/vomit in my trash can)

Okay, deep breath.

Then there is the case of Cruella De-Ville, I mean Betsy Devos. Amway heiress and mental midget who has somehow become the Secretary of Education.  She wants to cut funding for the Special Olympics.  Really? The Flickin' Flackin' Special Olympics? Granted it's not the only draconian cut you are trying to make to the budget that is responsible for perhaps the single greatest duty of a civilized society, but the pittance that goes to give people with special needs a place to feel valued and experience a sense of belonging and accomplishment.  A thing that is absolutely nothing but a HUUGE bundle of feelgood stories and the triumph of humanity? How did you not realize that was going to make you look like a comic book villain? Why do you not care?

Okay, deep breath again.

Look, I understand the notion that big government is not the best way to do everything.  That maybe, on our march towards some sort of bureaucratic apocalypse we might want to pump the brakes.  But there are things that the government needs to do for us.  The market is a good thing when it comes to iPhones and Teslas, but it is not so great when it comes to healthcare and education.  Profit motive can produce some good results, but it can also produce absolute tyranny.  We need laws to protect us from the wicked, and the simply short-sighted.  We may have too many ineffective environmental rules, but we also have some that were put in place for the right reasons.  Our healthcare system may still have major flaws, but there is little doubt at this point that the ACA helped more people than it hurt.  Our education system may have flaws, but spending a few million on the Special Olympics is not one of them, in fact, as I stated above, it is probably the absolute best thing you could do with a minuscule fraction of a gargantuan budget.  It's actually such a small number compared to the whole budget that it almost seems like you decided to cut it just because you thought it would trigger the libs or something.  Which doesn't make you a smart conservative willing to make tough choices, it just makes you what the Brits appropriately call a prig.
Really, do we want people running this country who seem to be out just to be mean?
Look, I remember how deeply I disagreed with George W and his habit of invading countries full of people who already hated us, but I honestly don't remember the Republican Party just being this gratuitously parsimonious towards our own populace.  What happened? Did Obama really rub you all that wrong?  How can you support (I'm not even going to pin this one on Trump) Mulvaney and Devos with a straight face and anything like a heart in your chest?
Do you somehow think that this toxic collection of attitudes towards poor people, brown people and disabled kids is going to magically end well for this republic of ours?