Here's a link to the Variety summary, since there's no guarantee everyone can watch the video.
It's full of Bill Maher's usual invective, which I don't think is entirely healthy to intelligent discussion, but there is a point: the Republicans under Trump are deregulating some things (like lead in bullets) purely out of spite, things that they could have left alone without a single complaint from their supporters. It's to the point where they're coming across as cartoon villains. Will this kill children, starve elderly people or ruin the planet? Good, let's do it.
The only reason there isn't immediate panic is because companies are unlikely to seize on this deregulation. There's not much financial incentive to revert to the old ways, and most outfits know that those regulations are coming back the moment the Democrats regain power. But it shows how short-sighted the current GOP is -- it's acting as if whatever it does won't have consequences, and won't be reversed down the road.
And as Maher suggests, this isn't really conservatism in the classic sense. Even in past decades, the Republicans still maintained a degree of reason: we want fewer rules, but we understand where rules are necessary. Here, it appears as if there's no floor, as if they object to the very notion of rules. And I suspect it's going to bite them in the ass come 2018 or 2020, as some of their voters probably weren't expecting this irresponsible orgy of deregulation.
It's full of Bill Maher's usual invective, which I don't think is entirely healthy to intelligent discussion, but there is a point: the Republicans under Trump are deregulating some things (like lead in bullets) purely out of spite, things that they could have left alone without a single complaint from their supporters. It's to the point where they're coming across as cartoon villains. Will this kill children, starve elderly people or ruin the planet? Good, let's do it.
The only reason there isn't immediate panic is because companies are unlikely to seize on this deregulation. There's not much financial incentive to revert to the old ways, and most outfits know that those regulations are coming back the moment the Democrats regain power. But it shows how short-sighted the current GOP is -- it's acting as if whatever it does won't have consequences, and won't be reversed down the road.
And as Maher suggests, this isn't really conservatism in the classic sense. Even in past decades, the Republicans still maintained a degree of reason: we want fewer rules, but we understand where rules are necessary. Here, it appears as if there's no floor, as if they object to the very notion of rules. And I suspect it's going to bite them in the ass come 2018 or 2020, as some of their voters probably weren't expecting this irresponsible orgy of deregulation.
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