On his radio show yesterday, far right talker Bill Cunningham — who Sean Hannity considers a “great American” — claimed that people who are poor in America are not poor “because they lack money.” “They’re poor because they lack values, morals, and ethics,” said Cunningham…
This is the second day in a row that Cunningham has verbally attacked the poor. On his Monday show, he declared, “Among the so-called noble poor in America…birth control is not used so illegitimate children can be brought into the world, so the mom can get more checks in the mail from the government.”
I haven’t heard this kind of talk for years. It was common 40 years ago, but it died down for a while. I think the second part is particularly absurd ["…birth control is not used so illegitimate children can be brought into the world, so the mom can get more checks in the mail from the government.”], particularly from a group that is opposed to birth control. It’s of little use to argue with such nonsense. But there is a point to make. Things like this are said for only one reason, to justify poverty by blaming the poor. It’s a way of saying, "To hell with them. It’s their own damn thought." Why don’t they just be honest and say, "To hell with them." Here’s another version:
Right-wing radio host Dennis Prager spoke before an audience of 3,000 at Minneapolis’ Orchestra Hall, during which he attacked the “left” for constructing “a grand edifice of lies about America.” One of those lies, according to Prager, is that “equality” is an American value:
Equality, which is the primary value of the left, is a European value, not an American value. Let me tell you that right now. I know this sounds offensive to half of my fellow Americans, because they have been Europeanized in their values. The French Revolution is not the American Revolution. The French Revolution said Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. The American Revolution said Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We have lost touch with what our distinctive American values are. We have distinctive American values. … We have a better value system, and this is being protected by one of the two parties: the Republican party.It’s a good thing Prager was there to explain the ideals behind the American Revolution. Otherwise, Americans might have relied on “Europeanized” documents like the Declaration of Independence:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…
Or if they had looked to the United States Constitution, they may have erroneously thought “equality” was an important American value:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.Thankfully, Dennis Prager is here to protect and defend American inequality.
This kind of talk defies discussion. "We have a better value system, and this is being protected by one of the two parties: the Republican party." For those of you who recall Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, this is her message. We’ve heard a resurgence of Ayn Rand talk recently – Alan Greenspan’s Free Market Economy and this kind of justification of poverty by identifying poor people as weak, or degenerate. I do, however, agree with Prager’s assessment of the Republican party – it has become the party of Ayn Rand, the party of greed, the party of contempt, the party of the racists, which is why it’s about to get a severe kick in the pants. Let the kicking begin. To hell with them. They’ve forgotten that their first President was Abraham Lincoln, the man who stood up and said "no" to racism and divisiveness, and paid with his life…
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