Ryan-Akin, Romney-Trump

This column is an expression of contempt toward some of the wealthiest Democrats in America, who fail to understand the consequences if the forces I describe here take power in America. They are being dominated by donations of rightist billionaires and greed-soaked beneficiaries of our modern Gilded Age.

{mosads}The coming Republican convention might well dramatize to the nation the extremism and Obama-hate that is modern Republicanism and become an epic disaster for the GOP. Whether this happens or not:

On almost all matters of high policy, the Republican ticket might well be called the Ryan-Akin team. Forget the supposed call by Paul Ryan to Todd Akin to drop out of the Missouri Senate race. Ryan and Akin agree on almost every major issue.  They stand together at the vortex of a hyper-partisan and politically extremist war waged by Republicans against the interests of women and against Medicare and Social Security.

They favor a tax code that would turn America into a vulture nation. They combine big talk and bellicose words about military conflicts with the cowardly refusal to pay for wars they promote.

The only difference between Ryan and Akin is Akin’s disgusting use of the word “legitimate” to describe the venal crime of rape. Otherwise they agree that a woman who is raped must be banned by the state from the choice of having an abortion. While the latest new Romney distances himself from this extremism, he refuses to demand it be removed from the Republican platform. If Ryan ever assumes the presidency, he would fight for it to be the law of the land.

Because Ryan insists on using his faith for political ends, it is fair to ask him: Exactly where does his faith in Ayn Rand end and his faith in the Sermon on the Mount begin?

The Republican campaign might well be called the politics of Romney-Trump. Voters might ask why Donald Trump, the standard-bearer of a campaign of nut-case birtherism to advance bigot-based politics, will be showcased at the Republican convention while the last Republican president, George W. Bush, will be hidden from public view.

It is fitting that the keynote speaker at Romney’s convention will be a Republican governor whose trademark is berating and insulting his constituents.

Romney-Ryan, Ryan-Akin and Romney-Trump share a vision of politics that gives extremism and hate a privileged seat at the table of GOP power.

Romney, Ryan, Akin and Trump agree on almost every issue. Wealthy Democrats suffering a life crisis about whether they should enter the arena against mega-donations by the Adelsons and Koches might ponder why they make their mega-donations, why Romney and Ryan fall to their knees paying homage to them, and what kind of America we get if they buy the power of the presidency, the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court for a generation.

The GOP wages war against Medicare and Social Security because they despise what they consider evil liberal programs. Their extremist platform before the election doesn’t scratch the surface of what they will try to do if they win the election, especially if they control Congress and courts. They know most voters disagree with them, so they lie about the president’s Medicare position and try to hide their extremism as Romney and Ryan hide their tax returns.

When Republicans say they want to “take back America” they are dog-whistling that they want to take back America from seniors who benefit from Medicare and Social Security, from uppity women who seek fair pay and freedom of choice, from uppity blacks they demonize in dishonest Trump-style welfare ads, from Hispanics they picture as climbing over walls to immigrate here and against whom they employ the shameless pandering Mitt Romney employed demonizing Hispanics even against other Republicans in Republican primaries.

Wealthy Democrats on the sidelines might ask:

Do we want an America of extremism in which six or seven Supreme Court justices share the vision of Thomas and Scalia, where the wars against women and against the poor are given the powers of all three branches of government, where all-out attempts to destroy Medicare and Social Security will be escalated even more on the day after the election, where vultures are honored and jobs are exported and more workers are fired in the interests of short-term profits that reward the profiteers and punish the rest of us, where a civil war will be waged to overturn Roe v. Wade and women will be denied the choice of an abortion even when they are raped, and when the earth is poisoned by polluters who pour money into this election with the same vehemence they pour carcinogens into our air, our land, our water, our bodies and our democracy?

To wealthy Democrats having difficulty deciding whether they should enter the arena with their fists flying against the shared vision of Ryan, Akin, Romney and Trump I propose:

Get off your asses, before it is too late.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.