Fiscal conservative politicians including some Democrats like Bill Clinton have presided over a massive and systematic redistribution of wealth into the 1 percent since the 1980s. For African-Americans this means that we lost over half of our collective and meager net wealth, in just the last five years, due to predatory lending and the the machinations of big business. But it is easier to hate and regulate welfare recipients.
Since everyone knows that welfare queens finance their lives of luxury through the receipt of food stamps, which amounts on average to about $135 in groceries each month, cutting the food stamp program, a move that will take nearly 4 million people off the rolls in the next 10 years, is not merely a pragmatic measure or a “necessary evil,” but rather a deeply symbolic act that points to recalcitrant and entrenched racist attitudes on the right. It turns out, then, that African-Americans are not the only group of voters whose political behavior is motivated – at least, in part — by racial identity.
via GOP launches race war to boost the 1 percent – Salon.com.
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- I’m a college graduate who had to go on food stamps | Andy Fitzgerald (theguardian.com)
Thanks for the link.
The GOP keeps pointing to the ‘exception’ and not the ‘rule’, trying to get all to say food stamps evil and dragging the Country down.
Put America to work, raise the wage and then we’ll see the need for food stamps go down.
Because as we stand, America needs food stamps or 50 million will ‘slip’ (crash) back into poverty.
Amen, amen. My mom has to use them or she would not be able to afford to live. And I fear I may be coming close. She is 85. I am almost 50. I work hard and I work to help a lot of people. I see the effects of the poverty and low wages all around me. Stunning and shocking are the only ways to characterize how I feel when I hear poor, working class people side with those who do everything possible to protect themselves and undermine everyone else. Amazing is another word that pops to mind.