THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
NC state Senator Norman Sanderson (R)
North Carolina Republican state Senator Norman Sanderson argued last week that reducing food assistance would force people to get a job or pursue higher education. A bill to ban so-called sanctuary cities offered by state House Republicans last week also aimed to cap food stamp benefits at three months for most unemployed adults without children…. Republicans argued that people in counties with double-digit unemployment should no longer be eligible to receive assistance after the initial three month period…. “I think that everybody in this chamber would agree that one of the best things we can do for anyone who has found themselves caught up in the — whether it’s the SNAP program or unemployment or any other of the program that we offer to people who are in emergency situations — one of the best things that we can do is to help them find a job,” Sanderson said…. “And I think that we will be amazed that when this goes into effect, and I don’t know the exact number of people that this can ultimately effect, but I think you are going to see a lot of them either go and get that 20-hour a week job or they’re going to enroll in some kind of higher education to improve their job skills. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to get here.”
If ever there was a doubt that it’s Republican policy to create a “sink or swim” America, this should remove any trace. That Sen. Sanderson’s argument is good in theory isn’t in dispute. In a perfect world, his idea to shred the social safety net just might have the effect of forcing lazy, shiftless ne’re-do-wells to find gainful employment. In the real world, though, one in which there may in fact not be jobs available to be had, Sanderson’s policy drips with cruelty and lack of compassion in its assumption that those on public assistance are uniformly too lazy to do for themselves when they can depend on government handouts.
No one wants to see able-bodied Americans sitting on the dole, slothfully sucking from the public teat as if it’s the gift that keeps on giving. That’s rarely what happens, though. Most people want to work, they want to be able to provide for themselves and their loved ones…but in a rural areas where there are simply no jobs to be had, what’s one to do? The myth of welfare queens driving Cadillacs and eating steaks as they watch their big-screen TVs is an inaccurate Right-wing invention dating back to Ronald Reagan. Republicans have long despised the poor, the sick, and the unemployed for being drains on the public wallet. Compassion, as least as interpreted by the Far Right is poor public policy- an easy position to take for someone who doesn’t have to worry about how he’s going to provide for his family.
On Monday, The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board blasted Republican lawmakers as “heartless.”….
“If Republicans have some new information about widespread SNAP fraud in North Carolina, we’d sure like to see it. But in their endless hunt for people who might possibly be taking advantage of government programs, they continue to needlessly hurt people who truly could use some help.”
“Needlessly hurt people who truly could use some help.” If Republicans believe in truth in advertising, that would be their campaign slogan.
Republicans tend to look at economic issues in black-and-white, win-or-lose terms, which completely ignores that normal economic cycles create boom and bust times that impact people regardless of how hard they work. As a very wise man once told me, sometimes $#!& happens. Good people, despite their best efforts, lose their jobs due to factors outside of their control. Sen. Sanderson sees no need to take this into account; he seems to view the unemployed as shiftless dilettantes lacking the wherewithal to do for themselves. This is why you won’t find “empathy” or “compassion” in the Republican dictionary.
If Sen. Sanderson could manage to squeeze a modicum of compassion out of his blackened soul, he might come to understand that shredding the social safety net won’t force people to find jobs where none exist. Yes, there should be limits to the amount of public largesse available, but those limits should be set compassionately and with the acknowledgement of what the reality on the ground actually is, not what heartless zealots like Sanderson believe it should be. Setting social policy based on the way you believe things ought to be is a recipe for a tremendous amount of unnecessary suffering. Then again, if there’s one thing Republicans are good at creating, it’s unnecessary suffering in large quantities.
It’s what you do when your philosophy and ideology are predicated on the law of the jungle.
