We got the bully pulpit
And the poisoned pen
We got a press no better
Than the public men
This brave new world
Gone bad again
God’s finest little creatures
Looking brave and strong
Whistling past the graveyard
Nothing can go wrong
Quoting from the scriptures
With patriotic tears
We got the same old men
With the same old fears
Standing at attention
Wrapped in stars and stripes
They hear the phantom drummers
And the nonexistent pipes
These days the buck stops nowhere
No one takes the blame
But evil is still evil
In anybody’s name
- Don Henley, If Dirt Were Dollars
One of the truly disturbing trends I’ve noticed in our public discourse, particularly as the recession has dragged on, is the penchant of so many Conservatives to blame the poor and unemployed for their problems. Really, it’s about the most arrogant, mean-spirited, and dismissive attitude I can imagine. Even worse than the complete lack of compassion (and an absence of a “There but for the grace of God go I” perspective) is what seems to be a willingness to completely abandon those who happen to be suffering to their fate. The “I got mine; you can damned well get your own” school of thought seems to have firmly taken hold on the Far Right, particularly amongst those who have jobs that pay them to pass judgment on the poor, the unemployed, and the less fortunate among us. Welcome to the death rattle of the Social Contract; somewhere warm and breezy Ayn Rand is snickering into her Corona.
America need not- and should not- be an exercise in Darwinian democracy. Survival of the fittest may work in the wild, but when we’re talking about our fellow Americans, compassion shouldn’t be a scarce commodity. Matthew Vadum is hardly the first Conservative to voice the opinion that we should abandon those unable to help themselves…because America wasn’t built on freeloaders, don’tchaknow? That Vadum’s complete and utter lack of compassion only reveals him to be a miserable excuse for a human being hardly makes him unique. Sadly, those who think that we have no obligation to help the suffering among us are legion. Vadum is just one of the worst and most egregious examples of the New Mean.
It’s been said that when Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. It turns out that it looks a lot like Matthew Vadum, who possesses a level of humanity normally only associated with mass murderers and executioners. That might seem a bit mean and hyperbolic, but how else could you reasonably describe a person who sees the poor, the elderly, the sick, and the unemployed as second-class citizens worthy only of scorn, derision, and abandonment?
Conservative columnist Matthew Vadum is just going to come right out and say it: registering the poor to vote is un-American and “like handing out burglary tools to criminals.”
“It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country — which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote…. Encouraging those who burden society to participate in elections isn’t about helping the poor,” Vadum writes. “It’s about helping the poor to help themselves to others’ money. It’s about raw so-called social justice. It’s about moving America ever farther away from the small-government ideals of the Founding Fathers.”
If Vadum had his way, I suspect only wealthy (and reliably Conservative) White male property owners would have the right to vote. After all, they’re the biggest stakeholders, so why should those who don’t own property (and aren’t White males) be allowed to determine what happens in this country when they have no financial stake?
(And isn’t interesting that Vadum and his ilk are all about “small government” when it comes to their narrow agenda, but it becomes “REALLY, REALLY BIG GOVERNMENT” (apologies to Rachel Maddow) when it comes to abortion? But I’ll leave that for another time.)
Since when did democracy become limited to those fortunate enough to not have to rely on government assistance? Or is it just that Vadum understands that by excluding the poor, the elderly, the unemployed- basically, everyone except the landed gentry- it will be MUCH easier to create an America much more to the liking of those who think like he does? By working to make voting harder, Conservatives like Vadum understand that they’re tilting the playing field in their direction. It’s not about democracy, of course; it’s about power- which is all Matthew Vadum really cares about.
I understand that Vadum and those who think as he does (et tu, Marco Rubio?) want a vastly different America than I do. While I want an America where voting rights are extended to as many Americans as possible, Vadum wants to raise the barrier as high as he can and make it as difficult as possible for the poor, minorities, and the unemployed (who tend to vote Democratic) to exercise their franchise.
Most conservative criticism of voter registration drives aimed at poor and minority communities has been under the guise of worries about voter fraud.
“Voter fraud” is the modern Conservative mantra for place ever more and larger hurdles between groups who don’t consistently vote Republican and the voting both. Voter ID laws are little more than thinly-veiled attempts to exclude those who vote Democratic. The reality that voter fraud is so rare as to be virtually nonexistent is beside the point for those looking to create every advantage they possibly can for their side. If they can keep minorities, the poor, and others from voting, then they’ve succeeded.
Vadum’s column is notable because he isn’t just pretending to be worried about the nearly non-existent threat of in-person voter fraud — he just doesn’t think poor people should be voting.
The sad and sick thing about Vadum is that he clearly seems to care nothing for democracy. It’s not about “one man, one vote.” It’s about doing everything possible to ensure that the “right” people vote and that the “wrong” people are excluded by any means and subterfuge necessary to get the job done. The argument that those on government assistance should have no voice is as absurd as it anti-American and anti-Democratic. Not that this would be anything Vadum cares about, of course.
Personally, I hope that there’s a very special place in Hell waiting for Matthew Vadum. A miserable excuse for a human being like him deserves nothing less.
