WELFARE, TAXES, AND GOP POLITICS

Liberals are going to have to step up to the plate and admit they have a public relations problem. Actually, they have a couple of problems both dealing with distortion of their message. The first centers on the idea that they believe, and of course as a liberal I believe, the government is there to do what we cannot do for ourselves.  We want a nurturing government, a government of “all of the people”, and a government with empathy. Our opponents distort this thought is to mean all liberals smoke pot, use drugs and are people on welfare. Of course, we want to help people in need and have a government with authority. The second is that we are willing to pay to have that government; a tax is not a dirty word. This is so elementary that it should need mentioning

People like Frank Luntz, a conservative political operative, runs around doing focus group research. His job is finding ways to distort the liberal message with emotion provoking words. He finds that just the mention of people who receive but do not deserve government subsidies are an anathema in society and just their mention invokes hate. Just suggesting someone is getting something for nothing causes a galvanic skin response to peak. Equally provocative, is for anyone to say “increasing taxes”, which does the same thing. It seems ridiculous to think that such a simple two-part framework has been the historical basis for conservative political campaigns but it is.

Look at the abortion debate as an example. The religious driven argument that abortion is tantamount to murdering babies, also carefully chosen words as directed by Mr. Lutz, is framed by politicians this way; we support denying women abortions using government money. Usually couched with tough sounding macho expressions such as “Not one cent of taxpayers money”, or “Why should we, as hard working heads of families, pay for female promiscuity with my money”? They are bringing morality, female subservience, outdated family structure, and diminish real concern for the health and welfare of the mother to bear in support of their individual greed; I earned it and I want to keep it and spend it as I want to spend. Not one word about the woman or her quality of life, only the man’s pocket book, as if women do not count but their wallet does. I think the thing a liberal should do is point out the immorality of destroying a women’s quality of life or forcing birth of an unwanted baby, or point out the biological error of referring to a conceptus as a baby. Point out that biblical law and Sheira law are the same; they are religious law. In the United States, we live under the constitution, which is secular law.  It is wrong not to shed all religious nonsense that life is sacred no matter where you find it, even at the expense of quality of life; it breeds ignorance and causes us to make stupid decisions. You eat meat, even a carrot has life before we killed it, we deny science when we force children to be born we know will die within hours of birth, Marie Schiavo was brain dead and on and on.

Everyone knows the story of welfare queens. Any debate with a conservative on any subject and they will ether start with or immediately turn the discussion to welfare, something to do with people living on the “public dole”. They even imply that welfare is a “moral hazard”, as if people driven by greed know anything about morality—MBA’s for example. I think the thing for liberals to do is agree with them and then suggest that they appropriate money to find all these violators of the public trust that they have in their minds. Tell them that you as a liberal hate that some people will accept “taxpayers” money when they do not need it or accept unemployment rather than go to work. I certainly hate cheaters. I, along with other liberals, even hate corporate cheaters. I have the strong feeling that conservatives would rather have people cheating so they can complain about them then search them and do something about it.

How do you know you are watching a conservative news channel? As I said, they turn everything into something about welfare cheaters, even the news. It is easy; they make public disclosures with daring undercover investigations exposing cheating in welfare systems, “wasting your tax dollars”. Next time you hear such a program, call them up and ask if they did anything about. Ask them way they do not talk about jobs, failing infrastructure, gun violence, Wall Street corruption. consumer protection, health care, public schools, and banking regulations. 

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