Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/02/colorado-republicans-admit-the.html
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It’s well known that “poor” and “dignity” are mutually exclusive.
And the dignity of woman? That just makes no sense. /s
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No wonder that they hate them, since the Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” If the poor already have the kingdom of Heaven, it should be okay for the rich to monopolize the Earth.
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Their delusions are almost pitiful.
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I was initially going to mentally cut them a bit of slack, by assuming they meant that they hate people being poor (and therefore want to help them become richer). But then I remembered that many of the conservatives I know blame the poor people themselves for being poor, and hence my more charitable interpretation breaks down.
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Sure, but they’re still not being honest. Republicans hate poor people for a lot of reasons, but not for the reason given.
Republicans hate poor people because, first and foremost, because they are FUCKING TERRIFIED of them. There are plenty of poor republicans, but that’s not who I’m talking about, I’m talking about the people who are setting the agenda. Those people are afraid of the poor because they are vastly outnumbered by them, which is why the Republican party has such a strange relationship with the poor. On the one hand they need to pander to them with bullshit stories about how they, too, will be wealthy if they only want it hard enough. On the other hand, they need to keep the authoritarian leash short and tight because they’ve learned from history that if you leave poor people to their own devices in a situation like the one they’re in, sooner or later they start building barges and guillotines.
Other ultra-wealthy people can screw them out of money, or interfere with them in ways that will be problematic, but not likely fatal. The ultra-wealthy–regardless of stated party affiliation–are genuinely terrified of the poor because they know that when the poor realize just how badly they are getting fucked by the people they have been told to look up to and obey they tend to get restless fast. That fear grows into contempt, which drives them to “protect” themselves by buying laws to protect themselves and so on.
Non-wealthy Republicans tend to hate the poor because they are purposefully bombarded with an endless stream of propaganda that tells them that poverty is a moral failing, and that anyone who is poor is only poor because they aren’t virtuous enough to work hard enough to be rich. That’s not how it works, it doesn’t even stand up to mild scrutiny, but that’s the message and it’s surprisingly effective. I grew up hearing it and watching my family flagellate themselves because when you’re poor and fed a lifetime of propaganda telling you that you’re poor because you’re a lazy, worthless, garbage person who doesn’t “want it” bad enough to change anything, it tends to fuck with your self image a bit.
So TL;DR: wealthy republicans hate the poor because they’re terrified of them which ultimately manifests as resentment and ultimately hatred and the desire to control the thing they fear to protect themselves. Republicans on the other end of the socio-economic pool are republicans largely out of self-loathing and a lifetime of propaganda. I mean, FFS, what the fuck does hunting or fishing have to do with the Republican platform? I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been told something like, “well if you’re into hunting or fishing and you aren’t a Republican you’re [insert idiom]” when those things have nothing to do with each other apart from Republicans attaching their shitty ideas to other peoples’ self-identities in order to manufacture feelings of kinship where none exists.
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I’ll be waiting for the corresponding admission from the Democrats. Jamie Dimon isn’t a Republican, after all, and the party motto might be, “Bring us your minority status, but leave your poor at the door.”
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“the dignity of man is above being poor”
Is that why the Congressional voting records show the Republicans repeatedly voting against things that would help people to rise out of poverty?
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Very true! But I think a big part of why they get away with this chicanery is the Democratic party’s inability to see past the city line. Progressive politics overuses rhetoric that alienates and disrespects those who produce our food and raw materials; from a rural perspective, the Left seems less interested in building election-winning coalitions and more oriented towards championing urban values and concerns.
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I would add that the propaganda to the (R) poor is also that anyone who works hard enough can and will become rich UNLESS some liberal takes all your money and opportunities away to squander them on the lazy, undeserving poor who didn’t do the hard work like you did.
Also, wealthy republicans hate the poor because it would take taxes and controls on their accumulation of wealth to fix the problems of the poor. If you stop hating them for a second, or stop thinking that anyone outside your extended family deserves help or a fighting chance, you might slip and start thinking about solutions that will “hurt” yourself and your direct descendants.
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Respect their authority, or they will disrespect your dignity.
Just another variant of the conservative golden rule: he who has the gold, rules.
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Caucasian Jeebus layin’ down the law
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This is like saying that no human deserves to get cancer- so fuck cancer patients, how DARE they get that disease that nobody is supposed to have! Weren’t they listening?
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Know who else thinks living in poverty is beneath the dignity of humankind? Socialists, that’s who.
What is he trying to say anyway? If a poor person has the “dignity” and “self-respect” to vote Republican he won’t be poor anymore? Or is it that if you are poor then you failed society, and we should all shame and shun you?
“Trickle-Down” economics makes more sense. “Prosperity Gospel” makes more sense. At least either of those postulates some mechanism, however preposterous, for those things to be connected. Republicans have just gotten increasingly lazy. Fifty years ago they had to code and dog-whistle everything. Now they’ve bought their own propaganda so thoroughly many of them think they can just say what they meant all along without inventing anything plausible at all.
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If the politicians had empathy for the poor, they would not be able to bring themselves to vote against the poor people’s interests. Therefore, if they believe the rhetoric about the poor being lazy drug addicts whose only obstacle is personal determination, it makes it a loot easier to enact policies that do not help them.
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That’s only a problem because the US considers the Democratic party to be “left.” In reality, the Democrats are just as committed to the same pro-capitalist, neo-liberal agenda as the Republican party. The difference between the two parties is more a matter of which causes they’ve used to accessorize their platform. The Republicans dress themselves up as champions of “Real Americans,” playing to their identity to curry undue favor. The Democrats dangle seemingly progressive ideals off of their lapels to attract the left in the same ways for the same reasons, but at the end of the day both parties would just as soon take care of their wealthy friends (and supporters) than the people that actually did the electing.
The problem is that actual leftist ideas and policies have been actively suppressed and demonized since the Cold War. Socialism is a four letter word equivalent to “hell” and social programs of any kind will, as Americans have been told innumerable times, only be used by “lazy people who don’t want to work.” Meanwhile the actual left asks questions like, “why is it exactly that a person should have to work to be alive?” and “maybe the problem of the banking industry being too gigantic and complex to regulate effectively is a sign that the idea is fundamentally broken?” Where I’m from, talk like that can you (and has sometimes gotten me) seriously ostracized by one’s peers. The very idea that a person just has an inherent right to continue living, even if they aren’t making enough money for other people, is so unpalatable that people first think you’re joking, and then think you’re a fool.
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