Seven Falsehoods the Republican Party Has Been Spreading for Decades
By: Jp Kobel
Tags: Economics, Republican Party, Politics, Propaganda, Crime

The gray areas on the graph are the recessions. The first Democratic recession was under President Truman in 1949 and the last was under President Carter in 1980. President Carter’s recession was the shortest of all the recessions since 1947.

In 1960, President Kennedy brought us out of a Republican recession after his first quarter in office. In 2009, President Obama needed two quarters to lift our nation out of the Great Recession that started during the administration of President George W. Bush.

In 1953, President Eisenhower took us into a recession within two quarters of taking office. In 1981, President Reagan took us into recession after two quarters in office. In 2001, George W. Bush took us into recession after one quarter in office.

The Democrats Are Soft On Crime

I do not approve of either party’s handling of criminal justice or the prison system. I am very confident that a comprehensive policy to fight crime would fare much better than the ‘tough on crime’ legislation used by both parties over the past several decades. That being said, the graph below makes it clear that the Democrats have been much more successful in fighting crime than the Republicans.

The interactive version of this graph can be found at this link.

The data for the above graphic can be found at this link from the FBI for the years 1968 through 2014, at this link for the year 2015, at this link for the year 2016, and at this link for the year 2017. The data for the population for the years 2015–2017 is available at the Census Bureau at this link. These statistics are the total violent crimes divided by the nation’s population for particular years.

.This graph is colored blue during periods of Democratic administrations and red during periods of Republican administrations. Clearly, there is a correlation between violent crime rising under Republican administrations and falling under Democratic administrations. The data does not support the conclusion that the Democrats are ‘soft on crime.’ If anything, the data would most likely indicate that the Republicans are soft on crime.

The Republican Party Is the ‘Party of Lincoln’

Today’s Republican Party is in no way the Party of Lincoln. Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. The current President is the 45th President of the United States. By analogy to families, there are 29 generations between Lincoln and the present day. As would be expected from the dilution of a family over 29 generations, there is no resemblance between today’s Republican Party and Lincoln’s Republican Party. Lincoln’s Party went to war to protect the rights of the most vulnerable among us in the 1860s; the African-American slave. Today’s Republican Party puts foreigners seeking refuge into cages. Today’s Republican Party is the exact opposite of the Party of Lincoln.

In the early 1960s, the Democratic Party became the Party of Lincoln when it pushed for civil rights and voting rights for all. The Democratic Party didn’t have to work for the rights of minorities. The Democrats had been the dominant party for decades at that time. The Democratic Party lost many supporters in the South when it pushed for voting rights and civil rights. The Republicans were happy to pick up these new members.

Democrats Only Want To Get 51% of the Vote

I first heard this falsehood in the mid-2000s on a morning radio show. It was not a political show. It was a couple of guys who reveled in being Southern rednecks and billed themselves as the sexiest fat men alive. The show was supposed to be a comedy, but over time, it gradually became more political in nature. Like most white Southerners, the radio hosts had an extreme right-wing ideology. When I first heard this, I thought to myself that this follows something I had long ago noticed about people. The first one to accuse someone else of a misdeed is usually the one who committed the misdeed in the first place. I didn’t know the term at the time, but we now know this strategy as deflecting and projecting.

This Republican talking point is an obvious case of the Republicans projecting themselves on to the Democrats. The creators of these talking points know this, but they hope that because they said it first, it will stick in the minds of their uninformed voters.

Mitt Romney was caught making a similar argument in a private meeting during the 2012 Presidential campaign. Romney said that the Democrats were giving gifts to 47% of the voters. See this video from YouTube. Romney’s statements are not grounded in reality, but does that really matter anymore? I think this makes it clear which party wants just 51% of the vote.

In 1976, Jude Wanniski wrote an article titled ‘Taxes and the Two-Santa Theory.’ Wanniski proposed that Republicans counter the Democrat’s entitlement programs with their own ‘give-away’ program. The Republican ‘give-away’ would be tax cuts. These tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans. These tax cuts have led to the greatest redistribution of wealth in American history. This redistribution transferred wealth from the poor and the middle class to the wealthiest Americans. In order to remain in power, these tax cuts had to benefit just enough of the voters to hold a majority. See the graphic below for how well this ‘Two-Santa’ strategy has worked for the average American worker since the late 1970s:

The above graph is from the article, Top 1.0 Reaches Highest Wages Ever — Up 157 Percent Since 1979 from the Economic Policy Institute’s Working Economics Blog at this link.

The Democrat’s entitlement programs benefit all Americans, i.e., Medicare and Social Security. The Republican’s tax cuts need to benefit 51% in order to keep the Republicans in office. Hence, it is the Republicans who only want to get 51% of the vote. If the Republicans get 55% of the vote, that means they reached too far into the middle class with their tax cut Santa Claus 4% more than necessary. Therefore, the Republicans would see this as over-paying for their victory.

The myth that Democrats are only trying to get 51% of the vote is an example of the Republicans falsely projecting their own scheme on to the Democrats.

The Republican Party is More Responsible Regarding the Budget

The graph below seems to say it all; the Republican Party is the big-spending party and the Democrats are the budget-conscious party.

An interactive version of this graph can be found at this link.

The data for the graphic above was taken from FRED at this link.

The red part of the line is the periods when Republicans hold the Presidency. The blue part of the line is the periods when Democrats hold the Presidency. Clearly, the period of the greatest deficits are those times when a Republican is President. The single exception to this general rule is President Obama’s first term. The excessive Obama deficits were the result of the Obama administration having to pay the bills run up by the George W. Bush administration. President Bush decided that it made perfect sense to have two tax cuts and fight two wars simultaneously. This financial irresponsibility on the part of the Republicans set the conditions for the Great Recession. Right out of the gate, President Obama had to pay for a $700 billion bank bailout, bailout of the auto industry, and use another $800 billion to stimulate the economy.

The Trump administration inherited a thriving economy. So how does the Trump administration justify its need to run trillion-dollar deficits? The answer involves the evolution that the ‘Two Santa Claus Theory’ has taken over the years. See this article from Salon.com. It perfectly explains the modern ‘Two Santa Theory’:

First, when Republicans control the federal government, and particularly the White House, spend money like a drunken sailor and run up the US debt as far and as fast as possible. This produces three results — it stimulates the economy thus making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy, it raises the debt dramatically, and it makes people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Claus.” Second, when a Democrat is in the White House, scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “we have to cut spending to solve the crisis!” This will force the Democrats in power to cut their own social safety net programs, thus shooting their welfare-of-the-American-people Santa Claus.

Any casual observer of the evening news would know that this quote about the ‘Two Santa Theory’ is the exact strategy the Republicans have been using for the past few decades.

The Democrats Are Socialists and Communists

Of course, this is not true. The few Democrats that use the word ‘socialism’ use the term in the context of ‘social democracy.’ There is a huge difference. Socialism is defined by Merriam-Webster as

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods 2a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state 3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

This definition of Socialism applies to only a few countries in the world today. North Korea is the only example I can think of. The openly Communist countries such as China have a degree of capitalism, e.g., Alibaba.com.

Some democrats advocate for Social Democracy. Merriam-Webster defines Social Democracy as follows:

1: a political movement advocating a gradual and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means 2: a democratic welfare state that incorporates both capitalist and socialist practices

The Democrats that call themselves ‘Social Democrats’ fall within the definition of item 2 above. The United States has been a ‘Social Democracy’ for centuries now. Our government has always owned some businesses that compete against private businesses, i.e., public education versus private education. Those who call themselves Social Democrats are primarily advocating for socialized medicine and reduced higher education costs. America already has socialized medicine through the VA, Obamacare, Medicaid, and Medicare. These dangerous ‘Socialists’ just want to expand our socialized health systems so that we have universal coverage. All of the other democratic advanced economies have universal healthcare coverage.

Another example of these dangerous ‘Socialist’ is the Tennessee Republicans that have provided free tuition community college since 2014. See this article from Politico for more on the Tennessee free community college tuition plan.

My favorite example of the Republican hypocrisy regarding socialism is a dangerous ‘Socialist’ known as Mo Brooks. Mo Brooks is a little known Congressman from Huntsville, AL. This is the same ‘Mo Brooks’ that voted against the renewal of the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund renewal. See this article from ‘Homeland Security Today’ for the list of Congressmen who voted against the funding of the ‘9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.’ When our so-called ‘Socialist President Obama’ wanted to sell the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a federal government-owned power company, Mo Brooks objected. See this article from AL.com for more on Mo Brooks defense of TVA. Doesn’t this make Mo Brooks the Socialist and President Obama the Capitalist?

Republicans want to brand the Democrats as evil Soviet-style Socialists/Communists in attempt to portray the Democrats as being ‘against the American way.’ Yet, as seen in item 5 above, the Republicans are more than happy to spend money on tax cuts that redistribute money to the wealthiest Americans. Is it the ‘American way’ to take from the poor and give to the rich?

Socialism has just become a word that Republicans use to try to demonize the Democrats. The Democrats need to call out these Republican socialist ventures. The Democrats need to force the Republicans to explain themselves when they call Democrats ‘Socialists.’ Many of the voters will probably decide that ‘Socialism’ doesn’t sound so bad.

Socialized Medicine Will Destroy Our Healthcare System

The greatest enemy of the Republican Party is not the Democratic Party. The greatest enemy of the Republican Party is socialized medicine. The Republicans will stop at nothing to spread the falsehood that ‘government healthcare’ will turn our healthcare system into a horrible mess. The truth is, our healthcare system is a horrible mess. The table below compares our healthcare system to the other group of seven (G7) countries. The G7 countries are the seven nations that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) describes as the largest advanced economies in the world. The table below shows that Americans pay significantly more for significantly less healthcare. We Americans also pay for our healthcare system with approximately two fewer years of life expectancy than the other G7 countries.

The data for columns 1–3 in the table above can be found at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) database at this link. The OECD is an organization of 36 member countries, including the United States. Choose ‘social protection’ on the left side for the queries to find the information in the table above. Column 4 is from the World Health Organization (WHO) at this link. Column 5 is from the OECD and can be found at this link. The column 6 data is from the WHO and can be found at this link.

This is the simplest accurate table that I could create. Different countries have very different healthcare systems. Primarily, the systems can be grouped into Universal Healthcare by Mandate, Universal Healthcare by a Single-Payer System, Universal Healthcare by a Two-Tiered System, as well as “other.” These numbers are from 2016. At that time, America had Universal Healthcare by Mandate; that is not the case today. In 2013, the year before Obamacare came into effect, the USA had total health insurance coverage of 85.5% of the population. By 2016, that coverage had risen to 91.2% of the population. The latest data show that American coverage has dropped to 90.6% of the population. This may sound like a small drop, but in a nation of approximately 330,000,000, this comes to approximately 2,000,000 people. It is worth noting that the Republican Party has been attacking the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) over the past two years. See this story from NPR regarding these attacks. The government provided healthcare in America is in the form of the VA (Veterans Administration), Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare subsidies.

The table above shows that many countries that you may have thought were single-payer countries are actually two-tier countries, e.g. Canada. In a two-tier system, a person can buy private insurance that is either supplementary or complementary to government coverage. This is why a country can have 100% government coverage and 67% private coverage. Some of the countries above provide government insurance only when the individual has no other insurance.

Currently, the primary argument the Republican Party has made against socialized medicine is that patients in countries with socialized medicine have to endure long wait-times for their healthcare. See this article on the Republican propaganda campaign regarding excessive wait times for healthcare in countries with socialized medicine. As with any good lie, there is some truth involved here. However, I have recently been researching the issue of wait-times in other countries and within different parts of our own country. The issue of wait-times is beyond the scope of this story but will be a primary topic in my next story. Wait-times vary greatly among different countries. America is not necessarily the best country in the world when it comes to wait-times.

When all of the data is considered, it is clear that our peers within the G7 are doing a much better job of providing healthcare for their citizens than America.

Conclusion

The Republican Party spreads a great deal of false information. The Democratic Party is not a perfect example of honesty, but in comparison to the Republican Party, the Democratic Party looks like Honest Abe Lincoln as idealized by history. The false information spread by the Republican Party is necessary since their policies are designed to primarily benefit the top 15–20% of the population. The Republican Party must confuse a large portion of the population into voting against their own interest.

In recent years, the bulk of the Republican Party has moved toward a coalition of the xenophobic, racists, protectionists, uneducated (see this article on the website for the Thought Company), a religious cult (see my story at this link), and the small percentage that actually benefit from Republican policies. In order to maintain this coalition, the Republicans must misinform the majority of their voters. The Republicans use ‘sound-bites’ like ‘the Democrats are Socialists’ (see this video on YouTube), the Democrats are ‘soft on crime’ (see this video on YouTube), the Democrats are the ‘party of big spenders’, and the Democrats will crash the economy if they win elections (See this video on YouTube). These are just a few of the lies told by the Republican Party in an effort to sow sufficient fear and confusion for just enough people to vote against their interests by voting for Republicans.

This story disproves all of these sound-bites. In the interests of keeping the story as short as possible, I did not address all examples of Republican mythology.

Last Sunday, July 21, 2019, Liz Cheney appeared on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ See the video above. Ms. Cheney was the face of the Republican propaganda machine on that day. She repeatedly demanded ‘to look at the substance of the issues.’ This is another example of deflection and projection. Ms. Cheney wanted to convince those within the Republican voting coalition that those voters are the ones that are ‘thinking’ and the Democrats are the ones reacting to ‘sound-bites’ or ‘dog-whistles.’ In reality, Ms. Cheney was projecting what she was doing and what her voters were believing on to the Democrats. Ms. Cheney’s statements held no substance. Ms. Cheney deflected from a question on racism and projected ‘socialism,’ etc on to the Democrats. She had no intention of giving substantive answers to the questions asked.

This story provides substance in the form of real data. The Republican Party is unable to rebut the data presented in this story. Hopefully, the Republican voters will stop succumbing to the same old lies and give deep consideration to the issues. If this miracle of ‘critical reasoning’ occurs, the 2020 elections will go very well for the Democrats.

Only a huge political defeat will cause the Republican Party to change its ways. A responsible and honest Republican Party would and give the American voter a legitimate alternative to the Democratic Party. There is a place for conservatism within our two-party system. Currently, the Republican Party does not represent conservatism but instead represents right-wing extremism. The Republican Party needs to refresh itself with new leadership. The Republican Party needs to adopt more moderate positions. If the Republican Party would make these changes, then an independent such as myself could once again consider voting for a Republican.