"They Hate Poor People"

I haven't posted in a while, because I've spent my blogging time commenting on other sites. However, I saw a comment on a blog post regarding the race baiting associated with hurricane Katrina that I thought required a post longer than a blog comment.

This person said, sarcastically, "Republicans don't hate blacks. They hate poor people."

The insanity of saying Republicans hate blacks, or that Pres. Bush hates blacks is absolutely too far gone even to comment about it. Racism is the result of a screwed up personal philosophy, usually held by people who are afraid that they are not good enough, so they want to feel superior to someone else... at least in this day and age, when anyone with half a brain and any heart at all knows that a human being is a human being. Frankly, the racists I see (those who spout racial epithets at minorities) seem pretty dense. Bush, on the other hand, seems to truly take Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to heart, and looks at the content of people's character and not the color of their skin. (Something I can honestly say that I see from most Republicans). Who represents this country's foreign policy? Who did it before her? Who's the person I hear Republicans cheering because of the effectiveness he showed when he took over the effort in New Orleans and immediately started getting results? Moreover, Bush never made a big deal out of the racial makeup of his Cabinet. It didn't matter to him. He was picking people, not a rainbow.

Anyway... The accusation of racism is rediculous.

The accusation that Republicans hate poor people is equally rediculous. Here's why:

Republicans are supposed to be the party of business, right? Supposedly, Republicans are the rich--the capitalists. Here's the deal. Nobody wants people to be successful more than the capitalists. It's very simple. If you look at it from a strictly selfish point of view, ignoring the benefits that most people realize are obvious to society and the spirit, capitalists SELL goods and services. They sell more when more people can buy them. Every person that goes from poverty to affluence (or at least solvency) is a new prospective customer. They go from being a drain on income in terms of taxes paid to support welfare and other entitlements, to being a customer and fellow tax payer. Capitalists WANT people to succeed, because every new success can potentially contribute to their success.

OK... what about the people who make their money on Wall Street? Obviously, high unemployment drags markets down. Those capitalists want to see a fully employed work force. It raises confidence. Why? See above. They want a larger tax base, which can ease tax burdens, rather than more dependence on government which leads to higher tax burdens. Everybody wins that way. They want companies to do well so their stocks go up in price (again, see above). Also, more successful entrepreneurial efforts create not only more jobs, but more opportunities on Wall Street.

There is absolutely no reason why "rich" capitalists would want to see poverty. It benefits them not at all. And, it costs them money. It also costs them security.

Who DOES benefit from having an underclass? Who would WANT to hold people down, to convince them that they can't make it, and that someone else is keeping them down? Let's see...

--Entitlement bureaucrats who would have to stop sucking at the government teet and truly do a job in which they were accountable for performance if they didn't have their bureaucratic jobs.

--Various people who make a cushy living race baiting and producing no results that actually benefit people long term, except to roil anger short term (and line their pockets with donations from supporters).

--Politicians who get elected over and over making promises that they will help people achieve a better life, but who know no other way to do it than to give those people other people's money, or creating more bureaucracies that continue to keep people dependent on them. These politicians NEED people to stay poor, and they keep trying to sell them the same, tired mantra that the government (meaning THEY) will help them... so long as they keep getting re-elected. What they really mean is that they'll help them stay at a subsistance level and never achieve anything beyond that.

President Bush talked about the "soft prejudice of lowered expectations." THAT is field on which the three beneficiaries of poverty play. "You can't help yourself, so rely on us. We're what stands between you and 'the Man'." The problem is, this fictitious 'the Man' only benefits by having as many people as possible achieve their way out of poverty.

I say "achieve their way out of poverty" because the "soft prejudice of lowered expectations" that is peddled by the people who benefit from poverty tells people the lie that the government (meaning THEM) can lift them out of poverty. But the government can do no such thing. It certainly can't do it without creating socialism, where everyone gets just a small suck off the government teet (except the elite, who happen to be the same people who benefit from poverty now), at least eventually. In that scenario, the capitalists, entrepreneurs, and workers have no motivation to create and to work. Their efforts are pilfered to equalize everyone (except the elite, who create nothing but the scheme for pilfering the creativity and labors of others) and the entire economy will quickly swirl down the drain. Then everyone will be equal... equally miserable and impoverished. But, when capitalists and entrepreneurs (including people in poverty with good ideas) provide opportunities for people to achieve their way out of poverty, so they are climbing the ladder rather than having the ladder removed so everyone is on the same level, everybody wins.

It might truthfully be said that Republicans hate poverty. But it can't truthfully be said that Republicans hate the poor. We want the poor gainfully employed and climbing the ladder of success, because we know that benefits everyone. We also know that the long unfulfilled promise of the government taking care of those people has not only proved itself to be an untruth and an impossibility, but that it has proved to be an effective illusion used by Dems against Republicans at election time, despite the fact that it harms everyone involved.

Race baiting, and inciting class warfare works to the actual benefit of no one, except the people making their living by keeping other people down. And that's NOT the Republicans, capitalists, and entrepreneurs in this country.