Politicians have made it an art form of appealing to
fear.
The problem is, politicians create the problem and
then place blame on outside forces. Someone wrote that politicians are the only
ones who create laws then campaign against them.
Allow me to look at a few fears. First there is the
“Fear of immigrants”. Let’s be blunt and say fear of brown people. But why have
the gates seemed to have opened up to illegal immigrants?
Well, look no further than NAFTA. Just Google it
some time. Seems we were promised all kinds of benefits: mainly cheaper goods.
We were told that with NAFTA, Mexico would create hundreds of jobs and that the
flow of illegal immigrants would slow down to increased opportunities in Mexico
and immigrants would no longer have to sneak into the U.S.
The reality is that the beneficiaries were the mega
agricultural businesses. With their corn subsidies, they could grow and export
corn into Mexico cheaper than what Mexican farmer could. Mexican farmers could
not compete. So the only option was to abandon the farm and seek employment
elsewhere.
And, so we hear the promise to “Secure the border”
and all the dummies will vote for them without realizing why we have an influx
of immigrants.
Then, there is the “Fear of crime”. Sure, there are
more murders in Chicago and Detroit than any other city in America. But at the
local level everyone running for mayor on up to state rep or governor seems to
have jumped on the band wagon. The mantra of the nightly news seems to be “It
it bleeds, it leads”. But just exactly, how much crime is there in your city?
Just check out https://www.crimereports.com/;
you may be surprised.
Crime is not a problem for 95% of us but the
politicians would have you believe that you can’t step outside your house
without becoming a statistic. What this country needs are more lenient gun
laws. What we get instead are laws that restrict personal freedom (and being
able to defend oneself is a personal freedom) and punish the law abiding
citizen more than the wrong doer.
We are sending too many young people to prison for
doing something stupid. What we need are more probation officers and fewer
prison guards. But probation workers should be more than report takers in a 9-5
Monday-Friday office. The county should demand that they work nights and
weekends. They should do ride along with police in the neighborhoods
probationers live.
I myself was on probation eons ago when I was
younger and the only time I saw my probation officer was once a month when I
submitted my report. He in no way new the veracity of my answers. The only time
he knew I was in more trouble was when I would get picked up by the police.
Finally, we have the “Fear of taxes”. Politicians,
particularly Republicans, like to tout their record for reducing taxes. But if
one goes to the trouble of checking out these claims, it seems the Warren
Buffets of the world are the biggest winners. Everyone assumes that lower taxes
mean lower income taxes.
Here in Texas, there was a proposition to the Texas
constitution to exempt veterans and their surviving spouses from paying
property taxes. As if exempting senior citizens isn’t already enough. Isn’t it
any wonder that public buildings are in decay, schools are failing and roads
are in need of repair? Lower my taxes.
And at the state level, construction of state hiways
and bridges is falling behind. Again, our governor has seen fit to turn our
roads over to some foreign entity to convert them into toll roads, roads paid
for with our tax dollars. He has certainly been a “No Tax” governor and I fear
the dummies will keep voting for the lower tax candidates
Isn’t fear wonderful?
MADD MEXX
