The veil is off. The pretense is gone. What has long been visible to the discerning is now blatantly obvious to all. Republican policy hurts people. It hurts them deliberately and mercilessly. If you cannot see it now, your sense of intellectual discernment and your moral compass are both severely compromised. You need to be deprogrammed and you need to repent.
Republican policy has been cruel to people for many decades. It is true that in the days of the Civil War, it was the Southern Democrats who supported slavery. The Republican Party was actually founded by Abraham Lincoln to stop the spread of slavery. But the roles of the two parties in defending the powerless have long since been reversed.
Big money
From the robber barons of the late 1800’s to the New Deal haters of the 1930’s and 40’s, to the right-wing “Contract with America” of the 1990’s, a majority of the Republican party has consistently supported big money over the rights and needs of the people.
According to our Constitution, the purpose of government is to “establish justice,” insure the rule of law, defend the country, and “promote the general Welfare” of the people. The current Republican administration is actively working against every one of these goals.
The orange menace has allowed a billionaire racist to indiscriminately and illegally fire thousands of Federal employees who worked to help the American people and achieve the goals set by Congress. The billionaire racist specifically targeted those government agencies and employees that were investigating HIM and his shady business practices.
The actions of this billionaire racist constitute corruption on a grand scale.
Starvation
His first target was the U. S. Agency for International Development, which was founded by John F. Kennedy. USAID is the principal U.S. agency that extended assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms. In other words, USAID allowed the United States to project benevolent, productive, “soft power” around the world.
The primary beneficiary of the destruction of USAID will be China – who has strategically used various forms of aid to increase its influence around the world.
Meanwhile, without the help of USAID, infrastructure projects are frozen, children are starving to death, and disease is spreading. The Republicans do not care. The Republican Congress has the power to stop this unconscionable cruelty. They control the money. But they are allowing this incompetent President and his rogue billionaire buddy to do as they please.
The Republicans are allowing people to starve to death in order to “save money.”
Disease
Meanwhile, the measles, a highly contagious respiratory virus that can cause serious illness (especially in young children) is spreading again in the United States. The outbreak began, of course, in unvaccinated communities.
The Republicans, who have long fought against (and lied about) vaccinations (and opposed masking during the Covid epidemic) have placed the conspiratorialist anti-vaxer RFK, Jr. at the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. His response to the measles news was to encourage people to take Vitamin A (!!).
Politically-motivated anti-science, spread by Republicans, is causing needless suffering and death.
Robbery
The Republican Congress is currently working on a budget intended to extend huge tax cuts for their friends, the super-wealthy. To try to keep the deficit down, they fully intend to help pay for this tax cut by cutting benefits to the poor, sick and needy,
Medicaid is a program that helps pay for medical services for low-income pregnant women, children, the elderly, and those with disabilities. The current House budget resolution instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut at least $880 billion through 2034. These cuts are expected to come from Medicaid.
The Republicans plan to literally steal from the poor in order to reward the rich.
Guns
Guns remain the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. The U.S. has more civilian guns than the next 24 countries combined. There are more guns in the United States than there are people.
Although 61% of Americans say it is too easy to legally obtain a gun in this country and 58% favor stricter gun laws, the Republicans continually block any and all gun-related legislation. They talk a lot about the “2nd Amendment” and about “personal protection” but that is just a smokescreen. The 2nd Amendment is about organized militias, and the “protection” argument is illogical because it is a circular argument. (I don’t feel safe so I need a gun. The more guns there are the less safe I feel…).
The truth is that the Republicans, and their corporate friends, make big money selling guns and ammo. Fear-mongering is a very lucrative business. The gun industry brings in $9 billion a year while gun violence kills more than 40,0000 people in America per year (and wounds twice that number).
The National Rifle Association (NRA) pretends to be a grass-roots organization of gun owners, but its real agenda is to promote and serve the highly-profitable gun industry. The NRA has contributed millions of dollars to federal and state politicians – and those dollars have gone almost exclusively to Republicans.
Republicans profit financially from a multi-billion dollar death industry.
Education
The ultimate engine of America’s prosperity, and the key to a prosperous future, is public education. Investing in our children, all of our children, is not only the smartest thing we can do for the future of our country, it is a moral obligation.
Yet, Republicans have not only been a consistent barrier to increased public school funding, they lead the way in efforts to send public money to wealthy private schools. They promote the banning of books and prohibit the teaching of certain subjects. They persecute students who are racial, religious, and sexual minorities. They micro-manage teachers and are hostile to teacher’s unions.
Republicans DO NOT WANT a highly educated, intellectually critical, historically aware, public. They prefer ignorant, naive, voters who can be easily manipulated. So they increase class sizes, thought-control books and curriculum, and disempower teachers every chance they get.
Republicans want the public, especially historically-oppressed groups, to remain fearful, ignorant, poor, and powerless.
We are part of the problem
Sadly, a majority of the American members of my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), have supported, even been an active part of, this destructive, inhumane, Republican ethos of always prioritizing money before people. Our own Book of Mormon warns us repeatedly about this danger, but the warnings continue to go unheeded. We are like the Nephites of old.
And it came to pass that the Lamanites did hunt the band of robbers of Gadianton; and they did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them, insomuch that this band of robbers was utterly destroyed from among the Lamanites.
And it came to pass on the other hand, that the Nephites did build them up and support them, beginning at the more wicked part of them, until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites, and had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils, and to join with them in their secret murders and combinations.
And thus they did obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek, and the humble followers of God.
And thus we see that they were in an awful state, and ripening for an everlasting destruction.
Once you have been seduced, it can be difficult to recognize what has happened to you – and even harder to confess and change. But it is the only way to avoid “everlasting destruction.”
The first step in repentance is recognizing and admitting you were wrong. My dear brothers and sisters, it is time….
Sources:
Bret Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester, “Internal memos: Senior USAID leaders warned Trump appointees of hundreds of thousands of deaths from closing agency,” ProPublica, March 3, 2025.
Sara Estep, Natasha Murphy, and Andrea Ducas, “The Republican House Budget Resolution’s potential $880 billion in Medicaid cuts by Congressional district,” Center for American Progress, February 24, 2025.
— “New report highlights U.S. 2022 Gun-related deaths: Firearms remain the leading cause of death for children and teens, and disproportionately affect people of color,” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, September 12, 2024.
Katherine Schaeffer, “Key facts about Americans and guns,” Pew Research Center, July 24, 2024.
— “The gun industry rakes in billions while our communities pay the price,” Everytown for gun safety, January 13, 2023.
I do see the parallel between Nephite and Lamanite, then Republican and Democrat and they stand silhouetted against the sun of truth. Thanks.
When you look at the major parties side by side, anyone who says they are equally wrong is also wrong. Yes, they both have problems but with what’s been mentioned along with many other things that weren’t, the Republicans are the party of oppression and taking away the rights of the people.