To My Moderate Republican Friends

Originally Posted on Medium

I want to take this time to address my moderate Republican friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens. The Republicans who don’t buy into Trump’s bigotry and divisive rhetoric but are willing to let it go because you are fiscal conservatives. The old guard Reagan/McCain types.

Clearly, today’s GOP is Trump’s Republican Party. I know you probably love the idea of the tax breaks. But like me, you're all too aware of the fact that it turned out to only benefit the wealthiest among us. Small business owners out there, like you and I, know all too well that the Republican tax package did little-to-nothing for us. In fact, if you’re like me, it actually hurt your bottom-line a considerable amount more than it did any good.

We aren’t seeing the same level of benefit as those on Wall Street. We can’t just start paying employees more because we can’t just start charging more for our labor and services. Thanks in large part to the free-market which remains as competitive as ever. If you’re in the construction or service industry, increasing wages only leads to not just a loss of revenue, but a loss of business as well.

And that’s just a tip of the iceberg.

His anti-migrant rhetoric is also quite hurtful on many fronts. As a former government contractor, like farmers, I relied on migrant workers to fulfill the demands of our contracts. Migrants provide a wonderful labor force of hard workers that earn the same, if not more, than their American counterparts.

Trump’s racist language towards non-white folks hurts the bottom-line for many industries as well. Think of the farmers who rely on these migrant workers to harvest the food we eat. Farmers who rely on migrants to harvest product that gets shipped overseas. His language and policies hurt across many industries. The taxpayer has so far had to foot the bill for an 18 billion dollar bailout to subsidize those very farmers.

See where I’m going with this?

Those tax breaks, coupled with his rhetoric, makes doing business more expensive across many fronts. Have you seen the price of fuel lately? It currently sits at a higher price-per-gallon than it was over the summer months. It’s an absurd thought, but here we are. Upside-down world.

Can you imagine what fuel will cost when next summer hits? It’s scary, but we have to start thinking ahead. These are all issues, that when combined, could spell death for a company of a dozen employees. Your competitor who has 50 employees and can sustain it better than you will price you out of the market in mere weeks. The upcoming peak-season for many industries will tell us all the truths we need. By then, it may be too late for the small guy.

It’s an economic situation that only promises to get worse for small business.

Maybe you don’t own a small business. However, it’s very likely you work for one. Do you think this won’t impact you? Surely you realize that you will be the first to be impacted. When your bosses start hemorrhaging revenue and they need to maintain their management team to try and make adjustments, you will be on the losing end of those adjustments. Non-essential staff is the first to go. Essential staff will have to be cut and those who are willing to do more for less will be the ones who get to stay.

That is the death knell for competitive pay.

All the makings for an economic disaster, both personally and nationally are already in play and the end is nowhere in sight. People are already struggling across many fronts and these policy decisions, without accountability, will only make things worse.

So far, the only option Republicans have on the table is to pillage Medicare and Social Security. Our “old-age safety net” that we’ve paid into our entire lives. That’s not acceptable. Certainly not to pay for tax breaks that go solely to those who will never need such programs. The wealthiest among us already have retirements in place for generations to come, yet somehow the Republicans in the pockets of the rich feel justified in allowing them to accrue even more wealth on our backs.

In other words, they want us to pay for the rich to get richer using our meager retirement benefits. When people ask you why you would vote against your own interests by voting for these extremist Republicans, this is what they are talking about. By continuing to vote for the same old guys, that have amassed quite a bit of wealth themselves, you are giving the permission to take away from you, me, our parents, and the poorest Americans.

If that sounds like a shitty deal to you, it’s because it is.

I’m not here to tell you who to vote for, but I am here to tell you to stop believing the hype that these old guard politicians are selling. Because what they’re selling is junk and they’re using fear to convince you to buy it. They like to use keywords to scare the shit out of you. But we’re Americans. This is the home of the brave. We aren’t supposed to fear a damned thing.

Stop buying what they’re selling.

Instead focus on their voting records, if they even vote. Focus on the issues that matter because they matter to a great deal of us. Stop listening to their bullshit and focus on the reality of who they are and what they represent.

Currently, they’re only representing themselves.