People like Precious should not be compared to stray animals. They’re human beings and should be respected. But the leftist policies which contribute to their destructive lifestyles should be put to sleep like a rabid dog.
CNN anchors and guests this morning have been outraged by South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer’s recent remarks in which he compared those chronically dependent on welfare to stray animals who beg for food.
“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed,” Bauer said during a speech advocating that the government take away assistance to those who do not pass drug tests.
“You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply,” Bauer added, according to a report in the Greenville News. “They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”
Bauer, who grew up in a working-class family, said parents whose children receive free, or subsidized, lunches at school should stop receiving government benefits if they do not attend parent-teacher conferences.
CNN’s anchors and commentators were attacking Bauer as a racist for his comments — even though citizens of all races are dependent on welfare. (So who’s really being racist here when talk of welfare immediately makes leftists think of minorities?)
Bauer’s metaphor was boneheaded. He should not have compared human beings to animals. He might as well have painted a bulls-eye on his forehead for the Left.
But his basic point — government welfare often produces a dependency which lasts for generations — is entirely correct. But because he made his point as he did the discussion is not about this at all but about how insensitive and allegedly racist he is — and by extension all conservatives are too.
The lesson here is simple: don’t let your metaphors be so barbed that they distract from the point you’re trying to make. Don’t call poor people animals, don’t call Barack Obama a Nazi. Sure, so-called “progressives” will smear us no matter what language we use. But it’s not the Left who we need to get on our side — it’s the apolitical and the independent center that needs to be educated and persuaded.
Related posts:
