The Shame of Blaming the Victims - MUST READ!

[liberal N proud]

By Amanda Marcotte, AlterNet. Posted September 16, 2005.

In a desperate attempt to protect the president, the right wing has resorted to blaming the victims.
Talk about a flip-flop. Last year progressives were berated for embracing the "Anybody But Bush" philosophy; these days, after Bush's miserable failure of leadership leading up to and during the Katrina catastrophe, the right-wing opinion machine is a true aficionado of the ABB philosophy -- so long as it's Anybody But Bush accepting the blame for his failures
<snip>
Phase II: Don't call us racist! We want to help the hustle the survivors out of town, after all

P.C. liberals are such whiners. Just because right wing pundits tried to distract from Bush's failures during Hurricane Katrina by drumming up wild fantasies about getting all vigilante on some poor black people, it doesn't make them racist. Not in the slightest. In fact, they're quite eager to demonstrate how they're going to help the largely black and impoverished population of New Orleans that had to be evacuated in total chaos, by helping relieve them of their land so that it can be developed for wealthier folks. That way they don't have to worry their heads about ever coming home again.

<snip>
Liberals should have taken a moment to enjoy the sight of conservatives scrambling to show pictures of white people touching black people and trying to sell the idea that bulldozing people's homes to build gated communities is "compassionate" conservatism. As it became clear that the public was going to hold Bush responsible for a) not getting people out of New Orleans before the storm and b) letting people rot there for days without help, the right wing punditry realized that nice-sounding language that imitated compassion and hope for racial harmony had to be sacrificed to protect the President. Blaming the victim became the order of the day and thus one of the ugliest and most effective right wing bogeymen was whipped out to do the job -- the Welfare Queen!

The Welfare Queen is an oldie-but-goodie. Few stereotypes have this kind of versatility. Truly, she is like a jazz standard for conservatives -- each one can play his/her pet issue off this stereotype like an old pro. Better yet, being a mythological creature that needs only to be invoked and not proven, conservatives can rant and rave about her without actually addressing anything like what welfare really has to do with Bush's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrin
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/25549/

[nofurylike]

1. yes! *must* read! painfully perfectly said. makes me shriek,

as i should. as we all must.

thank you for posting this, liberal N proud.


peace

[abluelady]

2. What a Wonderful Article

Thanks for posting this. She said so well what needed to be said. I wish every little town newspaper in the red states would print her.

[OneBlueSky]

3. kicked and recommended . . . must read . . . n/t

.