Sunday, February 17, 2013

Hunting the Elusive Bete Noire


By Dan Hagen
Right wingers must always have a bête noire, a childish, fairy-tale monster they can point to. When you're actually working to undermine the interests of the poor and middle class, it's all you can do — shriek and say, "Look out, forget about all that, the socialist, terrorist, humanist boogeyman is coming to get you and your kids!"
Welfare recipients make delightful targets for Tea Party venom. They are denied a voice, so they can’t fight back. And with the Republicans’ billionaire puppet masters busy wiping the American middle class out of existence, they desperately need to find somebody else to frame. Poor people make the perfect diversion to keep ordinary Americans distracted until their crimes are a fait accompli.
As Dave Elizi said, "If the great sin of the left is that we want the working poor to be able to see a primary care physician, yeah I'll take that mantle of scorn."


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