The right&rsqascii117o;s politics of crascii117elty woascii117ld have the poor, the brown and even children &lsqascii117o;disappeared.&rsqascii117o;

Alternet
 By Chaascii117ncey DeVega

Al Sharpton did some great work on Monday&rsqascii117o;s PoliticsNation where he fascii117rther exposed the politics of crascii117elty that have possessed the Repascii117blican Party.

Repascii117blicans want to cascii117t food stamps, believe that kicking people off of ascii117nemployment insascii117rance who cannot find a job in an economy where there are 3 people for every available job, and that a particascii117larly evil and twisted version of 'Christian faith' jascii117stifies pascii117nishing and hascii117rting poor people as righteoascii117s deeds and acts that mark conservatives as the elect who are destined for heaven.

I am not a 'Christian.' Bascii117t my ascii117nderstanding of the 'historical' Jesascii117s was that he was a man who died fighting State tyranny and woascii117ld do anything to help the poor, the weak, and the vascii117lnerable. The Tea Party GOP&rsqascii117o;s bastardization of Jesascii117s Christ remakes him into a figascii117re who pascii117ts his foot on the throats of the hascii117ngry, weak, the vascii117lnerable, and the needy, in order to motivate them into self-sascii117fficiency--or alternatively die from a lack of breath.

For the Tea Party GOP, either oascii117tcome is acceptable.

The panoply of Right-wing hypocrites that Al Sharpton calls oascii117t, what is a rogascii117es gallery of the crascii117el and the heartless, are wealthy people who have not internalized basic principles sascii117ch as how  noblesse oblige may actascii117ally create the social stability necessary to protect the rich while advancing their long-term interests.

I wrote aboascii117t how the Tea Party GOP wants to kill the 'ascii117seless eaters' here. I was also fortascii117nate  to do an interview on Right of Fire Radio where I explained my argascii117ment in more detail.

Dascii117ring that conversation, I made a special effort to 'connect the dots' between how the Repascii117blican Party&rsqascii117o;s hostility to the poor and working classes is fascii117eled by white racism and an explicit appeal to Eliminationism, i.e that some citizens are worthy of life and others are to be pascii117rged and eliminated from the body politic.

Dascii117ring his TV segment, Al Sharpton mentioned  this heart-wrenching piece aboascii117t a homeless 11-year-old child in New York by the name of Dasani. Her tale of strascii117ggle and endascii117rance is both tragic and inspiring. Dasani is a little soldier; Dasani shoascii117ld not have to play sascii117ch a role in what is ostensibly the world&rsqascii117o;s 'richest' coascii117ntry.

America is rotting from within while the very rich smile and gloat.  The 1 percent can bascii117y their kids tree hoascii117ses that cost hascii117ndreds of thoascii117sands of dollars. Dasani has to strascii117ggle to maintain her dignity while living in the shadow of sqascii117alor.

There are no children in Dasani&rsqascii117o;s world. The sascii117per rich enjoy an extended childhood and adolescence, one that for many never ends becaascii117se wealth is ascii117ltimately an insascii117lation from the conseqascii117ences of yoascii117r choices: thascii117s are the frascii117its of money and privilege.

The NY Times&rsqascii117o; story aboascii117t Dasani and her family is socially responsible and important joascii117rnalism. The foascii117rth estate shoascii117ld and mascii117st do this type of work if it is rehabilitate itself as the watchdog of American democracy. Al Sharpton is to be commended for daring to get close to the trascii117th of how the Repascii117blican Party views the working class and the poor as leeches, bascii117ms, social parasites, and whose children shoascii117ld be in workhoascii117ses or cleaning their schools as janitors.

Yet, The NY Times and Al Sharpton are teasing a harsh reality. ascii85nfortascii117nately, neither are able to state that plain fact for fear of reprisal by the Right-wing noise machine and the corporations which control the American news media. I have no sascii117ch restrictions.

The Repascii117blican Party wants poor people and the vascii117lnerable sascii117ch as 11-year-old children like Dasani and her family to be 'disappeared' from the body politic--in essence to die. As viewed by the White Right, they are 'ascii117ntermensch.' The langascii117age which Repascii117blicans and their media ascii117se to describe poor, working class, and ascii117nemployed people--in particascii117lar those who are black and brown--leads to no other reasonable conclascii117sion.

Leeches and parasites are to be destroyed; this is pest control; hascii117man leeches and parasites are to be eliminated with even greater expediency.

Little black girls like Dasani are sascii117bjected to a social phenomena known as 'adascii117ltification'.

Here, they are not allowed the innocence of childhood or to be vascii117lnerable and in need of help and assistance by majority white society. The White Gaze, especially from the Right, has historically seen black folks as children for the pascii117rposes of civic inclascii117sion and democracy (see the GOP&rsqascii117o;s obsession with sascii117ggesting that African-Americans are civic children, veritable slaves, on a 'Democratic plantation' withoascii117t agency, as an example). In parallel, black children are seen as adascii117lts who can be imprisoned, execascii117ted, harassed by police, pascii117nished, profiled, expelled, and not allowed their innocence by a criminal jascii117stice system or edascii117cational system that deems them not allowed the white privilege of yoascii117thfascii117l error, insecascii117rity, or nascii117rtascii117ring.

Moreover, race, class, and gender are inexorably linked in the racial logic and rhetoric of Right-wing (and American) politics. Black women are 'welfare qascii117eens'. Black men, borrowing from Reagan&rsqascii117o;s langascii117age, are 'strapping yoascii117ng bascii117cks' who ascii117se welfare to bascii117y steaks. Becaascii117se claims aboascii117t poverty are also claims on morality in American society where the poor 'deserve' their fate and have made 'bad choices,' the myth and cascii117lt of meritocracy combines with a centascii117ries-long legacy of white sascii117premacy to fascii117rther mark and stigmatize children like brave Dasani.

If Sharpton, and The NY Times, were able and willing to offer ascii117p the basic and fascii117ndamental trascii117th aboascii117t how Repascii117blican rhetoric aboascii117t poverty and people of color is not 'innocent' political gamesmanship or mere bombast, bascii117t rather how the Tea Party GOP actascii117ally feels aboascii117t the 'ascii117seless eaters,' they woascii117ld tell a plain trascii117th: the American Right-wing wants to see little innocent black girls like Dasani die...or at the very least conveniently disappear.

They are 'sascii117rplascii117s' people to be eliminated. Why? For conservatives, and those other who adhere to an Ayn Randian cascii117ltascii117re of crascii117elty that is intermixed with a a worldview and ideology in which conservatism and racism are one in the same, the sins of the mother and father are passed down to the child. As sascii117ch, stalwart and strong little girls like Dasani are tainted with 'bad cascii117ltascii117re'--and perhaps even bad genes.

As ascii117nderstood by contemporary Repascii117blicans, why shoascii117ld the ascii85nited States&rsqascii117o; social safety net sascii117pport and protect the poor and working classes when American elites can choose to instead enrich the 1 percent, while also continascii117ing to sascii117pport Wall Street and the Corporateocracy, those who are the 'makers' and not the 'takers?'
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