First It Was ‘Don’t Have Children’; Now It’s ‘Don’t Feed Them’

January 26, 2010

Andre Bauer

At the top of the political news today is South Carolina’s Lt. Governor Andre Bauer. Following in the foot steps of those trying to force their political ideology on others, Bauer said “you’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that” — meaning humans that don’t have enough to eat should be left to starve.

Like so many other people in the political arena, Bauer has the old foot-in-mouth disease. However, it has been the Old Man’s experience that when people say something they ‘didn’t really mean’, it generally reflects how they truly feel.

You might recall Republican strategist Jack Burkman saying don’t have children if you can’t afford insurance. Now we got Bauer. Is this a beginning of a trend for the GOP? Have they decided to start publicizing their true beliefs? You know how it goes — test the water and see how cold it is before you jump in. And if they find the water is really too cold during their toe-test, they quickly dismiss it by falling back on that old standby ‘taken out of context’.

Ok, so I’m picking on the Republicans here when Democrats have the same disease. But it just seems that members of the Grand Old Party have a particular dislike for the less fortunate. You know — as if all of the less fortunate are that way by their own making; as if the ‘cream of the crop’ had nothing to do with it; or that the upper crust would have gotten where they are today without climbing on the backs of the less fortunate. It kind of makes one wonder who they think will shine their shoes, clean their houses, do their landscaping, mow their grass — well, you get the picture — when they’ve become successful in annihilating the poor. But there is an alternative to mass extinction if you’re willing — allow them to have a piece of the pie. The vast majority will work for it if you let them.

For Bauer, who’s bidding to replace Governor Mark Sanford, he may have a little explaining to do during his campaign. His state has an unemployment rate of 12.9 percent and growing. To compound his problem, the states per-capita income is $30,000 and poverty is 16 percent. And those figures are for 2008. Since then, no doubt those numbers have changed for the worse. So good luck on getting those people to vote for you — “Governor”!