Are Republican conservatives trying to kill us? The idea of eliminating the uber-woke elite might appeal if you’re from the far-right faction in our divisive class warfare. However, statistics (more ‘fake facts’?) suggest that MAGA policies, as implemented by Donald Trump, are primarily affecting ordinary and poorer Americans–not the rich.

If you have enough education and wealth, you can navigate our deteriorating healthcare system. You might hire a concierge doctor, pay cash to replace your worn-out joints, or spend your final days in a private nursing home. But if you cannot, you will do less well. Maybe disastrously less well. This is why, in America, the top 10% of earners live 10 or more years longer than the bottom 10%. For most of us, prescription drugs are prohibitively expensive, medical bills can lead to bankruptcy and dying can leave our families with crushing medical debt.

Historically, America was a leader in developing life-saving drugs and novel therapies, and it once recognized healthcare as a right, not a privilege. Unfortunately, recent cutbacks to research into curing our most feared diseases–such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, and emerging pandemic viruses–have stalled or been canceled entirely.

Advancements that once eliminated the risk of children dying from diseases like polio and measles are now being undone by the Luddite science-denying non-expert who leads Health and Human Services. He does not believe that germs cause infectious diseases and promotes debunked theories, such as the idea that vaccines cause autism. The first mRNA vaccines were being administered by the end of 2020, the same year the genetic code for the SARS-CoV-2 virus was sequenced. Unbelievably fast for such a complex project. Those vaccines saved millions of lives. Now, he and Trump have ended all research into mRNA vaccines.

The less education you have, the more likely you are to believe lies about vaccines, and the result is that your children die. Low-income people are half as likely to believe in and use vaccines as are high-income people, and even high-income people with less education are more likely to be vaccine skeptics. Once again, the Trump administration’s policies are hurting and even killing off lower-income, less educated people, many of whom are MAGA supporters.

Cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could lead to an estimated 17 million people losing health insurance in the near future, significantly impacting mortality rates. Inevitably, Trump’s policies are adversely impacting his own base and their life expectancies.

But healthcare is merely the tip of the deadly iceberg. Slowing or halting investments in clean energy–possibly due to the fossil fuel industry’s political donations–while reviving dirty power plants is increasing asthma, mercury fallout, and acid rain. Clean air and water benefit everyone, but the poorer among us are disproportionately affected by pollution.

Many right-wingers deny that global warming poses a threat or even exists. This position is becoming increasingly untenable as extreme weather events–such as hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and drought–intensify. Beyond the obvious destruction, more frequent heat waves contribute to wildfires, expand the range of disease-carrying insects, exacerbate harmful algal blooms and threaten outdoor workers’ lives. Policies of previous administrations aimed at global collaboration to transition away from fossil fuels have been reversed, even though renewable energy sources have become cheaper than fossil fuels. The only motivations for supporting outdated industries appear to be entrenched political and financial interests.

Inequality in rights can also be life-threatening. When rights are not universal, some benefit at the expense of others. This is why our democracy was founded on the rule of law. When state powers supersede this principle, we revert to a time when the king could govern at will. We are perilously close to that reality with unidentifiable masked individuals abducting citizens from the streets.

The Trump administration’s response to these disappearances has been to label detainees as “illegal aliens” or “criminals.” However, evidence suggests that American citizens and others legally residing in the U.S. are among those being taken along with legally-protected asylum seekers. The denial of due process to those abducted, often deported to dangerous prisons or held without access to legal representation, is fundamentally un-American. Yet it is happening.

For much of our country, public broadcasting is the only early-warning system for life-threatening extreme weather events. And many of those now-defunded stations provide public service programs that help people navigate lifestyle challenges, including how to live with and control diabetes, drug dependencies, and depression. Again, the most likely beneficiaries are those who have not had the income or education to learn those skills elsewhere.

As Trump consolidates power, it is not being used to fulfill his campaign promises; rather, it benefits him and his wealthy allies.

The greatest opposition should come from those most harmed by this transfer of wealth from the middle and lower classes to the already rich. To protect us from those imaginary invading caravans of murderers and rapists, and from people already here who are supposedly eating our pets, Trump is invoking the National Guard, federalizing Washington, and dismantling protective agencies.

Why is he expanding his power? To protect us? Hardly. Once again, his trusting supporters are among those most likely to lose purchasing power, healthcare, and even their freedom and lives. Let’s help them see that they are his victims, not his army.

——

Lee Keet lives in Saranac Lake.