Do unto others

Whenever I get in "discussions" with Trumpsters, and stupidly, I allow myself to get in many, there's always a common refrain I hear over and over again, particularly with folks from my appropriately-named hometown, Suffern, NY.

Perhaps you've heard it too. 

Because Republicans, who are no longer Republicans but just pure Trumpsters, are blood-boiling mad about the notion of people wanting "Free Stuff." If you're dealing with a Red Hat you're gonna get a bloody earful about Democrats just wanting to give away Free Stuff. 

You know like healthcare, education, food for poverty stricken children. 

All those damn giveaways that will inevitably turn our country into Venezuela. And take us down a nightmarish path to socialism, communism, homosexuality, pedophilia, human trafficking and book reading.

Because I know my hometown, like you know your hometown, I know these statements to be nothing more than thinly-veiled racism. 

Trumpsters don't mind giving away Free Stuff, they just don't want to give it to poor people. Particularly poor people of color, who they uniformly see as welfare queens, thugs, deadbeat dads and drug addicts, all  of whom are conveniently labeled "other" people. 

Red Hats hate Other People.

They have no problem however giving away Free Stuff to rich people, corporations and industries that have their tentacles securely wrapped around public servants of all political stripes. Indeed they're often brazenly proud of the giveaways and boast about it to score political points.

"We're saving our great American farmers with billions and billions of dollars."

USA, USA, USA!!!

These are farmers who lost soybean contracts when Grandpa Ramblemouth initiated an easy-to-win trade war that was not so easy to win. And now taxpayers are paying through the nose to keep these idle farmers afloat. FREE STUFF.

You think the government subsidies end at the edge of Booger Jones cornfield in Des Moines Iowa? 

Think again.

Perhaps you recall the TARP program. A 700 billion dollar bailout of our beloved banks, including the purchase of "toxic assets" that were made toxic by the bank's own greed and negligence. FREE STUFF.

What about the pharmaceutical industry that continues to raise prices, fatten profits and gorge themselves, because they can. A simple EPI pen that cost $150 twenty years ago now commands a $700 price tag. The pen nor its cost, nor efficacy, have changed, but the price certainly has. Why? Because the drug companies have lobbyists, strippers and on-demand escorts in Washington, DC working on their behalf, not ours. FREE STUFF.

Admittedly, I'm a guilty party in all this. 

When I was in the agency world, I often travelled in business class, stayed at expensive hotels and drank on the company dime, many times on two dimes. 

And all those expenditures, including the $18 minibar bag of cashew nuts and the fistful of airplanes bottles of mid-shelf whiskey, were all conveniently written off. As Travel and Entertainment expenses. In a tax system written by and for the exclusive benefit of rich white men. FREE STUFF.

If Americans were ever honest with themselves, they'd see the hypocrisy. And that when it comes to caring for the neediest among us, the richest country on the planet is woefully the poorest.