Puppets of Power: How Emotions and Identity Replace Reason in American Politics

By Norman Franklin

Norman Franklin

The President’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ (OBBB) passed the House and Senate last week. It didn’t have broad support from the electorate. Only a third (33%) of the Ameri can people favored the passage of this legislative blueprint from Project 2025. It promises harsh realities for the poor, the middle class, and the working class, huge benefits for the wealthy, and future generations saddled with massive long-term debt — it adds nearly $4 trillion to the federal deficit.

The 33% camp of OBBB supporters, which essentially is the much-touted ‘American people,’ is a mixture of older rural whites, non-college-educated Republicans, MAGA believers, and affluent households. This is neither an accurate nor balanced representation of the electorate, but these are the Ameri can people who mandate the policy changes. It’s an ideological shift driven by the affluent.

In the opposition camp, lived expe rience shapes their resistance to this ideological shift. They know the harsh realities of economic precarity; they rely on the healthcare safety net and have grown weary of the flood of disinformation. These represent 64% of the electorate; they are the ignored majority of the American people, a mixture of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.

The Republicans in the ranks of opposition are a composite of rural voters who fear losing farm subsidies, SNAP, and the closing of their hospi tals. There are older veterans reliant on Medicaid and approaching eligibility for Medicare. The mixed demographic also includes religious moderates disturbed by the extremism in the legislative agenda, veterans and working class conservatives feeling the sting of betrayal.

Speaker Johnson and other Republican House members promised, “No one will lose Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.” The rhetoric of puppets. The bill cuts $863 billion from Medicaid and $295 bil lion from SNAP over the next decade. Household budgets of the poor will suffer a $1,600 reduction, but the wealthy will gain a $12,000 infusion. Job loss resulting from SNAP funding reductions are estimated at 1.2 million. GDP will be reduced by $154 billion by the end of this decade. State revenues fell by $12.2 billion over the same period.

Legislators, enamored with concern for the American people, would have done the math, read the tea leaves, and discerned that the OBBB was neither good for the nation nor its people Republican leaders have become pup pets who are moved by ideological strings, not the will of the American people. The electorate has been conditioned to accept spoon-fed rhetoric, to respond to fear, identity, and ideology; reason, empathy, and truth are faint concepts. The conservative Republican bloc is designed to be puppets.

Reason should have made it plain to both legislators, and supporters unaware of the bill’s true implications – the legislation is upside down. It serves neither justice nor public good: 17 mil lion lose healthcare, 300 rural hospitals at risk of closing, the wealthy walk away with expanded business deduc tions, tax loopholes and tools for build ing generational wealth. “For every millionaire household that receives a tax cut under the bill, 19 people lose health insurance.” Rep. Bernie Sanders noted

The reasoning of our legislators has given way to identity politics, ideology, and loyalty. The power of critical think ing by the electorate has been slain, sacrificed on the altar of fear-fueled emotions. A puppet master pulls the strings. The American people are not moved by truth, but by fear, pride, and illusions