(This caricature of the most mentioned GOP presidential hopefuls in by DonkeyHotey.)I am a progressive. I freely and proudly admit that. But even if I wasn't, I would still have a hard time understanding how any decent American could vote for any of the candidates in the picture above. They are all candidates of the far-right, and the policies they support would be devastating for the country and millions of its citizens. Here are just a few of those reprehensible policies:
All of them oppose raising the minimum wage to a livable wage -- even a barely livable minimum wage of $10.10 an hour.
All of them want to weaken labor unions -- which results in a shrinking middle class, stagnant wages, and a growing wealth and income gap.
All of them want to give more tax breaks to the rich and corporations (both of which are currently enjoying record incomes and profits).
All of them want to take health insurance away from many millions of Americans.
All of them support giving corporations tax breaks to help them export good American jobs.
All of them would like to privatize Social Security -- and failing that, would like to cut benefits and raise the retirement age. And all of them oppose making the rich pay the same percentage in FICA taxes that all workers currently pay.
All of them would like to abolish Medicare (and put seniors at the mercy of private insurance companies).
All of them oppose taking any action to curb global climate change.
All of them want to cut funding for the EPA (to clean our air, water and soil) and support corporate polluters.
All of them support allowing corporations to hide money overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
All of them want to cut government social programs, in spite of the fact that over 20% of this nation's children live in poverty.
Those are just a few of the hard-hearted and mean-spirited policies that the Republican presidential hopefuls all support. But it's enough for me to ask -- How could anyone even consider voting for one of those candidates?
