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Cornyn now says this summarizes the Democratic platform. In fact, it's the GOP that wants draconian law enforcement, state control of women's emergency healthcare, criminalization of drugs less harmful than alcohol, state-sponsored prayer and public accommodations discrimination.
1/ It's not partisan or hotheaded to observe that—across the board—Republicans favor limiting individual liberty. Whether it's the war on drugs, euthanasia, school prayer, the right to choose, basic law enforcement strategies, or anything else, the GOP opposes individual freedom.
2/ As a matter of marketing, what the GOP has been successful at doing—I admit—is selling a moralistic, authoritarian, regressive government as "pro-freedom." Republicans' nihilistic tax policy—which allows a handful of people to be multibillionaires—is what passes for "freedom."
3/ When FDR—and other great leaders of that ilk—imagined universal healthcare, universal education, and a livable wage for all Americans, it wasn't about *limiting* freedom but *expanding* it: if you're healthy, educated, and have a home, you can *live your best and freest life*.
4/ I don't know how or when it happened, but I think another very successful GOP marketing pitch has been to tell Americans—even struggling Americans—that getting an affordable education, affordable healthcare, and a decent job is *an imposition on your freedom*. That just crazy.
5/ I think the two-party system is healthy; it's *good* for us to argue about marginal tax rates, preferred practices for good governance, and the complexities of foreign policy. But undergirding these debates should be some honesty about what enslaves humans and what frees them.
6/ The focus of this feed continues to be the Russia scandal (and I've said that I take no sides in the Democratic primary). But when a top GOP senator is using fascist rhetoric as a political football, I think that ties in quite closely to what Trump has done to our discourse.
7/ FWIW, the Republicans I know think of themselves as pro-freedom—so when I critique the GOP as anti-freedom I mean literally the party platform, not the bulk of the party's voters. I continue to see the *party* as a marketing strategy attached to an annual political convention.
