From: Scott Keen
Columbus
Last year, two-thirds of Hoosiers voted Republican, reelecting the same brand of feckless politicians who have forged Indiana into an unexceptional state.
Listen. Indiana needs help.
Eli Lilly’s CEO recently said “Health, life and inclusion … conditions rank poorly nationally in our state”. Hoosier agencies (IOSHA, Child Protective Services) are struggling due to underfunding. Indiana rivers and streams are the most polluted in the U.S. Don’t eat the fish!
Indiana is high in infant and maternal mortality, and low on real support (nutrition, healthcare, daycare) for working moms and children. Women professionals are reluctant to work here because of pending draconian abortion laws.
Alcohol and gambling are promoted while jobs and tax money pour out of Indiana into surrounding states where cannabis is legal.
Indiana, a significant federal funds “taker” state, is becoming a backwoods of giant warehouses, solar farms, and broken communities, a crossroads state people cross, not stopping.
Meanwhile, the GOP actively obstructs issues vital to Hoosiers.
Indiana Republicans undermine our well-run public schools, diverting money to voucher programs supporting sketchy “no requirements” private schooling. They ban books about complicated social issues like sex and Indiana’s disgraceful racist history, but ignore the social-media garbage pile engulfing children 24/7.
They arm teachers, suggest students survive shootings by “playing dead”, and approve people getting blown to pieces with military-grade weapons to preserve their “sacred” Second Amendment rights.
Indiana Republicans are the supermajority party of cranky, white, Christian nationalist men. Diversity scares them. Many Blacks and LGBTQ were driven away by Indiana policies long ago. Those remaining have been gerrymandered into essential irrelevance. Hoosier Hospitality!
They dismiss climate change. The stolen election “Big Lie” is certified baloney, yet Hoosiers reelected Republicans who endorse it.
Republican Supreme Court nominees lied to congress in confirmation hearings, testifying Roe vs. Wade was settled law. Then, those Republican appointees, in the blink of an eye, stripped American women of a constitutional right they held for 50 years.
Where was the outrage from Hoosier voters who widely support women’s rights? They reelected misogynistic Indiana Republicans pushing “no exception” abortion bans!
Cold-hearted Republicans labored to kill the Affordable Care Act, and fever-dream of destroying Medicare and Social Security. They will repeal the new Biden administration law permitting Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices and capping the cost of insulin for seniors. Hoosier seniors support this?
Republicans’ true agenda is giving deficit-exploding tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy. They don’t want the IRS to pursue insanely rich tax cheats and corporations that pay zero taxes, but they recently proposed a 30% national sales tax that would hammer low-income people. Their deficits are funded on the backs of the working class.
This reality-denying, mean-spirited cult of personality offers no vision, no empathy, no inspiration and no shame. They falsely proclaim mighty America is weak, our legendary democracy is evil, and our unrivaled military stinks. True patriots.
What the heck, Indiana?!
