The Republican Party Has Launched A War On America's Children

Republican politicians across the country have been on their soapboxes for several years claiming that Democrats are attacking children and not letting kids be kids. But the exact opposite is actually true, as Republican lawmakers are changing the laws to put kids back to work in slaughterhouses and coal mines, while also refusing to ban child marriages in their states. There is a war on America's children taking place, but Democrats aren't the ones waging it, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

To hear Republicans tell it. You would think that children in the United States are under a constant attack from the left, and that attack from the left is, is coming from teachers teaching them critical race theory. It's coming from the drag queens putting on these drag shows that children are being forced to. It's the doctors that are allegedly forcing children to switch genders. Our kids are under attack. We hear it every day from the Republican party and it's finally hit the point where folks are opening their eyes and realizing, wait a minute, thou dust protest too much because there is an attack on American children happening right now. It's happening every day, but it's not coming from the left. The attack on our children is in fact coming from the right as it stands right now. 10 states are either currently working on legislation or have already signed legislation into law weakening child labor laws in their state.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, of course, famously signed her legislation with the three kids next to her looking like their lives just ended while the grownups in the background smile and laugh uncontrollably. So 13 and 14 year olds in the state of Arkansas, you can get back to work in the slaughterhouses. Go put your tiny little hands next to the bone saw as you're cutting a cow carcass into, oh, you don't wanna work in the slaughterhouse, that's fine. Go work with the heavy machinery in the factories. Go work in the coal mines, dig in coal like children from the good old days. That's what these child labor laws do. And in fact, uh, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who is seen as a likely 2024 Republican candidate, also signed a law weakening child labor laws in the state of New Hampshire. New Jersey is on pace to do it. Um, Wisconsin Democratic Governor didn't allow that to happen, but they did try.

And of course, we are seeing reports all over the country of children being found to be working in these horrendous conditions. So rather than hold the corporations responsible for hiring illegal children, Republicans are just changing the law to force it children back to work. So it's totally legal protecting the corporations and putting our children in danger. And you know what else they're doing? They're not banning child marriage. As it stands right now in 43 states across the country, children under the age of 18 are allowed to get married in most of those states. Children under the age of 16 are allowed to get married. You know, famously, a week or so ago, we had that piece of legislation in West Virginia that of course got voted down by Republicans that would've banned child marriage outright.

But Republicans said, oh hell no. We got to be able to marry them. Sexy old kids, right? I need my child, Brad. So let me ask you again, which party is actually out there endangering our children? Which party is actually out there grooming children? I can promise you, it's not the party that's opposed to child marriage. If you think it's totally cool for a 14, 15, or 16 year old girl to marry an older man, then guess what?