The Poorhouse: Aunt Winnie, Glenn Beck, And The Politics Of The New Deal

[kpete]

The Poorhouse: Aunt Winnie, Glenn Beck, And The Politics Of The New Deal

First Posted: 12-29-10 03:01 PM | Updated: 12-29-10 10:08 PM

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The woman "could not give street and number, but could 'fotch' the agent to her place," according to a case study labeled "Aunt Winnie" in one of the organization's annual reports from near the turn of the century. "Old age, with a heavy load on top and a strong wind blowing, made the walk a trying one. At last the 8x10 cabin was reached. In it was a stove in many pieces held together with wire, a bedstead with rags for mattress and rags for covering. From the leaky roof the floor was wet through and through."

Aunt Winnie, the report said, had no income save the 50 cents she made every two weeks for taking in the wash. In summertime she raised herbs and greens, but in winter she "suffered for food and fuel." Her children had all been sold away to slavery, and a nearby niece was too poor to offer any support. Her neighbors helped, providing money for the stove and cot, and a "colored friendly visitor was found to carry broth and other comforts to her." The neighborly charity wasn't enough to persuade the agent, who was essentially a private sector version of a social worker, that the old woman should be on her own.

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Aunt Winnie, whose story is preserved in the archives of the Historical Society of Washington, had been sent to an American institution that was by then some 300 years old and went by a variety of names: the county farm, the poor farm, the almshouse or, most often, simply the poorhouse. She would probably have been surprised to learn that more than a hundred years later, after the virtual eradication of elderly poverty, a powerful political movement would materialize with the mission of returning to the hands-off social policies that made the poorhouse the nation's only refuge for the jobless, the aged, the infirm and the disabled.

That movement's most outspoken proponent is Fox News host Glenn Beck, who doesn't merely pine for the pre-New Deal era in general, but regularly prevails upon his audience to recognize the particular genius of some of the period's presidents, whose ideologies of inaction he holds up as the American ideal.

Democratic President Grover Cleveland is one such hero. When Beck and guest Joseph Lehman were discussing the proper roles of welfare and charity this summer, Lehman noted that one "extreme position is, you've got welfare only as a last resort and all assistance is private."

It wasn't too extreme for Beck. "And this is where we actually were a hundred years ago," Beck said, rightly thinking -- or not -- of people in Aunt Winnie's situation.

"We used to be here. In fact, Grover Cleveland has this excellent statement. In 1887, President Cleveland said, 'Though the people may support their government, the government shall not support the people,'" Lehman responded.

"That's great," said Beck.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/29/the-poorhouse-aunt-winnie_n_802338.html

[rurallib]

1. K&R That is quite an article

As those who endured the horrors of pre-New Deal America die off, the hard times become less and less real. The descendants of those who suffered are easily persuaded that the realities were not nearly as bad as the stories. And thus they participate in bringing the suffering back.

[Democrats Ramshield]

4. There's an old saying...

That if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it.

[AC_Mem]

2. glenn Beck's karma

may be a sight to behold.

[OneGrassRoot]

5. Ooooh, I so hope to witness it. n/t

[Democrats Ramshield]

3. This sadden me to read this

But then I realized too many Americans even to this very day still have it too hard. We need more social justice in America.