Glenn Melancon/Contributing writer
I used to love listening to country music in my dad’s pickup. He had an eight track that played all of his favorites. Dad also knew where to find all his country stations on the radio. I had a steady diet of 60s, 70s and 80s country hits.
Dad always liked the playful songs from Johnny Cash to Jerry Reid. It seemed like I could look for hours at the album cover of Cash’s Everybody Loves a Nut as the LP spun on the turn table. I also never tired of singing along with Reid’s “She Got the Goldmine”… “I got the shaft.”
Reid’s satirical take on divorce deals with the frustration of getting less than a fair share. It is clear by the end of the song that Reid had moved beyond his prior love of his wife. Who could blame him? She got the gold mine; he got the shaft.
I guess that is why as an adult I don’t get conservative voters. Their politicians always get the gold mine and give us the shaft. Every year our property taxes go up and up. Our taxes never go down. The best we can hope for is having them frozen at age 65.
I can’t help but wonder “Who does get the tax cuts?” Then answer is not hard to find. Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton are just like Donald Trump. They take care of their mega donors first.
Millionaires and billionaires already own the gold mines. Conservative politicians believe they are suffering and give them a tax cut. This process started with Ronald Reagan. He cut income taxes and raised Social Security taxes.
As tax payers we are not the only ones hurt by this scam. Conservatives then defund services from schools and police departments to VA hospitals and Post Offices. How many of us had to sit and wait for a Driver’s License?
The problems we face range from a nuisance to an emergency. For some of us taking off work to sit for an hour in DPS might be a welcome break, but for others, an hour takes money out of the pay check. Our veterans may have learned “hurry up and wait” while in uniform, but they really need to suffer for a doctor’s visit?
These crises are by design. Conservatives win elections by promising that government can’t work. Once they are elected, they break the system and demand more cuts to public services. Rinse and repeat.
After cutting income taxes, Reagan shed crocodile tears for a growing deficit. Conservatives have spent the last 40 years attacking public schools and “entitlements.” They want schools, Social Security and Medicare in private hands. They want to finish redistributing wealth from us to their buddies.
I am tired of this song. There is no reason for conservative donors to get the gold mine while we get the shaft. We dug the mine. We created the wealth. We deserve better.