A historical analysis of key Republican policies and events.

By Glen Reaux

“Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening,” These were the words of President Trump on Tuesday, July 26, 2018 in Kansas City to the conference of veterans of foreign wars.  Although this statement is unprecedented by an American president, it is no different from what prior Republican Presidents including Ronald Reagan, have done.  This is just another example of the oppressive logic used by “The So-Republicans America’s Party of the People.” Now, in light of the impeachment of their fearless leader, and Mitch McConnell’s refusal to allow witnesses for the impeachment trial, American’s should express their outrage over the Republicans refusal to honor the will of the people.

Prior to resigning to avoid impeachment for the Watergate break in and a plethora of associated crimes, ironically Richard Nixon became infamous for stating, “I am not a crook.” While the Watergate scandal was presidential criminality on an unprecedented scale, his most egregious crimes were committed in the months leading up to the 1968 elections.  In a January 2, 2017 New York Times article, proof can be found that Nixon interfered with Johnson’s peace negotiations with North Vietnam as a means of swinging the election in his favor.   This made Nixon a criminal by violating The Logan Act.  The U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War continued for another five years into 1973 accounting for the deaths of 21,194 American soldiers under his administration.

Upon becoming President, Nixon’s  Vice President Gerald Ford immediately pardoned him for all crimes committed.  Nixon was never tried for any crimes.  Upon his death in 1994, he was praised as one of the greatest presidents of all times.

In November of 1986, Ronald Reagan lied despite his campaign promises that he would not negotiate with terrorist when he stated, “In spite of the wildly speculative and false stories of arms for hostages and alleged ransom payments, we did not—repeat, did not—trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we.” Only a few months later in March of 1987, in a nationally televised speech to the American public, without apologizing he admitted his lie.  Appearing to be remorseful but with impunity, he said “A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.”  This was Reagan’s admission that throughout his entire Presidency he had been a felon but believed that in his heart, he was above the law.  The Iran Contra Affair led to the indictment of Reagan’s Secretary of Defense, his National Security Adviser, the Assistant Secretary of State and at least five other Reagan administration officials.  All of these felons later received pardons for their crimes from President George H. W. Bush.  None of them ever saw the inside of a court room.

On October 7, 2002,  President George W. Bush lied to the world when he stated “The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas.” Bush convinced Congress to declare war on Iraq and built an international coalition of allies for his war.  According to the Department of Defense casualty website, there were 4,424 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile) and 31,952 wounded in action (WIA) as a result of the Iraq War.  The actual financial cost exceeded $2 trillion.  Iraq had nothing to do with the attack on 911 nor had it ever attacked our country.  A 2013 documentary film from MSNBC journalist Rachel Maddow titled Hubris, The Selling of the Iraq War provides solid evidence for the true reasons behind the Iraq War.

These lies told by three of the prior four Republican presidents although not as blatant as Trump’s statements, basically tell the American people the same thing.  “Don’t believe your lying eyes.”  We the Republican Party think you are stupid.  We will wear you down by doubling down on our lies and eventually you will tire and accept our words as truth.  Remember you elected us and over the 26 years of our presidencies, we have had your best interest at heart.  “Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening.”  We are your party of the people even though our agendas, policies and laws only benefit the wealthy.

The self proclaimed, so-called “party of the people”, the Republican Party has been equally as dishonest with their domestic and economic policies.  Under the Nixon administration inflation rose and unemployment reached a level of 6%.  To save money Nixon delayed raises for government employees which led to a strike by postal employees.  His response was to use the U.S. Army to keep the postal system working.   He eventually met the postal workers demands.   In the sixties, fearing African American voters who had been energized by the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies, Republicans developed and implemented the Southern Strategy.  This was a divisive electoral strategy which used racism to appeal to white southern democrats that felt betrayed by the party’s initiative to extend civil rights.  These new found Republicans became known as Dixiecrats.   During the 1972 election, Nixon’s use of this strategy was so successful that it helped to turn the Party of Lincoln into a party of racist ideology with secretive aspirations for the return to Jim Crowe.  Today the Republican Party has become known as the party of carpetbaggers and old, racist white men.

Ronald Reagan’s economic policies became known as voodoo or trickle-down economics.  The promise to the people was that the middle class and poor would benefit the most from the trickle-down effects of his policies.  The four pillars of his policies were, ( 1.) reduce federal income and capital gains taxes, (2.) reduce federal spending, (3.) reduce government regulations, (4.) tighten the money supply to reduce inflation.  In furtherance of these policies Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers and banned them for life from government employment.  Shortly afterwards, corporate America took this as a sign and unleashed attacks that brought about the downfall of labor unions across the country.

Reagan’s policies were continued by the next administration of George H. W. Bush.  After 35 years of declining debt as a percentage of gross domestic production (GDP), in 1981 under Reagan, the deficit began to climb and continued under George H. W. Bush.  Under the Democratic Clinton administration, the budget was balanced and by the time he left office, there was a treasury surplus of $86.4 billion.  In 2000 with the election of George W. Bush, the Republicans again implemented the Reagan centered economic policies which have since caused the deficit to rise sharply.  Despite the knowledge of an out-of-control ever growing deficit, on June 8, 2001 Bush signed an additional $1.3 trillion tax cut bill.  Currently, under the Trump administration, the deficit has risen 17% from $666 billion in 2017 to $779 billion in 2018 due to a sharp drop in corporate tax revenue caused by the new Republican tax cuts. It is currently on track to top $1 trillion by the next presidential election. Under these Republican economic policies. the burden of this debt falls squarely on the shoulders of the poor and middle class.

The facts are that these Republican presidents all committed crimes that are impeachable and indictable offenses.   Much of the American populace is still suffering from the delusion that both Reagan and Trump have made America great again.  They believe that the Republicans are truly the party of the people.  The public’s memories are so shallow, they have forgotten that the 2000 election was given to George W. Bush when a Republican Supreme Court ordered that vote counting be discontinued in Florida.  A final count tally proved that Al Gore won Florida and the presidential election.   He also won the popular vote by 547,398 more votes than Bush.

In the 2004 election, President Bush won the electoral vote by a margin of 53% or 286 votes to Senator Jim Kerry’s 251 votes.  The popular vote count was 62 million for Bush and 59 million for Kerry.  Later investigations by the Federal Election Commission revealed wide spread voter suppression and unusually large discrepancies between exit polls and count totals.  Exit polls had Kerry winning.  Later congressional investigations provided proof that Kerry actually won Ohio whose 20 electoral votes would have given him the election.  Considering the interference by Russians in the 2016 election, it is possible to make a case that the results from three of the past 5 elections were fraudulent.  In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes.  This poses the question.   Are Republicans legitimately, morally or even popularly the party of the people?

It is obvious that since the Nixon presidency, Republican presidents have not bothered to hide their crimes nor have they ever been held accountable for them.  The end results have been the loss of tens of thousands of American troops in illegal wars, a devastated economy, the rise of blatant racism, white nationalist and other hate groups and a divided nation currently undergoing a constitutional crisis.  This Republican party of the people that impeached a Democratic president for lying about an illicit sexual encounter with an aide may have colluded with the current president, Donald Trump to hinder an investigation into Russian meddling in our elections.  Russian interference in our elections is a national security threat, a sexual encounter with an aide isn’t.  Trump has admitted to sexual assault, harassment, marital infidelity and paying off prostitutes for the sake of affecting election results.  And, in true Game of Thrones fashion, in Helsinki, he bent the knee and kissed Putin’s ring before the entire world.  It would have been less embarrassing if he had licked his hand, rolled over and played dead then barked for a Scooby snack.

If 1+1 still equals 2, then a layman’s observation of the behavior of Republican lawmakers in relation to their attempted obstruction of the Mueller Probe and the manner in which they have conducted Senate and House investigations is proof obvious to a blind man.  Their dereliction of duty as the party of the people to implement their constitutional obligation to place checks and balances on this president is proof of their collusion to help the president obstruct justice.  They are very possibly complicit in some of his crimes.  It stands to reason that if Donald Trump’s election was illegal, then all elected Republicans on the ticket, in the wake of his coat tails were also placed in office illegitimately.  For justice and legitimate governance to prevail all legislation by congress and actions taken by the president including cabinet appointments, policies implemented and foreign treaties must be rolled back to the end of the Obama presidency.

Is the Republican Party truly the party of the people?  The evidence does not support their claim.

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