How do we Survive the Republican Culture of Death?

Republicans controlling Washington are trying to kill us all. How do we survive the republican culture of death? Tragedies in Texas give us a clear understanding of the dangerous, death-soaked society Republicans are creating across the country.

Kerr County, Texas, known as part of “Flash Flood Alley,” experienced 94 deaths this summer; a significant number of the fatalities at Camp Mystic, a youth camp along the Guadalupe River, where 27 campers and staff drowned.

Hundreds more had to be rescued after Republican negligence put them in danger.

This heartbreaking disaster will be remembered—not for the lessons learned, but because the deaths, including dozens of children, are little more than sacrifices to the dangerous and selfish philosophy guiding U.S. policy.

Texas Republicans repeatedly sacrifice their children on the alter of ideology and Republicans in Washington expect the rest of us to fall in line.

The community around Texas’ Robb Elementary School was decimated when a gunman killed and wounded 36 children and teachers. The damage was compounded when nearly 400 police officers responded, but none could muster the courage to enter the building and stop the shooter. A Border Patrol Tactical Unit finally killed the shooter 77 minutes after he entered the building. Republican cowards continue to hide the facts of their shameful response that day.

“Once you bury enough children who shouldn’t be dead,” a mortician said to me, “you lose your belief in God.”

“How does God allow this?” many ask after needless deaths and tragedies.

God didn’t allow it. Texans did. Texans made choices that resulted in dozens of drowned children: Deaths that are the direct result of the flawed Republican philosophy.

Republicans in Washington choose to slash funding for the National Weather Service.

Across the country, weather balloon launches have been reduced by more than 20%. The National Weather Service is understaffed in many states, including Texas.

Kerr County didn’t have a siren warning system because neither county officials nor the state wanted to pay for it.
(Incidentally – the Federal government now makes some public announcements available only on a website owned by a Republican political donor. That this isn’t an issue, let alone a scandal, demonstrates how corrupt our country has become. It will get much, much worse.)

Republicans choose to sacrifice public safety so the wealthy can pay fewer taxes.

Republicans want to live in a county, a state, a country, with fully preventable fatalities, because they don’t want government protection.

And so children drown. If republicans have their way, millions more Americans will die.

Weeks after Trump cut staffing at the Federal Aviation Administration, the first commercial air fatalities in decades occurred.

Unvaccinated children will needlessly die because Republicans cut scientific research and replaced it with lies.

Republicans want less scientific study and more ignorance. Rather than try to make life better, Republicans in Washington have dismantled federal agencies that measure and report facts.

Republicans have cut resources to Americans – health care, scientific research, education, social services, the list goes on and on. People will die because of republicans in Washington.

When tragedies happen, normal people around the world ask, “how did this happen? What can be done to prevent it?” And then they pass laws intended to keep people safe and improve life in general.

Republicans respond to preventable tragedies with, “this isn’t the time to point fingers or politicize the issue.”

Republican-dominated states like Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma are less educated, more dangerous and generally rank at the bottom of every category.

Republican philosophy doesn’t work, and so Republicans lie about democrats and deny the effects of their own actions.

Republicans mock education and knowledge and convince a segment of the country to believe the lie that democrats are corrupt and can’t be trusted. Consequently, republican voters not only don’t believe democrats reporting of actual corruption, but they approve of republican corruption if it’s not a democrat doing it.

These voters intentionally and willfully support policies that hurt them.

What America have we become?

How can a civil and just society survive if a significant portion would rather die than agree with another party? If they would rather be dead than democrat?

I honestly don’t know what the answer is. I’m afraid we’ve already gone too far down a road from which we will not easily return.

When millions die needlessly while republicans control the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court, who will republicans blame? I don’t know.

But I certainly hope I survive long enough to find out.

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For more from Jim, follow these links:

Notes from a Sermon: How Do We Respond to the Current Culture?

The Clark Doll Study Documenting the Damage of Segregation

Remembering Civil Rights Martyr Jonathan Daniels

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Pastor Jim Meisner, Jr. is the author of the novel Faith, Hope, and Baseball, available on Amazon, or follow this link to order an autographed copy. He created and manages the Facebook page Faith on the Fringe.