CAIN: I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself! […] It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed.
It’s as tired and predictable as it is mean-spirited and devoid of compassion. Republicans seem to genuinely believe that unemployed Americans have only themselves to blame for their plight. Evidently, at least to their way of thinking, wealth and riches are indicative that one is motivated, capable, and deserving. Unemployment and poverty are signs of sloth, indolence, and a desire to suck at the public teat. Yeah, and that whole big-banks-crashed-the-economy thing has NOTHING to do with anything, right??
I’m not sure when Ayn Rand’s Objectivism came into vogue among Republicans, but the recession has provided them with what seems to be justification for their “I got mine; you can damn well get your own” philosophy. In the case of Herman Cain, not only does he believe that the poor and unemployed have only themselves to blame, but he’s also convinced himself that Occupy Wall Street is a smoke screen to distract America from the failures of Barack Obama.
You might have been born on third base, but that doesn’t man you hit a triple.
I suppose Cain’s dissembling makes sense if you understand that the GOP program since the election of Barack Obama has consisted of obfuscation, prevarication, obstruction, and propaganda. The GOP doesn’t have a workable alternative- unless you consider doing everything they possibly can to impede, obstruct, and ultimately defeat President Obama to be a constructive policy position.
Herman Cain knows damn well that Wall Street is responsible for the economy being in the shape that it’s in. His lies and propaganda notwithstanding, Cain reads the newspapers and watches the news- albeit likely Fox Noise Channel. If not for Wall Street’s manipulation of the subprime mortgage market, if not for the greed and avarice that characterized the conduct of the financial sector leading up to the federal bailout, it seems highly unlikely that the economy would have cratered in the manner it did. The poor and unemployed did not create this recession; they’re not responsible for the fact that they don’t have jobs. In an economy where more than four job-seekers exist for every open job, it’s takes a cold, black heart to blame the poor and unemployed for their dilemma. Cain, like most Republicans these days, is in no danger of being afflicted with an excess of compassion.
For Cain to blame Americans for their plight when the recession is demonstrably and provably the result of Wall Street greed is as dishonest as it it disingenuous as it gets. Then again, dishonesty and lack of compassion seems to be the GOP’s calling card these days. Cain, like so many Republicans, acts as if the wealthy have been ordained by God, and those who haven’t enjoyed the same success are less worthy human beings. Corporate America, like the GOP, value profits over people and enriching the already wealthy over justice.
I can only hope that there will be a reserved parking space in Hell waiting for Herman Cain.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
