So the House has voted to drastically cut the food stamp program and to defund Obamacare. You will recognize these to be Republican initiatives.
Timothy Egan looks at who is going to be hurt.
Certainly there are frauds among the one in seven Americans getting help from the program formerly known as food stamps. But who are the others, the easy-to-ignore millions who will feel real pain with these cuts? As it turns out, most of them live in Red State, Real People America. Among the 254 counties where food stamp use doubled during the economic collapse, Mitt Romney won 213 of them, Bloomberg News reported. Half of Owsley County, Ky., is receiving federal food aid. Half.
You can’t get any more Team Red than Owsley County; it is 98 percent white, 81 percent Republican, per the 2012 presidential election. And that hardscrabble region has the distinction of being the poorest in the nation, with the lowest household income of any county in the United States, the Census Bureau found in 2010.
We could analyze this until the cows come home. The bottom line is that the Founding Guys assumed that the way this republican thing would work is that people would vote for other people who would represent their best interests. I don’t think James Madison anticipated that there could ever be big chunks of people voting against their best interests.
I don’t see any fixes here; it’s all gone too far. The course must be run, and when the dust settles maybe we’ll be able to rebuild.
First came the southern strategy, in which the Republican elite cynically exploited racial backlash to promote economic goals, mainly low taxes for rich people and deregulation. Over time, this gradually morphed into what we might call the crazy strategy, in which the elite turned to exploiting the paranoia that has always been a factor in American politics — Hillary killed Vince Foster! Obama was born in Kenya! Death panels! — to promote the same goals.
But now we’re in a third stage, where the elite has lost control of the Frankenstein-like monster it created.
So now we get to witness the hilarious spectacle of Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal, pleading with Republicans to recognize the reality that Obamacare can’t be defunded. Why hilarious? Because Mr. Rove and his colleagues have spent decades trying to ensure that the Republican base lives in an alternate reality defined by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Can we say “hoist with their own petard�
Of course, the coming confrontations are likely to damage America as a whole, not just the Republican brand. But, you know, this political moment of truth was going to happen sooner or later. We might as well have it now.
All too sad but true.
In his book, american raj, Eric Margolis explained how the British raj ruled over a huge majority in the Indian subcontinent by enlisting “sepoys” who went against the interests of their own countrymen by being offered plum positions in government and in business. The British made the sepoys insiders, in much the same way Glenn beck, rush Limbaugh, and “fox ‘n friends” make lower middle class white boys feel part of something bigger.
It is a huge scam, worthy of the likes of Bernie Madoff, Ivan boeski, and michael Milken.it seems the new motivator is fear, well, to let righties in on a secret, when you strip people of food, clothing, shelter,and all hope, things will go septic in a most terrible way.
Beware the jabberwock,my son…..
And THESE are the people (the “base”) who keep talking about revolution.
Does not a one of them know how to read, or do they just feel it is too hard?
At least the sepoys got plum positions. The Tea Party is filled with people who are perfectly happy to punch themselves in the face over and over again without even asking for anything in return.
Conservatives, and their willing political grifters in the Republican Party, use “wedge issues” on the stupid and ignorant rubes, suckers, dupes, stooges, bobos, fools, marks, half/dim/nit/f*ck-wits, Christian loons, morons, imbeciles, and idiots. in order to stay close to being in, or winning, power.
And the most remarkable thing is, that after over 40 years of voting against their own best interests, the stupid and ignorant rubes, suckers, dupes, stooges, bobos, fools, marks, half/dim/nit/f*ck-wits, Christian loons, morons, imbeciles, and idiots, continue to act like stupid and ignorant rubes, suckers, dupes, stooges, bobos, fools, marks, half/dim/nit/f*ck-wits, Christian loons, morons, imbeciles, and idiots, and by not realizing that they have been, are still are, being taken advantage of, continue to be taken advantage of.
I guess that’s why they’re stupid and ignorant rubes, suckers, dupes, stooges, bobos, fools, marks, half/dim/nit/f*ck-wits, Christian loons, morons, imbeciles, and idiots:
The Conservative powers-that-be, by using wedge issues, have placed a wedge between the stupid and ignorant rubes, suckers, dupes, stooges, bobos, fools, marks, half/dim/nit/f*ck-wits, Christian loons, morons, imbeciles, and idiots. and upward mobility.
It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of “TEH STOOOOOOOOOOOPID!!!!”
Some people believe there is not enough to go around (the same ones who think Capitalism is the best system there ever could be!?!) and the rest of us understand there is plenty to go around (the ones who recognize the limitations of Capitalism).
The one group wants to live in a craphole of a country that strives to reach third-world status, the rest of us want to live in a beautiful nation of our peers able to overcome every obstacle.
The only interesting question is: Were they born that way, or are they victims of PTSD?
“We might as well have it now.” I love it – as long as you’re talking to Karl Rove.
How in the world could anybody anticipate the tea baggers?
ab·er·ra·tion noun \ËŒa-bÉ™-ˈrÄ-shÉ™n\
: something (such as a problem or a type of behavior) that is unusual or unexpected
Don’t tread on me!…at least not while I’m aware of it.
Actually if Madison had spent more time with mental health issues and less time on figuring how to construct a workable government, than he probably would have anticipated a scenario like our current situation.
Clarence Sepoy Thomas? Sorta like Malcolm x’s description of the house negro. Clarence was the product of affirmative action, but when he got placed he seemed to forget where he came from.. Clarence don’t think there’s a need for the Voting Rights Act either.. How quickly we forget. I guess its a more pleasant narrative to see himself as “Patches” Thomas who worked his way up through total self reliance. How smart can Clarence be if he couldn’t even figure out who put the pubic hair in his coke?
Swami – tea baggers are really just today’s version of right wing populists, albeit with ample funding by billionaires. They’ve existed in various forms in our country and in others, and at various times. If you think about it, the same type of people were the backbone of the Nazi party.
They gain power because liberalism has failed them, in the sense that there is practically nobody making the argument for liberal values to these people, and so they are ripe pluckings for the VRWC. Chris Hedges talks a lot about this in “The Death of the Liberal Class”.
I was on one message board, posting an excerpt from Egan’s NYT article. From the comments, most wingers believe that food stamps are rampant with fraud and abuse, particularly by the multitude of illegals they imagine are destroying America. They hope and believe that cutting food stamps will simply cut off the illegals, and so it’s a good thing to them.
Although it’s not voiced, I’m sure they also hope that the cutting of food stamps will cause a massive out-migration to the wealthier blue states, which the wingnuts constantly predict will collapse due to all the supposed deadbeats. They’d love to see that happen. Nevada’s dumping of 1500 mental patients on California by one-way Greyhound bus ticket, sounds like a great idea to them.
James Madison may not have anticipated this, but right wing populism has happened before, and it usually doesn’t end well.
“…most wingers believe that food stamps are rampant with fraud and abuse, particularly by the multitude of illegals they imagine are destroying America.”
Well, they want to believe and maybe have to believe. James Madison may not understand how this happens but psychologists have. The exact behaviors that drive the tea partiers votes against their own interests have been modeled, reproduced with human subject in game-playing experiments and even given a name — “last place aversion.”
Couple that with last place embarrassment resulting in denial of their own plight then they’re just one imaginary scapegoat away from shooting themselves in the foot or sawing off the high branch they happen to be sitting on…perennial Darwin award winners that they are.
Corey Robin author of The Reactionary Mind, which takes a great stab at a working definition of conservatism which transcends all the variants such as social, fiscal etc., considers it to be closely related to Stockholm Syndrome in a recent blog.
I have a difficult time believing that human nature has significantly devolved since the days of Madison.
Ok one topic at a time:
Cut food stamps? Cut it to what? R
moonbat.. You’re right about the baggers being no different than those who have preceded them… There are elements common to all wingnuts, but the theme of the baggers us particularly disturbing because it a gross distortion of history. And their claim to be the bulwark against tyranny is laughable because they’ve already fell victim to it by way of their ignorance.
Yeah, Don’t tread on me makes a lot of sense after the Koch brothers have already walked all over the intellects.
Right now you are expected to eat 3 meals a day on 3.65. A pound of ground beef costs more. Chicken breast , on sale, 2.99 a lb. Now you have 66 cents for the rest of the day, go to the produce section and find a veggie for 60 cents! Now cook it, split it 3 ways, cause it has to become 3 meals.
Here is a wacky idea, and I know this is way out of line, how about we start the cuts with the pay check and benefits of congress and the senate, and don’t stop till they are trying to eat on a 3.65 a day budget. THEN when we get done adding all that up we can talk about other cuts. – and the cafeteria where they eat every day? CLOSE IT. It is time they start living like they expect the poor to live… They are after all, no different from the maid, they are in fact PUBLIC SERVANTS and they should not be living better than those they serve ( Do you make 174 k a yr, plus perks and insurance for LIFE? If so would you adopt me?)
Swami,
Teabaggers have no intellect to speak of – especially EI, Emotional Intelligence.
And that’s why they’re so easily trodden upon by the rich and powerful, whom the revere. They are Authoritarian followers – lemmings, who will always follow the asshole in front of them, because the asshole in front of them, is a “leader.”
They believe in the Bible and the Constitution – neither of which they understand. They let others interpret them for them, and then parrot what they’re told – again, they are Authoritarian followers.
Knowledge about a subject is meaningless – whether it’s the Bible or the Constitution. Faith in what you’re told, is everything.
And like @moonbat said, they aren’t afraid of the SNAP cuts, because they don’t think THEIR SNAP benefits will be affected – only the SNAP benefits of “THOSE people.” They are ‘stupid and ignorant rubes, etc.’
It’s less a bagger willingness to assume a righteous moral outrage at high cost but rather something akin to “we aren’t so bad keeping government hands off our medicare and courageously using the ER healthplan. There’s someone lower than us, let’s go gettum.” Avoidance of appearing in the bottom position trumps comfort.
I don’t know how many of you have grown up around the dirt poor but there’s a deep shame associated with the helplessness and the lengths to avoid it run much deeper than one who’s not been close to it can imagine. The GOP strategy recognizes what others do not.
Sure, there’s ignorance but both it and physical well being play lesser roles than the face-saving aspects. There’s no fate that rubs one’s helplessness and loss of freedom in one’s face than to be sustained like farm animals from another’s hand. Maybe we’re too quick to attribute ignorance as the cause. Maybe less ignorant people put in the same position would do the same. I’m not trying to go against the popular wisdom of the moment to disagree for the sake of disagreeing. It’s just that attributing causes as someone else’s illusion could be one’s own. I catch myself at this often.
Teabaggers have no intellect to speak of – especially EI, Emotional Intelligence.
And that’s why they’re so easily trodden upon by the rich and powerful, whom the revere.
What I’ve noticed is that they have lots of anger, fueled by a distorted sense of injustice, which can trumph the smarts of the most intelligent of them (and I’ve known some fairly intelligent ones). (Sidenote: see The Most Depressing Discovery About the Brain, Ever. And weep.)
They’re angry because they perceive that someone else got or is getting a better deal, and they’re happy to throw their weight behind any Powerful Big Daddy figure who they believe will give them redress, or at least in their eyes, prevent their situation from getting worse (thanks @Pat for the link on “last place aversion”).
They’re happiest when this powerful authoritarian figure gives them license to express their anger against those they feel are getting a better deal. I’m not a psychologist, and so I’m probably abusing this word, but I believe this license to kick butt, deny foodstamps, whatever, gives them catharsis or at least vindication. It’s a fancy way of saying humans really like to channel their hate, and love it when someone understands their “plight” and gives them permission to be cruel and vicious.
The bible says: delighting in their evil. And Ernst says its wunderbar to smash a jew or a communist in the face with a lead pipe. So I guess the baggers could be called fulfilled when they’re making somebody’s existence miserable.
They are not all poor and they don’t all live in Red states. What they do not have is enquiring minds and they are racist (and fearful) to the core.
@ Pat – but why do people who need public assistance need to feel that they are “sustained like farm animals from another’s hand,” when We Are All In This Together?
Ayn Rand’s arguably least-awful written work is a novella entitled “Anthem.” It is, at least, NOT thousands of pages long. Notably, and hideously, it characterizes the pronoun “we” as a totalitarian horror that erases the individual “I.”
But in real life, almost everyone (not counting people who have been horribly abused by their parents, or violently rejected by the communities they came from) KNOWS that you can be an enthusiastic part of a “we” while still proudly sustaining your personal “I.”
I am in my mid-50s and have never used public assistance, but if I were to need it tomorrow, I certainly wouldn’t be ashamed of it. I have paid into our society ever since I started working as a teenager, and all through my young, healthy years, I never resented those older, sicker or less employable than myself.
We. Are. All. In. This. Together.
The problem is dualism. That’s how conservatives build the mental ‘map’ of a situation. Particularly if the basic learning for an individual is Christian fundamentalist. The religious teaching which is ‘truth’ beyond question, says people will be divided into ‘saved’ and ‘damned’. No degrees of virtue. On-off, Yes-no, good-bad.
Enter Randian libertarian philosophy. Rich people are rich because they are more productive. They ‘deserve’ their wealth. The obvious fact is that some of them earned their wealth through innovation and creativity (plus a lot of sweat), some of them inherited it, or got rich through being ‘connected’ or were not quite criminal in a scam which produced nothing, but conned a buying public in some way.
Enter reality. Wealth is not proof (to a liberal) of virtue or criminality. It might be an accurate measure of the contribution that the individual made to society – but in all too many cases, wealth bears NO relation to virtue or production. To be fair, I have run into a lot of ‘liberals’ who indulge in dualism – simply reversed. This spares them of the mental exercise of gathering and evaluating information.
The genius of the Rand/libertarian/Limbaugh narrative is that they coupled the automatic ‘virtue’ of wealth to a value judgement of the poor. If you are not rich, or don’t have health insurance, then it is ‘probably’ the result of dishonesty, laziness, drug addiction or some fatal character flaw. In other words, poor people deserve poverty – it’s the Darwinian penalty for some deficit. (The exact flip of the automatic acceptance of the rich.)
Here’s why Obamacare and Food Stamps and Housing Assistance and damn near every program that advances the poor or stands between living on the street in abject, desperate poverty is a target for the tea party. In the minds of the conservative rube, all these programs ‘penalize’ the producer and ‘reward’ the unworthy. They see that as a moral wrong which must be righted – at any cost.
This is a speech Obama MUST give. NOW. In these words. Being rich is no sin – and it’s no guarantee of virtue. Being poor – same thing. Programs to help individuals and families in need MUST be built around firm qualifications which don’t include spiritual merit. Sometimes a ‘bad’ person will get help – and this is more than justified when society give help to ‘worthy’ person who is temporarily down. Taxes work the same way. A truly wonderful philanthropist will pay taxes according to the SAME structure of rules that a wealthy scoundrel can use. Sometimes this is going to be ‘unfair’. But the IRS can’t read the hearts of men and shouldn’t try. Quit trying to make entitlements or taxes a civic equivalent to Peter’s decision at the Pearly Gates is pure foolishness.
Which brings us back to the fundamental problem. Real life is messy with a lot of gray between black and white. There are no simple measures of virtue – certainly wealth and poverty are no barometer of individual merit. The ‘system’ of providing help and the system of collecting taxes will never be completely fair and must be under perpetual review.. Being part of a society however entitles you to receive help and obligates you to provide help (taxes) when you are doing well in that society. This is called ‘civilization’ and for all it’s faults, it beats the hell out of anarchy.
The Republicans have been absolutely masterful in their ability to get people to vote against their own self interest. In that, the Dems have been completely outmaneuvered. Part of that is a messaging issue, Dems just do a crappy job of selling their accomplishments (see Obama, Barack). But I also believe there is a natural American inclination to see themselves as conservative on big, general issues and to generally be anti-government. It’s that inclination that the Repugs have been able to exploit. But they’ve used a whole lot of lies and racism to win the point. A complacent media and an ineffective messaging machine from the Dems and, voila, people vote to cut their own benefits.
I also believe, though, that Congress is so dis functional that congress critters can vote for all manner of deplorable things and never be held accountable for what they did. Even the food stamp cut won’t cost anyone their seat. The Senate will bail them out and no one will lose their benefit.
I saw Robert Reich on Bill Moyers’ show this weekend, talking his usual witty sense about economic inequality that is now so large it boggles the imagination. I love the guy, but he’s a Berkeley brainiac whom the Rightie noisemakers love to call “communist.” Before Cletus and Brandine will pay any attention to him, he’ll need to turn up on a lot of stupid sitcoms, and/or get his own reality show on TLC.
Sigh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6NKdnZvdoo