Newt Gingrich’s statements lately, such as “food stamp President” and “paychecks”, have nothing to do with solving problems but everything to do with striking the right cord with white bigoted southern voters. It is so obvious you can smell it.
He doesn’t give two hoots about poor children, (he says poor children, but means black children; it is just another dog-whistle.) but what he does care for is getting more votes.
In the article quoted here Lia Shapiro argues that Newt’s assertions are not based on any facts or research.
Are they ever? One way to keep the journalists off your back is to say things that they cannot easily refute.
Quoted from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/18/newt-gingrich-janitor-job-schools-children_n_1211762.html?ref=politics&ir=Politics:
Newt Gingrich Janitor Idea Won’t Solve Jobs Crisis
During Monday night’s Republican debate in South Carolina, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich continued to promote his controversial strategy to child poverty and the jobs crisis: New York City janitors who make “an absurd amount of money” should be fired and replaced by poor schoolchildren, he said.
“You could take one janitor and hire 30-some kids to work in the school for the price of one janitor,” Gingrich said. “And those 30 kids would be a lot less likely to drop out. They would actually have money in their pocket.”
The idea captures Gingrich’s spin on two popular right-wing economic claims: Union workers are overpaid and the poor simply need to work harder to improve their lives.
You can substitute “poor” for “black” anytime Newt says it.
Shapiro presents expert interviews with people who understand the plight of the poor in America.
Research does not substantiate Gingrich’s claim that these janitorial jobs would keep poor kids in school or improve their future.
“It’s really based on a misunderstanding of who poor kids are,” said Ange-Marie Hancock, an associate professor of political science at the University of Southern California and author of “The Politics of Disgust and the Public Identity of the ‘Welfare Queen.’”
“It’s the idea that poor children are inherently flawed and need to learn certain things, as opposed to thinking about the system that fails to serve them,” Hancock said.
This whole thing with Gingrich is just another twist in the never-ending saga of the right wing’s “lets blame the victim” strategy of gaining a sympathetic ear, or vote, whatever the case may be. According to him it is the poor’s fault for being poor. Newt wants the southern bigots to think that he is not racist and he really cares about the plight of the poor.
Arguing the facts, as usuall, is useless. All he really cares about is votes. This is pure pandering.
Follow me on Twitter!
