It used to be that we talked about racial dog whistles when discussing the Republicans. Well, they are no longer dog whistles. They’re just shouting out to the worst tendencies in people. Let’s review Gingrich and Santorum over the past few days.
First Gingrich called President Obama the first “food stamp president.” Since it seems to be an article of faith with Republican voters that all food stamp recipients are black (more on that canard later), and this is our first African-American president the ugly connection is obvious.
Then we have Santorum — let’s review his actual words. “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.”
When there was, rightly, a firestorm he tried to tell us that he didn’t actually say _black_ he said _blah_ people. Yeah, right, do these people not understand video?
And back to Gingrich who said “I’m prepared, if the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.”
Okay, a reality check. 28% of households that receive food stamps are black. 59% are white. Most people who end up on food stamps are divorced white women with children who have fallen into poverty after their divorces. But maybe Rick was talking about all those white people when he made his statement. I mean we are sort of pale and pasty ie blah. (I can say that, I’m a white person.)
After the financial meltdown, and the massive spending during the Bush years our economy tanked. People lost their jobs and a lot of people needed public aid. Maybe some people want us to be a country where children wander the streets homeless and hungry, but that is not the America I believe in. I believe in E Pluribus Unum — Out of Many One.
