Posted by Rude One
While conservatives continue their annual desperate attempt to colonize
the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., King stubbornly remains a
revolutionary figure, one who was blatantly socialist and vehemently
anti-capitalist. In fact, King drew a direct line between Western
capitalism and the exploitation of African countries. He knew what had
turned those countries into "shitholes." A trip to Ghana
in 1957 to celebrate that nation's independence from England and the
election of a new prime minister solidified King's view that the
treatment of African Americans by whites in the United States was
strikingly similar to the effects of colonialism in western and southern
Africa.
In a sermon
after his Ghana trip called "Birth of a New Nation" (goddamn, you know
King knew exactly what he was doing with that title), King connected
Ghana to the slaves in biblical Egypt ridding themselves of their
chains, and he explained what had just happened:
"Prior to March the sixth, 1957, there existed a country known as the
Gold Coast. This country was a colony of the British Empire. This
country was situated in that vast continent known as Africa. I’m sure
you know a great deal about Africa, that continent with some two hundred
million people, and it extends and covers a great deal of territory...
"For years the Gold Coast was exploited and dominated and trampled over.
The first European settlers came in there about 1444, the Portuguese,
and they started legitimate trade with the people in the Gold Coast.
They started dealing with them with their gold, and in turn they gave
them guns and ammunition and gunpowder and that type of thing. Well,
pretty soon America was discovered a few years later in the fourteen
hundreds, and then the British West Indies. And all of these growing
discoveries brought about the slave trade."
King continued to tell the story of the Gold Coast, bringing it to the
then-present: "Finally, in 1850, Britain won out, and she gained
possession of the total territorial expansion of the Gold Coast. From
1850 to 1957, March sixth, the Gold Coast was a colony of the British
Empire. And as a colony she suffered all of the injustices, all of the
exploitation, all of the humiliation that comes as a result of
colonialism. But like all slavery, like all domination, like all
exploitation, it came to the point that the people got tired of it."
After talking about how the Gold Coast became Ghana, King brought it
back to his opening images, "Ghana reminds us that freedom never comes
on a silver platter. It’s never easy. Ghana reminds us that whenever you
break out of Egypt, you better get ready for stiff backs. You better
get ready for some homes to be bombed. You better get ready for some
churches to be bombed. You better get ready for a lot of nasty things to
be said about you, because you getting out of Egypt. And whenever you
break aloose from Egypt, the initial response of the Egyptian is
bitterness."
Martin Luther King would fuck up the shit of Donald Trump and his
coterie of Republican motherfuckers because that is what he did, and he
would specifically fuck up Trump's shit now over the ersatz president's
inability to see beyond his own racism when it comes to African nations
and their people. King would call out the oppressors for their
oppression because that, too, is what he did.
When we remember King, it should always be as a balls-to-the-wall
fighter for people of color and, eventually, for all disempowered
people. He would be in the streets, marching now, and he would be
confronted by white people with tiki torches and uncontrollable cops,
and Donald Trump would blame King for any violence that took place
because that is what he does.
You’re surprised at Bob Corker?
Really? Please. Yes, he’s a deficit hawk. And he’s a senator who has,
from time to time, made some effort to work in a bipartisan fashion.
But come on. He’s a Republican. He likes tax cuts. He believes, as they all do, in supply-side economic theory. And he has donors and constituents in Tennessee who wanted this. See what he said in defending his switch from no to yes on the GOP tax bill: He changed because of “many conversations over the past several days with individuals from both sides of the aisle across Tennessee and around the country.” In other words, rich people.
Besides, he’s not going to buck the team. Not on something like this. There’s a history here. Read Robert Kaiser’s great book Act of Congress, about how the Dodd-Frank bill became law. Corker was working with Chris Dodd. In absolute good faith! But Corker couldn’t—or wouldn’t—bring any other GOP senators along with him. A crucial defection, incidentally, was Richard Shelby, whom we’re praising this week for helping to save us from Sen. Roy Moore. Corker ultimately voted against it.
Marco Rubio? That was a joke from the start. He seems to have gotten a portion of what he wanted on the child tax credit. Rubio called the changed that leadership agreed to a “solid step.” We all know what words like that mean. They mean: Well, it kinda sucks, but it’s enough for me to save face, especially with Americans for Tax Reform and Club for Growth and all these other people threatening to find someone to primary my ass if I vote no.
Like the coach said, the Republicans are who we thought they were. So it’s done. Or is going to be.
As I wrote in The New York Times Friday, it’s the second most unpopular piece of major domestic legislation of the last 27 years. The first most unpopular? The attempt to repeal Obamacare earlier this year. Nice work, 115th Congress!
You think this is bad, think about what’s next. What’s next are cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and other domestic spending programs. Because this is the Republican formula:
1. Pass massive tax cuts for the top 1 percent.
2. Run up the deficit.
3. A year or two later go, “Oh my God, look at the deficit! This proves that spending is just out of control!”
4. Start taking the axe to entitlement programs and the domestic discretionary budget.
That’s how it works, ever since supply-side became part of conversation. Ronald Reagan cut taxes and ran up deficits like mad, tripling, quadrupling them over Jimmy Carter’s level. George H.W. Bush raised taxes a little, but the economy was so in the doldrums that the deficit was still bad. Along came Bill Clinton, who had to fix it. He raised taxes. He did investments. He got the economy humming. He eliminated the deficit. Gave George W. Bush a surplus.
Then Dubya cut taxes. Twice. And started two unfunded-mandate wars. Up shot the deficit again. Ach, they all said! These deficits. We must cut spending. And bring Social Security under control.
But they never did cut spending, and popular will against Bush’s Social Security privatization scheme was so strong that that one died on the vine fast. Meanwhile they turned the banking system into a casino, and that crashed.
But come on. He’s a Republican. He likes tax cuts. He believes, as they all do, in supply-side economic theory. And he has donors and constituents in Tennessee who wanted this. See what he said in defending his switch from no to yes on the GOP tax bill: He changed because of “many conversations over the past several days with individuals from both sides of the aisle across Tennessee and around the country.” In other words, rich people.
Besides, he’s not going to buck the team. Not on something like this. There’s a history here. Read Robert Kaiser’s great book Act of Congress, about how the Dodd-Frank bill became law. Corker was working with Chris Dodd. In absolute good faith! But Corker couldn’t—or wouldn’t—bring any other GOP senators along with him. A crucial defection, incidentally, was Richard Shelby, whom we’re praising this week for helping to save us from Sen. Roy Moore. Corker ultimately voted against it.
Marco Rubio? That was a joke from the start. He seems to have gotten a portion of what he wanted on the child tax credit. Rubio called the changed that leadership agreed to a “solid step.” We all know what words like that mean. They mean: Well, it kinda sucks, but it’s enough for me to save face, especially with Americans for Tax Reform and Club for Growth and all these other people threatening to find someone to primary my ass if I vote no.
Like the coach said, the Republicans are who we thought they were. So it’s done. Or is going to be.
As I wrote in The New York Times Friday, it’s the second most unpopular piece of major domestic legislation of the last 27 years. The first most unpopular? The attempt to repeal Obamacare earlier this year. Nice work, 115th Congress!
You think this is bad, think about what’s next. What’s next are cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and other domestic spending programs. Because this is the Republican formula:
1. Pass massive tax cuts for the top 1 percent.
2. Run up the deficit.
3. A year or two later go, “Oh my God, look at the deficit! This proves that spending is just out of control!”
4. Start taking the axe to entitlement programs and the domestic discretionary budget.
That’s how it works, ever since supply-side became part of conversation. Ronald Reagan cut taxes and ran up deficits like mad, tripling, quadrupling them over Jimmy Carter’s level. George H.W. Bush raised taxes a little, but the economy was so in the doldrums that the deficit was still bad. Along came Bill Clinton, who had to fix it. He raised taxes. He did investments. He got the economy humming. He eliminated the deficit. Gave George W. Bush a surplus.
Then Dubya cut taxes. Twice. And started two unfunded-mandate wars. Up shot the deficit again. Ach, they all said! These deficits. We must cut spending. And bring Social Security under control.
But they never did cut spending, and popular will against Bush’s Social Security privatization scheme was so strong that that one died on the vine fast. Meanwhile they turned the banking system into a casino, and that crashed.
