Night of the Long Knives 0
Chauncey Devega unloads on Republican efforts to destroy the food stamp program.
Here’s a snippet:
It is a decision to kill poor people.
In America, discussions of poverty are linked in the public imagination to stereotypes about race, class, and gender. The face of poverty is not white (the group which in fact comprises the largest group of recipients for government aid). Instead, it is the mythical black welfare queen, or an “illegal” immigrant who is trying to pilfer the system at the expense of “hard working” white Americans.
Discussions about poverty are also easily transformed into claims about morality and virtue. Consequently, while the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is very efficient and involves very little if any fraud on the part of its participants, stereotypes about the poor can be used to legitimate the policing and harassment of Americans in need of food support through mandatory drug testing and other unnecessary programs.
Here, the long-term end goal for Republicans is revealed for what it is—a desire to make being a poor person into a crime.
He’s quite correct, you know. The Republican positions on helping the poor cannot be separated from their decision, at the time Nixon initiated the odious Southern Strategy, to become the new Confederate Party. Witness this comparison of the Eisenhower platform with the Romney platform.
Do please read the rest.
