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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKentucky Man Denounces US Safety Net...
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."--Lyndon Johnson
...While Relying on Government to Stay Alive
In a recent National Journal article, journalist Beth Reinhold exposes yet again the politically destructive reality that many poor whites -- particularly in the South -- will vote for candidates opposing government safety net programs, all the while accepting or living off those programs.
Reinhold chooses Kentucky as her case in point, where Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wages racial class warfare with his ongoing denunciation of government assistance to the needy.
Unfortunately, poor whites have long been lured by the Pied Piper "welfare queen" image (a mythical black woman allegedly driving a Cadillac paid for by Medicaid and food stamps -- no, it doesn't make any economic sense; it's sort of like a Disney fantasy for racists), even when, as Reinhold points out "ample and objective statistics show...that most welfare recipients are white families with children, the stereotype of the welfare queen persists."
FULL ARTICLE HERE
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"Divide and Conquer"...it's what they do.
RKP5637
(67,104 posts)how hard we try, some just love and live stupid ...
erpowers
(9,350 posts)There was a women who was on government assistance and driving a Cadillac; however, her case was more about individual fraud than widespread fraud among a racial group. In fact it is not completely clear whether or not she was black. She was a light skinned woman who, when it benefited her, claimed to be black. It seems that at other times she claimed to be white or Hispanic.
It is believed she defrauded local, state, and federal governments out of between about $100,000-$1,000,000. She did this by getting veteran's benefits for being a military wife. She was married about seven or eight times. At least one of her husbands for a U.S. Sailor. That marriage lasted only a few weeks. She also received Social Security and AFDC money. She was able to get so much money because she had more than a dozen identies. One of those identies was Linda Taylor. That was the name that was used during her trial for fraud for which she was convicted. Taylor died around 2002. Her age was not clear in that she gave multiple ages throughout her life.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/12/linda_taylor_welfare_queen_ronald_reagan_made_her_a_notorious_american_villain.html#section-2