Thank You GOP!!

A lot of people are down on the GOP. But I was thinking that there are a lot of things we could thank them for. In fact, I decided to make a little list-

You should thank a Republican if:

- You had a foodborne illness this summer. CNN reported that so far this year, the US has reported about 10,500 cases of foodborne illness. By comparison between 2021 and 2025, the annual average was about 1,500 cases. According to Heather Cox Richardson, one of the reasons for the surge is “the federal funding cuts that scaled back the ability of federal agencies to conduct food inspections and provide grants to state and local health departments that used to be able to trace outbreaks quickly.”

You should thank a Republican if:

- You had to drop your health insurance because your monthly costs jumped. Federal data and health analyses show that roughly 3 million to 5 million people have already lost or left their marketplace health insurance plans due to spiking premiums. By the end of the year, more are expected to be without health insurance (or underinsured).(But don’t worry, Trump will have a new, even better plan in two weeks.)

You should thank a Republican if:

- You have cancer. Not because Republicans caused your cancer of course, but because federal budget proposals and executive actions have led to substantial cuts and freezes in National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding. These reductions have forced clinical trial cancellations, staff layoffs, and lab slowdowns nationwide. I actually know someone who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and while doing a little online research discovered that people who had a similar diagnosis were no longer able to continue the clinical trials they were on because of a loss of funding. Devastating. Tatiana Schlossberg wrote about this shortly before she died in her heart-wrenching essay “A Battle With My Blood.”

You should thank a Republican if:

-Your grocery bill is more expensive. As well as the gas you put in your car. And pretty much everything else. But as Trump himself said, he really doesn’t care if you can afford necessities- deal with it. (All while he covers DC in gold, spends our money renovating and on unnecessary wars, and lines his personal coffers through grift.)

You should thank a Republican if:

-You’ve been impacted by severe weather which could include (but is not limited to) floods, fires, tornadoes, etc. Fueled by long-term global warming and the development of a powerful El Nino, record-breaking heat waves baked Asia and Europe over the past several months. Here in the US, we had the hottest July ever. No, Republicans didn’t cause climate change per se, but they have cut funding to mitigate it. This administration has dismantled climate laws and scaled back the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding. These measures prioritize fossil fuel production and seek to eliminate clean energy incentives. And after you’ve been impacted by a natural disaster, don’t expect FEMA to help you rebuild. They’ve experienced a loss of funding as well.

I thought about writing a children’s book explaining why our planet is dying, but it seemed kind of dark.

You should also thank a Republican if:

-Someone you know was impacted by gun violence. The combination of lax gun laws and a crappy mental health system is directly correlated to the crazy high number of deaths and injuries caused by firearms in this country.

Here are a few other things you might want to thank Republicans for:

- The endless war in Iran and our troops being treated poorly

-Polarizing our country

-Isolating the US and making us a laughingstock of the world

- The bad jobs report/ruining a strong economy

- Out of control corruption and lying (where the actual fuck is Mitch McConnell? And Trump made HOW MUCH last year????)

- Someone you know was deported or murdered by ICE- even though they were law-abiding

- The measles outbreak and disinformation regarding vaccines

- Trying to steal the midterms by initiating gerrymandering and making false claims

Those are merely a few of the highlights- there’s so much more we could thank Republicans for.

But the best way to show our appreciation for all that they’ve done is to VOTE like we’ve never voted before.