The GOP has used a two Santa Claus strategy to con America for 45 years. By 1974 Nixon resigned and
I publish 2 letters a month for our DEMS since 2009....This is my December Letter for our Friday paper..Portage Co Gazette...It is not my usual clever funny or poetic letter, but I HAD to write it....you will see why...Jody Hurrish.
THE 2 SANTA CLAUS STRATEGY
God wants you to be rich, if you're poor you deserve to die in a ditch. And everybody said Amen. Recently a Catholic lady told me she is a Republican because "I don't think poor people should take from the Government." I busted out crying "How can you say that?" You see, I spend considerable time among and helping the elderly disabled and poor. 48% of Americans believe poors are morally inferior and deserve poverty. It's even higher among Christians, like the Catholic lady.
70% of poors are children elderly and disabled. Hating the poor is the bedrock upon which our country rests. The system has inoculated us against hating the rich. Republicans need pluralistic ignorance to enact their agenda. The GOP has used a two Santa Claus strategy to con America for 45 years. By 1974 Nixon resigned and Democrats kept winning. We were the New Deal (Santa) Party. Republicans(Scrooge) hated the idea of helping working people. How could they be Santa? Tax cuts!
Reagan embraced voodoo economics, benefiting the wealthy and not to be discussed in public. Republicans forced Dems into Santa Killers by raising taxes. Republicans thought they'd died and gone to Heaven, redefining Government. Elites rolled out tales of parasitic poors to deflect anger from themselves.
I would like you to meet April, 67, disabled from being thrown down cement stairs. Diagnosed in 2009 with the neck/back/arthritis of a 99 year old. Her annual income is $11,000. She lives in a HUD building where rent is 30% of income/assets. Of the 71 tenants 12 own automobiles. April's car has no bottom and she just put $700 into repairs. Her last grasp on independence, leaving her with $134. in the world. She's never owned a cellphone, house, washer/dryer or decent car. She receives 49 cents a day in FoodStamps, the maximum for a single adult in Walker's Wisconsin.
So you see, April is "taking" pennies a day for eats and a HUD building with no bathtub/garage, from her Government. Words not in her vocabulary: DVR, restaurant, dentist, optometrist, vacation, airplane, movies, security. You get the picture. April lives a teeny tiny life. Her family's uncomfortable with her poverty. How'd we get a poor in our family? They regard her as if she's from another planet, which of course she is. She cannot afford a Supplemental Medicare plan. Many of her neighbors are missing teeth, plural.
Yet if you met her, she's pretty, brilliant, funny, generous and nicely turned out. You'd never peg her as a poor. Poverty hiding in plain sight. April is not leeching off America, the Republican lady has it exactly backwards. Free only exists for the affluent.
April has a message for the Republican lady. "It hurts to be poor. It hurts even more to be berated out of ignorance. You could not survive one day in my life". Merry Xmas to all my brethren.
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