We learn as children, when you misbehave there are consequences. We need some of that accountability for those who are destroying our environment and financial security. Punishment for the wicked is the foundation of the wrathful God of Old Testament. On the day of judgment, the wicked shall go to hell and only the righteous will be admitted to heaven. It’s time for a day of Judgment for President Trump and the Republican Party of Fox News. They have twice run the Nation into the ditch by their greed and moral fecklessness. In Red states, the application of moral responsibility is limited to attacking women, gays, and those of darker skin while worshiping the “market” and the most dishonest President in history.
There was no accountability in 2008, when all of us had to sacrifice to rescue the country from the consequences of irresponsible financial practices including speculators profiting by selling houses to people who couldn’t afford them and passing the bloated mortgages on to investors backed by federal loan guarantees. Fox News and the Republican blamed the poor and the federal mortgage program and liberals. Just as they do now for the student loan mess driven by shoddy fly-by-night “universities” built on the profits of federal student loan guarantees.
Ignoring science and blaming “liberals” and “Democrats” for the moral failures of lenders and financiers is not leadership. Nor is the head in the sand approach to the consequences of global warming. Naked greed on Wall Street needs to be curbed – not encouraged. After what we went through, dismantling Dodd Frank was their solution. No one went to jail when the banking system collapsed under the weight of bad decisions. Nor were they punished by the market. We couldn’t allow them to suffer the consequences of their behavior because that would create a bigger mess. So, the federal government bailed out the crooks to save the system and watched as they profited further from the federal largesse. Those least responsible, the American taxpayers, were left holding the bag.
Now we face the same situation again after Trump, Fox News, and the Christian Right, spent precious time viciously attacking those who were warning action was needed. They are still saying corona virus is an urban problem so no need to act in the states that look like the electoral map for Trump. It’s time to throw out State legislators, more concerned about banning abortion and limiting the rights of transgender individuals than about the environment, stopping the virus, and saving our economy It is time to terminate those Senators who refused to apply the Constitution’s prohibitions on self-dealing and election manipulation to the most dishonest and morally compromised President in history. We can’t afford four more years of destructive government.
Like Lot’s wife, when they look back at the destruction being visited on our country, maybe they should be turned into pillars of salt or at least turned out of offices they have shown themselves so unfit to occupy.
That’s the accountability we need in 2020.