Tuesday, September 19, 2023

"You Go On Strike; You Get Fired." An Interesting, If Precarious, Philosophy.

Someone asked Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), who is running in the primaries (so far) for president, what he would do about the auto workers' strike if he was president, and he responded with the quote in the title of this post.

Setting aside that the president of the US has nothing to do with an auto workers' strike, and nothing to say about it, and that the posture, and sentiment, Scott expressed are just another example of applying yet more handicaps to already disadvantaged Americans, Scott's impulse creates some potentially difficult problems, for people like him.

If you're a US Senator, and you announce that you refuse to consider any SCOTUS nomination made by then president Barack Obama, in Obama's last year in office, when a Justice had died, and needed to be replaced, have you gone on strike?  Should you get fired from the Senate?

When Donnie Trump is impeached by the House, twice, and the Republican majority Senate announces that it doesn't care what the House does, because regardless of any of the facts and testimony, it refuses in advance to convict Donnie, are Senate Republicans then on strke?  Should they all get fired from the Senate?

If you're a Republican member of the House, and you refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless you get to impoverish more Americans, have you gone on strike?  Should you get fired?

If you watch various videos of Congress, and you notice that the vast majority of Congressmembers are not there, because they're working out, having lunch, shopping, trysting with their boyfriends or girlfriends, or spending much of their time on phone banks, looking for money for their next campaigns, are they in effect on strike?  Should they all get fired?  Should they get fired on the spot if they add insult to injury, and claim they haven't had time to read the bills on which they vote, so they just vote blindly?

When members of Congress vote according to what their larger donors, or the people who "lobby" them, want, and contrary to the interests of the American people, let alone the rest of the world, are they in effect on strike, at least against American citizens/voters?  Would Tim Scott agree they should be fired?

Clearly, these are rhetorical questions.  Tim Scott no doubt receives campaign donations from the huge auto conglomerates, and not from the unions, and he only cares about the welfare (hmm) of his donors, and not of the American people, including those who do the thing Republicans always insist people should do: work.

It seemed Scott painted himself into a corner.  If he thought more about it, he might very well adjust his view of this matter (especially if someone informed him that this is a private sector issue, and does not involve the president of the US, or that person's opinion).  As frustrated as I sometimes get with Joe Biden, at least he knows when to butt out.  But maybe Scott just wanted whatever tiny base he has to know how nasty and sadistic he is.  Noted.



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