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9 comments:
I've always wondered about this: exactly what is the Republican plan for people who are disabled?
I'm disabled. I would prefer not to be, but realistically, I probably will never be able to work enough to make anything like a living, even of the most marginal sort.
I am not lazy. I am well-educated (I even come from a family of intimidating intellectuals!). But I cannot work & rely solely on disability to, you know, live.
If the Republicans have their way, at some point in my future, I will not be able to afford to live.
Is this that compassionate conservatism they've been talking about? Or have I missed something vital in their platform?
That's usually the point at which they start to mumble something about charity.
Because you know people who spend their lives bitching about taxes in order to see a bigger number on their bank account would rush to fund all sorts of associations devoted to the care of the disabled and poors if they finally get that extra cash.
Their claim is that they don't begrudge a few pennys for disabled people: their foaming hatred is aimed at few the con-men & women who take advantage and game the system (and the repugs/rich folk know all about Gaming the System: and they assume everybody is exactly like them in honesty and intent. They suspect 95% of disabled people are "faking"
Actually, of course, they feel boundless contempt for anyone is is "Not Them". And a pure unquestioning conviction that they are Entitled to ALL the MONEY. Hence their loathing of "entitlements" for elderly, disabled, poor, minorities.
The Repug Right Wing Faux-Humans (or Fox humans) are Monsters-R-Us; their motto is "The Strong Eat the Weak". Right now they are having a terrific time rampaging about the planet, ululating and roaring, shaking the earth with their footsteps and trampling the "Small" people. But they will be brought down, and they will fall very heavily.
There is just too much factual information out here in the real world for their Propaganda to convince enough people to support them. They can try to stifle the internet, but it won't work -for very long- so far as controlling people. We can still print newspapers and send them out into the World, if we must. There are still paper books, speeches, all the old fashioned ways of communicating.
KWillow, I wish I had some optimism that these people would be brought down. But I've watched, with increasing dismay, as the discourse about every little thing in this country becomes perverted and crazy. You know the recent bill regarding the 9/11 first responders? Shouldn't every single American (if not every single human being) agree that helping those who did what they did is a necessary and right thing to do? And instead, what do we get? The Republicans shoot it down and they're the "patriotic" ones? Does that make any sense? That idiot in South Carolina hints at secession and he's hailed as a patriot. Um. That's not the definition of patriotism I learned when I was a child.
Tax cuts magically reduce the deficit & make everything right & rosy? That makes no sense, and it's been 30 years since Reagan took office & slashed taxes on the rich, and we've crumbled as a nation ever since. Roads, bridges, schools, cities.
I am disheartened and I'm angry that the bad guys are winning.
(& btw, there's nothing so soul-destroying as accepting "charity" even if those people were capable of the empathy to offer it.)
Somewhere on the 'net I saw a definition for the difference between rethugs and democrats with regard to welfare/entitlements. Democrats know that there are a few who game the systems, but that the vast majority using those services honestly need the help, so in their calculation it is worth suffering a few free-loaders for the vast majority that are helped. Rethugs would rather let all the deserving suffer and die before they fund any freeloaders, even if there are only a few of them. And somehow the religious wingers have gotten this codified as What Jesus Would Do. Up is down, black is white, etc.
Anon:
I'm trying to be optimistic, but sometimes I get so despairing: I just want to flee -but where?- Lately I've been daydreaming about Greenland.
In the meantime, is there anything of practical use I can do for you? Right now I imagine phrases like "Cheer up!" aren't much help.
Yes, they'll say that charity should take care of everyone, and if it didn't it's because the person wasn't worthy of help.
Many people on the right want visible evidence of their innate superiority. They want to be able to humble people who are Black and female in public. If they see the poor and disabled suffer, it just proves that they are superior to the rest of mankind.
Yes, they'll say that charity should take care of everyone, and if it didn't it's because the person wasn't worthy of help.
They probably will, history be damned.
Driven by some odd compulsion, I left comments on this twice. I went back to check & see if the first one got posted (cussing in the name you know) and I just still couldn't believe he thinks he's making a good-faith argument that the disabled would be better off without the ADA, so I added another. Maybe I'll go back in a couple days and add another, he deserves to catch WAY more shit about this. He should be a pariah, not a paid columnist.
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