No, not me

I believe that Republicans are members of a death cult. Sounds extreme, I know, but what else would you call it? They are trying to take health care away from Americans which has already caused deaths due to inadequate medical care. There’s only one reason they would do that: They believe that the profits of insurance companies are more important than the lives of Americans.

But to actually be considered members of a death cult, Republicans would have to do more than just let a few sick people die. They would need to let a whole shitload of sick people die. And they are doing just that.

During the COVID crisis, Republicans are holding rallies to open the economy immediately, consequences be damned. Some of them even say this explicitly. Dan Patrick, Lt. Governor of Texas, said that he’d be willing to die if the economy could be reopened. And of course Donald Trump has said repeatedly, as is his wont, not to let the remedy be worse than the problem. He didn’t explicitly say he wanted people to die alone in nursing homes, but that is certainly what would happen.

Not content with having American citizens die, the Republicans and Trump also have instituted policies that will lead to Mexicans and Central Americans dying in the desert while they are walking to the border or waiting in camps for their court dates. I have heard that some people are even picking up food and water caches placed in the desert to aid refugees.

Republicans have also worked diligently to deny women the right to safe abortions, instead forcing them to use illegal abortionists who in the past have proven careless about the welfare of their patients.

There are other actions taken by Trump and the Republicans, many of which result in death or disease. Trump removed some protections from the Clean Water Act that will permit companies to dump raw waste into our rivers. He also made changes that will permit auto makers and importers to let their cars pollute our air more by raising the legal limit of CO2 emissions and lowering the legal miles per gallon for each new car.

Republicans justify these things by saying that regulations are harming business profits, thereby explicitly stating that the deaths of our citizens must be exchanged for corporate profits.

If that’s not the description of a death cult, I don’t know what would be, unless it’s putting people into concentration camps and starving them to death. But the net result of these Republican policies, and others that I could name, is the deaths of thousands, perhaps even millions of people who were not given the choice or whether they wanted to sacrifice their lives for corporate profits or not.

I’m going to be among the first to say it, no, Mr. President, I do not agree to die so that corporations can enjoy higher profits.

No, not me.