ProPublica reported, “an analysis of IRS of tax data for the 25 richest Americans quantifies just how unfair the system has become.” They report:
By the end of 2018, the 25 were worth $1.1 trillion.
For comparison, it would take 14.3 million ordinary American wage earners put together to equal that same amount of wealth.
The personal federal tax bill for the top 25 in 2018: $1.9 billion.
The bill for the wage earners: $143 billion.
Additional data from ProPublica showed the rich do not pay their fair share. They reported in 2007 and 2011 Amazon CEO paid no federal income taxes. In 2018, Tesla CEO Elon Musk paid zero taxes. The tax rate for the top 25 richest people in America is 1.1%. The tax rate for the average American is 13.3%. Through the use of tax avoidance strategies, the rich can see dramatic growth in their wealth and through loopholes in the tax laws, can report income much less than the increase in their wealth. Those strategies do not translate to the average working American. If the average person earns more money on their job, they have no option but to pay more taxes. Can the millions of Americans who support Trump and the Republicans and support tax cuts for the rich prosper by paying higher taxes than billionaires? The claim that when the top 1% and big corporations do well financially, it “trickles down” to the middle class is a “big lie” that Republicans have been spreading since the Reagan era.
Another gaslighting message MAGA voters wrongly believe is that Republican voter suppression legislation is crucial in order to protect voter integrity. Trump and his congressional enablers created the ” big lie” despite the fact the 2020 Presidential election was cleared of all baseless claims of fraud filed by Trump by over 65 court rulings, including the Supreme Court. The Brennan Center For Justice reported, “By all measures, the 2020 general election was one of the most secure elections in our history. Voters turned out in record numbers to cast their ballots by mail and in person, and the votes were counted promptly.” Republicans are passing bills that will allow secretaries of state to throw out election results and choose the winner based on partisan politics. Supporting such candidates is a vote to end democracy.
The troubling state of Trump’s mental health is obvious to anyone who has taken a high school level psychology class. America has had presidents who exhibited mental health issues, but thousands of psychiatrists and psychologist have publicly agreed that Donald Trump exhibits the extreme psychological disorders of personality of Narcisisstic Personality Disorder and Anti-Social Personality Disorder. These disorders render people incapable compassion and dismissive of fairness, rules, and any form of authority that limits their ability to gain control or power. Sufferers of these disorders use their charisma to manipulate and incite others to blindly believe everything they say is true. They create hatred towards anyone who opposes them and motivate followers by instilling fear based on lies.
The psychology of those who support Trump, Trumpism, conspiracy theories, autocracy, and voter suppression has had the attention of mental health professionals since Trump became president. There is concern about why they support extremism, cult personality politics, hate-based politics, support of violating the Constitution if done their party, and erroneously believing America is a white-Christian country. Having millions of people attracted to racist policies, white supremacy, anger politics, and autocracy is a threat to democracy
The sociological discovery that millions of American voters cannot tell the difference between a lie or the truth is shocking. Worse than that would be if they know the difference between a lie and the truth but don’t care as long as the liar is a Republican. If we lose our democracy, do these voters realize that their rights could become unprotected by the Constitution. Do they realize if a Democrat is in power, they could choose to govern by marginalizing Republican voters and their needs and freedoms like Republicans are now doing to Democrats? Be careful about what and who you vote for.
