Republicans: continued

[Brian Peacock]

Because it makes us feel like we're involved in events - even if we have no control over how they play out?

[Sean Hayden]

How is attacking higher education supposed to work for these guys? It’s true that regardless of income people with at least a bachelor’s degree are more likely to lean democratic. But it’s also true that among the less educated only the upper middle and well off are more likely to lean republican.

I guess, maybe, you don’t have to worry about the vast majority of us. You really only need to destroy the opportunities of that small minority of highly effective well educated opponents. The rest of us could all be democrats and it wouldn’t matter, what are we going to do about it anyway?

—meh, it’s probably not that deep as the kids say. They just hate a liberal education.

[Brian Peacock]

I just don't think they like the idea of ideas competing with theirs.

[Svartalf]

I just don't think they like the idea of ideas competing with theirs.

they don't actually have ideas, you need a brain in working order for that.

[Tero]

The MAGA assassin

[Tero]

[L'Emmerdeur]

Against readily available evidence, Republicans have convinced a significant number of gullible Americans that they're the 'party of the working class.' It's a disgusting lie.

Missouri's Republican governor on Thursday signed legislation repealing the paid sick leave portion of a ballot measure that the state's voters approved with nearly 60% support in the 2024 election.

The short-lived provision, which will officially be repealed on August 28, required Missouri employers to provide workers with an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours of work. Businesses with 15 or more employees were required to provide up to 56 hours of earned paid sick time per year, and businesses with fewer than 15 employees were required to provide at least 40 hours of paid sick time.

...

The bill that Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed Thursday, known as H.B. 567, also restricts increases in the state's minimum wage. The voter-approved initiative called for raising the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2026 and indexing it to inflation thereafter. H.B. 567 eliminates the inflation adjustment.

...

"We the people collected signatures," wrote one commenter. "We voted. And we passed Prop A into law. Remember you work for us. How dare you reverse the voice of your people?! The people you took an oath to serve."

Missouri Jobs With Justice, which helped lead the campaign for the ballot measure, said in a statement that "with Governor Kehoe's decision to sign H.B. 567 into law, workers will again face increased economic insecurity when balancing being sick with maintaining their job."

The group noted that Kehoe's support for repealing paid sick leave came after he "recently called a special session to approve spending millions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize billionaire-owned stadiums." On Thursday, Kehoe also signed legislation slashing the state's capital gains tax.

"Simply put, Missouri workers and their families do not deserve to see their newly earned paid sick leave stripped away," said Missouri Jobs With Justice. "Not only is this a slap in the face to workers asking for an opportunity to earn paid sick leave, it’s an insult to over 57% of Missourians who voted for Proposition A in November."

Throughout the process of pushing H.B. 567 through the Legislature, Missouri Republicans openly voiced contempt for voters who supported the paid sick leave and minimum wage initiative. One GOP lawmaker, state Rep. Mitch Boggs, said, "Of course the people voted for it."

"It'd be like asking your teenager if he wanted a checkbook," said Boggs.

[source]

[Brian Peacock]

I'm constantly surprised how stories such as this -- and there are many -- don't lead to traditional conservative voters realising that their elected representatives are not working in their material interests or, more broadly, that people are being deliberately frightened or flattered, cajoled or bullied, misinformed or mislead (etc) into actually voting against their own interests.

There are many reasons for this oc, but around work, workers rights, and the wider conditions of employment, stories like this do seem to project a certain... and I don't say this lightly... master-slave ethos at play in the social-economic relationship between employers and employees. Perhaps that's just a feature more generally of boss/worker, or so-called "wage slave" attitudes to employment under whatever we're calling this version of capitalism - but the article above does throw it into stark relief. The electing public sent a very strong signal to their elected representatives that that current employment conditions and practices were not working for them, and yet those representatives didn't just ignore them, but affirmed in action and words that employees not only have little to no power to influence their life-conditions, but don't deserved to be listened to or to have their views respected. "We are the masters. You exist only by our will and whim, so be grateful for what little we deem appropriate to offer you. This is your lot in life, and while you're at it make sure you're suitably effusive in your thanks and praise for us."