GOP Candidates Play In Stereotypical Sand

GOP Candidates Play In Stereotypical Sand
Sure, the GOP candidates are human, but these guys are the cream of the crop. Right? They are the Republican intellectual elite. The progressive thinkers. The ones who base their opinions on sound research and the (ahem) FACTS. Right? As it turns out, at least two of the GOP numb-skulls are quite content to continue play in the stereotypical sand. First, Rick Santorum, and now Newt Gingrich is at it. What better way to rile up conservative, white, Republicans than to extol the notion that minorities—particularly, African Americans—are sucking this country dry via government-sponsored social programs? Want evidence? Santorum was recently slammed by the NAACP for stating, “"I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money." Really, Rick? So tell us what’s really on your mind. Or better, yet, defend the Freudian slip that would have voters believe that people of African-American decent are the foremost recipients of public assistance.

Do African-Americans receive public assistance? Absolutely. What continues to astound me is that political talking heads never do the math: African-Americans are a minority. Let me repeat: minority. By definition, a minority is a smaller part making up less than half of the whole. African Americans make up just 12.7% of the U.S. population according to the census conducted in 2002. Let’s keep it simple: The report shows that through 2002, 12.1% of all people who reported as White and 23.9% of all people who reported as Black are below the poverty level. Hmmm. That must mean twice as many Blacks are below the poverty, and therefore twice as many are on welfare. Slow your roll. That same report calculates those poverty percentages within the confines of each ethnic group, but not as a percentage of all races. You have to do extra math to determine that. Fortunately, your friendly neighborhood African-American who is NOT on welfare has done those calculations for you.

In raw numbers, the 2002 census data shows 34.6 million Whites and 8.8 million Blacks below the poverty line. As a percentage of the 285.3 million total population, that comes to 12.1% and 0.3%, White and Black respectively. Last I checked, the ratio of White:Black below poverty is just over 4:1. Here’s the interesting part: GOP politicians continue to spew and perpetuate the notion that(only) Blacks are on welfare or that Blacks are the overwhelming majority on social assistance. Mind you, the 2002 report referenced does not directly address the numbers on public assistance. For actual data on individuals on welfare, searching on “welfare” via the census bureau site yields more dated results.

Case in point: The report entitled, A LOOK AT WELFARE DEPENDENCY USING THE 1984 SIPP (Survey of Income and Program Participation) PANEL FILE, was the only report that included welfare data mapped to demographic information. Suffice it to say, this report didn’t vary much from the 2002 data. Of the Characteristics of Welfare Recipients, 86.8% were White and 10.6% . Sure, one can reasonably extrapolate the percentages to have grown by 2002 and beyond, but to assume African Americans make up the majority of recipients on welfare is patently false. And frankly, aren't you tired of African American being seen as the poster children of public assistance when you know it's not true?

Elsewhere in the GOP candidate circus ring, Newt Gingrich’s hoof-in-mouth incubation period is evidenced by his assertion that he is, “prepared to go to (the NAACP) convention and talk about why the African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." Thanks, but, “No Thanks,” Newt. I will leave to your own reading the host of further idiotic quotes from the former speaker and 20-year veteran of the house. I’m astounded that in the age of the Internet, where one can invalidate false (and patently stupid) statements in less than twenty minutes, candidates are not held more accountable.

For those candidates and constituents who would complain that there isn’t enough focus on the issues, how about starting with backing off of the inflammatory speech to rile up voters? If you, “reserve the right to tell the truth,” Mr. Gingrich, you should damn well have your facts straight!

Not that it really matters. A considerable percentage of the GOP electorate takes every word they hear from the likes of Newt, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Michael Savage as gospel. An ignorant vote still counts as much as an informed one, I know, but is too much to ask to want an informed electorate? Or are we doomed to stall in political stalemate? Not that the Democrats don’t have their own talking heads. Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, and Steven Cobert favor liberal causes, but each of these gents is an equal opportunity basher of all politicians…and, I might add, they (at least) get the facts right most of the time!

‘Nough said,
+THINKR