The Blame Game Doesn’t Fix a Broken System

History Already Warned Us About This

The political blame game is as old as politics itself. It’s a tool used to distract, to divide, and to keep voters emotionally hooked. Normally, it works best when power is split—when one party controls Congress, the other controls the White House, or when the margins are razor-thin. Each side can point fingers and say, “We’d fix things if only they didn’t block us.”

But right now, that’s not the case.

The GOP currently runs the table. They campaigned on the idea that they could fix things faster, smarter, and tougher than the Democrats. Their message was brutally simple: if we punish the marginalized, middle-class white families will rise. If we fire the Black workers, deport the brown immigrants, strip rights from women, queer folks, and anyone who doesn’t fit the “traditional” mold, then suddenly the economy, family stability, and community life would improve.

It was a cruel sales pitch wrapped in nostalgia and grievance—but millions bought it.

The False Promise of Scapegoating

Here we are, nearly a year in, and surprise: the plan isn’t working. Because it never has. History shows us again and again that scapegoating does not solve economic or cultural challenges—it only deepens them.

Take the 1930s, for example. Fascist regimes rose in Europe by promising that if you excluded or persecuted certain groups—Jews in Germany, immigrants and minorities elsewhere—then the “real” citizens would thrive. Instead, those policies destabilized economies, crushed civil liberties, and ultimately led to war and collapse.

Even in the U.S., scapegoating has been tried before. During the Great Depression, Mexican and Mexican-American workers were forcibly deported in mass “repatriation” drives, often without due process. Over a million people were targeted, including U.S. citizens. Did it fix unemployment? No. White workers didn’t suddenly prosper because their neighbors were gone. The economy only began to recover with New Deal programs and, later, wartime industrial mobilization.

The pattern is clear: hate may unify voters for an election cycle, but it never creates sustainable prosperity.

The GOP’s Current Playbook

Instead of learning from history, today’s GOP is repeating it. They promised that targeting marginalized groups would somehow “make America great again.” They fired workers in DEI programs, rolled back civil rights protections, restricted immigration, and celebrated cruelty as policy.

But rather than stability or prosperity, we’ve seen labor shortages, cultural polarization, and crumbling trust in institutions. Immigrants, for instance, make up about 17% of the U.S. workforce and are overrepresented in key industries like agriculture, construction, and health care. Deporting or excluding them doesn’t create more jobs for American-born workers—it creates worker gaps that drive up prices and strain industries.

Now, as their policies fail to deliver, Republicans have turned back to their favorite tactic: blaming Democrats.

Blame them for what, exactly? They’re not running the government right now. They don’t hold the levers of power. This was the GOP’s moment, the victory they begged and schemed for—and it’s slipping through their fingers.

Here’s the irony: if Republicans are going to blame Democrats no matter what, then why not just hand the keys back? At least then the excuse might hold water. Right now, it’s nothing but noise.

Choosing Where to Put Our Energy

And while the country unravels under this chaos, people like me—ordinary citizens, freelancers, small business owners—are left to fend for ourselves. I’ve watched the same politicians who fought tooth and nail for control do little more than pass the blame once they had it. They promised a vision, delivered fear, and now want someone else to own the fallout.

I’m done waiting for them to figure it out. My energy is better spent elsewhere. I’ll keep looking for new clients, animating videos, illustrating books, and creating work that actually solves problems for people. Because at the end of the day, I can fix my own issues. The rest of the world is going to have to decide whether it wants to keep buying into the same tired scams—or finally demand something better.