Pillage, Not Policy: The Conservative War On The Commons— Everything Must Go

Grand Old Plunder: The GOP’s Final Clearance Sale

MAGA Mike's latest plan for America

With enough swing district Republicans too frightened to vote for the troubled Trump tax legislation that would have defunded Medicaid for millions of American families, MAGA Mike and company have been looking for other ways to finance Trump’s top 2 priorities: tax cuts for the rich and further enriching Elon Musk. Republicans have tried— and failed— to come up with a way to persuade their drastic Medicaid cuts for working families aren’t really cuts. Conservative Republicans in swing districts are starting to try to save their careers by going public with their opposition. Right-wing extremists who want to shit-can health care, are fuming. Take Chip Roy (R-TX): 

So now MAGA Mike is scrambling to find a way to pay for Trump’s priorities and campaign promises that were assuage the extremists without dooming his swing district incumbents. A new ruse is to sell off federal lands, not the mention buildings and the U.S. post office. Yesterday, Ari Natter reported that “House Republicans have added a plan to raise billions of dollars to help pay for Trump’s massive tax cuts through the sale of thousands of acres of federal land— a politically charged idea that has drawn opposition from some in their own party. The plan, a late-night addition to a legislative package approved early Wednesday by the House Natural Resources Committee, mandates the sale of dozens of parcels totaling more than 11,000 acres of federal land in Utah and Nevada. In all, the committee’s legislative package would raise more than $18 billion through increasing federal oil, gas and coal lease sales as well as timber sales and other means. House Republicans are aiming for $2 trillion in spending reductions paired with a $4.5 trillion in reduced revenue from tax cuts.”

$18 billion isn’t enough. How about privatizing (selling off) the U.S. postal service? Amazon wants to buy it. So do Fed Ex and UPS.

In 2024, USPS reported a loss of $9.5 billion— one of the reasons Trump has called it a “tremendous loser.” But given its obligations as a universal provider of a public service, it simply can’t be judged according to typical private-sector business metrics. Actually, making USPS a “winner” in these terms would inevitably mean reneging on its universal service obligation, both in terms of geography and affordability. Indeed, in an effort to cut costs, USPS has already proposed reductions to rural service [many of the fucktards who voted to make a crooked, multi-bankrupted game reality TV show host president].

A mere decade and a half ago, Amazon would have been in no position to be in this conversation, having no last-mile delivery network. At that time, it was entirely reliant on the postal service, FedEx, UPS, and other competitors to deliver its ecommerce goods to customers. Today, Amazon’s U.S. network has roughly 600 delivery stations, the vast majority of which are located in or very close to major metropolitan areas… [D]elivery stations employ a few hundred people directly, on average. Roughly the same number of drivers— working for subcontracted firms, but directed and controlled by Amazon’s algorithmic management system— also work out of each station.

… In addition to infrastructure build-out, Amazon is also moving quickly to assemble political support for acquiring the postal service. Things weren’t always smooth between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump. In Trump’s first term, Amazon sued the government after losing a $10 billion cloud computing contract, and Bezos at one point called Trump a “threat to democracy.” Trump, for his part, mocked the executive, calling him “Jeff Bozo.”

But on Inauguration Day 2025, Bezos was there, in the billionaires’ section, honoring Trump’s return to the White House. He had spent months beforehand cozying up to Trump— notably spiking an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the Washington Post, which he owns. Bezos’s pandering appears to be paying off. “He’s 100 percent. He’s been great,” Trump said of Bezos in an April interview.

Unions and other postal service advocates have been sounding the alarm on postal service privatization for some time. “It’s a terrible idea for everyone that we serve,” National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian Renfroe said earlier this year. With privatization, “Delivery would be driven by profit margins, and private companies will only go to where they can make a profit. Sections of our population could lose mail service entirely. Prices would rise according to whatever the company demands for their own profit,” the American Postal Workers Union has noted.

Certainly, Bezos and Jassy understand that too, which is why they are angling, both politically and through infrastructure build-out, to benefit from the privatization of what should remain a universal public service.

So… tax breaks for the donor class at the cost of federally protected land parcels— turning over pristine wilderness, cultural landmarks and vital habitats to private developers and energy interests, all while pretending this is some kind of fiscally responsible plan. In reality, it's theft in broad daylight: looting the national treasury, selling off public property, and handing the proceeds to billionaires who already own more than their fair share of the Earth.

It’s part of the core of conservative ideology today— not governance, not stewardship, but extraction. They don't see a forest, they see timber profits. They don’t see a national park, they see drilling rights. They don't see a family on Medicaid, they see a budget line to slash so they can send another yacht tax-free across international waters. There is no common good in their worldview— only private gain, and the ruthless machinery of deregulation to make sure nothing stands in the way.

For all their flag-waving and God-talk, these Republicans don’t love America— they love power. And they'll burn every post office, cut every health care program, and bulldoze every acre of protected land if that’s what it takes to serve their donors. It’s not just cynical. It’s obscene. And it’s time we said so without apology. It’s their vision in its rawest, most grotesque form: a country stripped for parts. Public lands? Sell them to the highest bidder. The U.S. Post Office? Gut it, privatize it, or bleed it dry until it fails. Medicaid? Slash it to the bone—who needs healthcare when billionaires need tax breaks? They’re not just cutting budgets. They’re waging a war on the very idea of the commons— on anything that belongs to all of us, anything that serves the public rather than the powerful. To today’s GOP, there is no public good worth preserving, no social fabric worth mending, no government worth defending unless it can be weaponized to serve the rich. Every national park sold, every family stripped of care, every institution hollowed out is another offering on the altar of greed. These people do not want to govern. They want to pillage.

Lukas Ventouras, the Long Island New Deal Democrat taking on GOP conservative Nick LaLota this cycle, told us “While LaLota wastes our time, and his own money, taking out ads waffling about how he supposedly hasn't voted to gut Medicaid, he is in explicit support, and voted for the funding bill which does exactly that. All the while we are distracted with the gutting of our social safety net, Trump is selling off private government land to be fracked and drilled, destroying our national parks, and has the temerity to try and privatize the post office. My dad remarked to me recently, ‘rain snow or shine, the post office always delivers.’ This is the efficiency and feat of American ingenuity that the Trump administration is attempting to dismantle in the name of corporate profit, similarly to his selling of cherished public land, including parts of national parks. During this mess, one might remark where is LaLota? ... Voting for and supporting all these measures. Have no fear however, because LaLota has a plan for Suffolk county... sell us out to the cheapest bidder. Black Rock's favorite Long Islander Nick LaLota is delivering dutifully for his corporate overlords, and needs to be booted from office next year. 

Iowa progressive Travis Terrell— who’s taking on very endangered Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa’s first congressional district— told us that “While Republicans threaten to gut Medicaid and rip healthcare away from millions of Americans, Trump and his billionaire buddies are using the chaos as a smokescreen to loot this country like a smash-and-grab job. They’re back to selling off America’s public lands— places that belong to all of us— to oil companies, mining giants, and developers. And if you think Trump isn’t making shady backroom deals to line his own pockets in the process, you’re either asleep or in on the con. And it doesn’t stop there. He’s trying to privatize the post office, too— because god forbid regular people have access to affordable mail while there’s another public service to gut and sell off to his cronies. Anything he can sell, he will. Anything he can profit off of, he will. Even if it leaves the rest of us sick, broke, and stranded. And where’s Mariannette Miller-Meeks? Not just silent— she’s fanning the flames. Stirring up outrage over Medicaid cuts while saying nothing about the public land grab, the sellout of the postal service, or the corporate looting happening under Trump’s watch. This is the Republican game: distract, divide, and rob you blind. They’re stealing your land, your healthcare, your public services— and calling it ‘freedom.’ I call it what it is: a heist.”

Randy Bryce is considering a run for the congressional seat in southeast Wisconsin, currently held by Republican Bryan Steil. “I am so sick of Republicans saying one thing in the daylight then when it gets dark,” he told us. “They do what will keep them in office no matter who gets screwed. Bryan Steil is a perfect example. He made an ad promising his sweet dear grandmother that he wasn't going to touch our safety net. He lied. Actions speak louder than words. If only a handful of Republicans stood up and actually weren't afraid, we could save and turn things around before the midterms.”