I think what Mona (and others NR contribs and alumni who are capable of looking in a mirror) knows is that there's no guarantee it *would* be incredibly easy and effective for bad faith Republicans to trot out the welfare queen trope once it's obvious plenty of white, "Real American" parents are benefiting, too.
I think what Mona (and others NR contribs and alumni who are capable of looking in a mirror) knows is that there's no guarantee it *would* be incredibly easy and effective for bad faith Republicans to trot out the welfare queen trope once it's obvious plenty of white, "Real American" parents are benefiting, too.
After all, the response to KDW's reporting on the similarities between America's "heartland" and "urban" poor was thermonuclear denial. Break down that denial (which I think is what KDW was trying to do), and Republican voters must realize how much of the "tough love" rhetoric they're used to isn't. Isn't love, that is, as they recognize when it's directed their way.
What if the denial's unbreakable? We have evidence it might be. In that case, the divisive absurdity of Republican rhetoric sorting people who use *identical* social services into "deserving" and "undeserving" based on race alone rears its ugly head.
On the other hand, there's evidence that government benefits that differ by factors correlating with race and class is part of what drives racism and classism. For example if homeowners get a benefit after recent history when government promoted homeownership as a civic good — and subsidized it for whites... well, this actually happened:
I hope you're right, but I'm extremely doubtful. Look at all the folks who get their health care through ACA subsidies, branded with their state's exchange, who nonetheless vehemently hate Obamacare. There's a long history of whites feeling that they deserve government benefits but that blacks do not.
Right. Throughout US history, much of this has been enabled by blacks and whites typically getting different benefits, so that whites could tell themselves *their* benefits weren't really benefits, "properly understood". This is obviously harder to do with a widespread benefit applying to races equally, but in the Kraken world we live in, clearly not impossible.
I do cut Americans railing against our system of medical care payment, Obamacare or not, some slack. The stuff that makes American medical payment so crazy, like laws favoring employer-based plans, is also stuff that middle-class Americans are used to by now, and, as the saying goes, always keep ahold of Nurse for fear of finding something worse. People want a scapegoat for how much this sucks, even now, so of course if they lean that way, "Obamacare!" is tempting.
I think what Mona (and others NR contribs and alumni who are capable of looking in a mirror) knows is that there's no guarantee it *would* be incredibly easy and effective for bad faith Republicans to trot out the welfare queen trope once it's obvious plenty of white, "Real American" parents are benefiting, too.
After all, the response to KDW's reporting on the similarities between America's "heartland" and "urban" poor was thermonuclear denial. Break down that denial (which I think is what KDW was trying to do), and Republican voters must realize how much of the "tough love" rhetoric they're used to isn't. Isn't love, that is, as they recognize when it's directed their way.
What if the denial's unbreakable? We have evidence it might be. In that case, the divisive absurdity of Republican rhetoric sorting people who use *identical* social services into "deserving" and "undeserving" based on race alone rears its ugly head.
On the other hand, there's evidence that government benefits that differ by factors correlating with race and class is part of what drives racism and classism. For example if homeowners get a benefit after recent history when government promoted homeownership as a civic good — and subsidized it for whites... well, this actually happened:
https://modelcitizen.substack.com/p/does-zoning-cause-racism-does-negative
I hope you're right, but I'm extremely doubtful. Look at all the folks who get their health care through ACA subsidies, branded with their state's exchange, who nonetheless vehemently hate Obamacare. There's a long history of whites feeling that they deserve government benefits but that blacks do not.
Right. Throughout US history, much of this has been enabled by blacks and whites typically getting different benefits, so that whites could tell themselves *their* benefits weren't really benefits, "properly understood". This is obviously harder to do with a widespread benefit applying to races equally, but in the Kraken world we live in, clearly not impossible.
I do cut Americans railing against our system of medical care payment, Obamacare or not, some slack. The stuff that makes American medical payment so crazy, like laws favoring employer-based plans, is also stuff that middle-class Americans are used to by now, and, as the saying goes, always keep ahold of Nurse for fear of finding something worse. People want a scapegoat for how much this sucks, even now, so of course if they lean that way, "Obamacare!" is tempting.