I know everyone and their dawg is demanding a high participation to overcome Team Evil in the 2022 Pie Fight. Our pals at Electoral-Vote have an interesting observation: the Republicans have created a fantasyland opponent and Democrats are talking about Republicans actual policies.

Based on our sense of the 2022 campaign, these seem to be the policy issues that Republicans are hitting Democrats over the heads with:

• Trans athletes
• “Open” borders
• Critical Race Theory
• Defunding the police
• Legalizing abortion up to the point of birth

And these seem to be the policy issues that Democrats are hitting Republicans over the heads with:

• Harsh abortion restrictions, possibly including outright bans
• Voter ID laws and other efforts to keep people from voting
• Stop the steal, and a willingness to overturn election results
• Overt racism, as we wrote about yesterday.

Are these lists a fair characterization? Please stop and consider for a moment, before you read what we have to say next.

Assuming that we have the right of it, then these two lists have a fundamentally different characters. In order to portray the Democrats as extremists, the Republicans have invented a fantasy platform, either grossly overstating the significance of issues (trans athletes, CRT) or ascribing policy positions to the Party that few officeholders actually hold (defunding the police, open borders, birth-time abortions).

By contrast, in order to portray the Republicans as extremists, all the Democrats have to do is… talk about the Party’s actual policy positions. Not all Republican officeholders hold all of the policy positions we outline above, but is there any question that all four of them have become mainstream within the GOP? And while there are many Republicans who don’t actually believe in stop the steal, they pretend to play along, which has the same net effect.

Now, in the spirit of discussing the actual, on-the-record policies of the GOP, we turn our attention to Bloomberg(!):

Entitlement, Spending Cap Plans Linked by GOP to Debt-Limit Deal

• Key GOP members weigh Social Security, Medicare changes
• Debt-limit deadline expected in third quarter of 2023

Social Security and Medicare eligibility changes, spending caps, and safety-net work requirements are among the top priorities for key House Republicans who want to use next year’s debt-limit deadline to extract concessions from Democrats.

The four Republicans interested in serving as House Budget Committee chairman in the next Congress said in interviews that next year’s deadline to raise or suspend the debt ceiling is a point of leverage if their party can win control of the House in the November midterm elections.

The Republican position — which members are still formulating — could set the stage for an explosive standoff next year, reminiscent of the 2011 negotiations when the Tea Party wave of Republicans took on the Obama administration over spending.

It’s also possible Republicans will demand process-focused legislation — such as requiring a reduction in the debt-to-GDP ratio — that could subsequently put major entitlement programs in play.

If Congress doesn’t raise or suspend the debt limit by the deadline, the federal government would default on payments officials had already agreed to make. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned during 2021 negotiations that a default would be “a catastrophe” and could cause a financial crisis.

“The debt limit is clearly one of those tools that Republicans — that a Republican-controlled Congress — will use to make sure that we do everything we can to make this economy strong,” said Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) , the ranking member of the House Budget Committee. He’s seeking the top GOP spot on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee but said if he doesn’t get it, he’ll remain in his Budget Committee position.

As we all know Sen. Bat Boy, er,  Rick Scott wrote the GOP plank for 2022 which boldly states that they want to sunset Social Security and Medicare every 5 years to be “debated”(cancelled) and also demands that every enrollee is taxed (to some degree) so they have “skin in the game,” and have I mentioned lately Rick Scott looks a lot like Hannibal Lechter?

But I digest…

So, you see, while 2022 is all about abortion (and I don’t mean to minimize that, it’s YUGE), it is also about (little-d) democracy (voting rights, etc.), marriage equality, theocracy, white nationalism, and now we clearly know it is also about Social Security and Medicare.

Everything is on the line. Even if currently you are not enrolled in any of these programs, you will want to be enrolled someday and you have contributed to them for your entire working lives.

The Republicans are hellbent on hostage taking to sabotage good government and they want to rob you of your lifetime contributions: that’s YOUR money, not theirs.

They can do it if they get their majority. Don’t let them.