I don’t like Laura Ingraham very much, but she wrote a piece recently about the GOP and Trump that has some real insight, and perhaps even some common ground.

I completely agree. I do wonder what policies she would support to help the working-class. Give more support to unions who fight for better working environments and better pay for the working class? Give more support to regulations that make the workplace safer for workers, at the expense of the company? Support increases in minimum wage laws so the working poor can rely on their salaries instead of shifting the burden to food stamps? I somehow don’t think Ingraham and I would agree on how to fix these problems, but I’m still happy to hear that she thinks it’s a problem. Like my earlier post about responding to government failure and the logic in the response to it, I’m left wondering exactly how she wants to solve this problem, and why she doesn’t support the same things somebody like me does.

When I read stuff like this, I’m left wondering why, with all the talk of supporting the middle class, with all the talk of protecting workers, with all the talk of not spending a fortune fighting wars, why why why do these people support any member of the GOP, especially Trump. Trump’s tough talk is exactly the kind of thing that got us into Iraq. The “weak” diplomacy that they mock is what keeps us out of places like Iraq.

Trump and the other GOP candidates that Ingraham fawns over are pretty universally anti-union. It makes me wonder how somebody proposes to help the working class, while dismantling the organizations that have the sole purpose of fighting for the best interest of the workers? What could help the working class more than fighting for worker pay? Don’t we help the working class by trying to achieve a more equal playing field, so the working class can have access to investment options that only millionaires have? When Ingraham rails against a collection of policies that have failed them over and over, what, exactly would she replace those policies with? Lower taxes? Well, that’s just going to take away public resources that the working class need. Fewer regulations and fewer unions? Well, doesn’t that just make it easier for management to exploit the working class? Keep the mexicans out so they don’t “steal our jobs”? Well, that kind of reminds me of a great piece of comedy, originally (I think) by a guy named Jimmy Carr about Polish immigrants in Britain, but that more recently showed up in a meme with Louis CK about Mexicans. The clip of Jimmy Carr is below…what a good one. Just substitute America for Britain and Mexicans for Poles and you’ll get the gist.