The man in charge of the GOP’s effort to retake the Senate has some wild ideas
“What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they’re for.” A month ago, speaking at a press conference marking the end of his first year in office, President Joe Biden had good reason to be frustrated. That’s because national Republican leaders have largely been silent on what they would do if they were in power right now, instead focusing on attacking the Democrats and trying to pin every problem we face, from the ongoing pandemic to rising inflation, on the president and his party.
Well, now one star of the Republican party, Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who has the job of leading his party’s effort to elect more Republican senators, has put forward a bold “Eleven Point Plan to Rescue America” and it’s quite something to read. Here are its key points:
1. “Our kids will say the pledge of allegiance, salute the Flag, learn that America is a great country, and choose the school that best fits them.”
2. “Government will never again ask American citizens to disclose their race, ethnicity or skin color on any government forms.”
3. “The soft-on-crime days of coddling criminal behavior will end. We will re-fund and respect the police because they, not the criminals, are the good guys.”
4. “We will secure our border, finish building the wall, and name it after President Donald Trump.”
5. “We will grow America’s economy, starve Washington’s economy, and stop Socialism.”
6. “We will eliminate all federal programs that can be done locally, and enact term limits for federal bureaucrats and Congress.”
7. “We will protect the integrity of American Democracy and stop left-wing efforts to rig elections.”
8. “We will protect, defend, and promote the American Family at all costs.”
9. “Men are men, women are women, and unborn babies are babies.”
10. “Americans will be free to welcome God into all aspects of our lives.”
11. “We are Americans, not globalists.”
I’m pretty sure this reads better in the original German, or in Putin’s Russian. But just to give more of the flavor of Senator Scott’s “Rescue Plan,” here are some more gleanings from the fine print of his 62-page document.
Kids in schools will be required to stand for the National Anthem. Teachers who try to teach anything but the “3 R’s” will need to find new jobs. Racial politics will be eliminated by not allowing any government institution to talk about it. Local prosecutors who don’t want to prosecute nonviolent crimes will lose their discretion. The border will be patrolled by the military. For their first seven years in the US, immigrants will not be able to get unemployment benefits or other welfare benefits. Socialists will be treated as foreign combatants. All government legislation will automatically sunset every five years, including programs like Social Security. Federal programs may not benefit unmarried people. Abortion is murder and should be criminalized. God will be welcomed back into the public square. There are only two genders, and no doctor may perform gender-altering surgery on any minor. And government forms may not recognize gender identity or sexual preference.
There isn’t a rug big enough to hide all the things that Senator Scott wants to sweep under it with his Rescue America plan, but his obsession with eliminating all government efforts to collect information and design programs with any reference to a person’s ethnic or racial background is the most glaring example of Scott’s dangerous thinking. If he had his way, not only could we not educate our children about the rich tapestry of America’s communities by talking about the contributions of different racial and ethnic groups, we wouldn’t be able to know if any past or current programs were fairly treating all people or addressing issues that affect one group more than another. Instead of eliminating racial politics, Scott’s plan would simply take a more Orwellian approach: it’s gone because I say so.
Scott’s manifesto got some attention this week for his call to force all Americans to pay some income tax, dropping a hammer on the heads of the poor and elderly. He says this is so everyone has “skin in the game.” Nearly everyone now pays some taxes, like sales taxes, payroll taxes, excise taxes and property taxes, but many pay no income tax because of standard deductions and tax credits designed to ease the burden on the poorest. Democratic leaders were quick to pounce, pointing out that Scott wants to “raise taxes on more than half of Americans,” as Senator Chuck Schumer pointed out.
The whole tone of Scott’s Rescue Plan reminds me of the wacky populist Ross Perot, who charmed millions of Americans in the early 1990s with cheap slogans like his insistence that government be run like a business. It sounds good, until you realize that unlike businesses, which can pick their customers and only take on work that they can profit from, government has to serve everyone, including the most needy and helpless. Similarly, term limits for government bureaucrats and federal legislation undoubtedly polls well, until you realize that firing the people who do things like run veterans hospitals, administer Social Security and Medicare, and protect consumers from unsafe foods and products will just cause chaos.
But it’s the culture war red meat in Scott’s plan that should be setting off the loudest alarm bells. While he is obviously pandering to the most traditional Christian part of the GOP’s base with his talk of compulsory patriotism, unleashing police, defending straight marriage and criminalizing abortion, it’s rare to hear a top US Senator state so clearly what goes unsaid about implementing such a restrictive and punitive vision. But now you can see why national Republican leaders try not to say what they are actually for. Because most Americans don’t want these things.