Threatening punishment… retribution. It was Democrats, years ago, who were doing that, and that’s exactly what Republicans are doing, now.
Going after financial firms, in particular, in the waning years of the past millennium, was what some Democratic Party politicians were doing, like, in some respects, Florida Republicans are doing now in their efforts to punish Disney World.
Democrats were going to ban some financial firms from doing business with various state and municipal governments, because they had issues with the industry. Florida Republicans, currently going after Disney World, want to control some key Disney operations, and are threatening to impose new and additional taxes on the company.
Ironic, isn’t it, this retribution thing, with Democratic politicians, back in the past, and currently, with Republican politicians?
It doesn’t seem like Democrats are at it, as much… maybe after discovering, years ago, that threatening retribution doesn’t age all that well. It gets old.
So, it’s Republicans wanting to rumble, perhaps in the footsteps of the biggest threatener of retribution of all time, former President Trump. (Or, to be fair, we maybe should be including some other rather despotic rulers, currently, and some, from the past, on the list.)
So many threats and so much retribution, these days, against women… against their reproductive rights, and such. And banning books, and threatening peoples’ voting rights, and so on. It seems almost every day, sometimes even more frequently, there’s something new in the works, on Republicans’ drawing board.
I remember when Democrats were threatening retribution, years ago, and wondering what the outcome might be. And when the outcome turned out to be not so much, if anything at all, wondering about all the craziness, with politicians scurrying about with their hair on fire, riling folks up, squandering lots of time, energy — and as politicians seem quite capable of doing, money, too.
Later on, though, Democrats would legislate some necessary, new measures for reining in some concerning financial industry practices.
Now it’s Republicans, with lots of craziness and wasteful things in the works, but with one possibly major difference.
Because this time around, it may be the whole ball of wax, so to speak, that’s being threatened: Democracy, itself.
That whole ball of wax.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.