The “Entitlement State Grift”
I do think there’s grift and graft in Oakland, plenty of it when it comes to how government spends our money, especially in the areas of what our enlightened leaders call “equity” and “violence prevention.” Lord knows I’ve criticized it here for as long as I can remember.
But it’s weird. When an ultraconservative outlet like the Wall Street Journal does the same thing, I get rather defensive. After all, Oakland is my home. When I offer criticism, I do so in the spirit of love; it’s constructive criticism. When the Wall Street Journal does it, it comes across as malicious.
Republicans have railed about welfare, a broad term that encompasses many different things, for nearly a century. They hated FDR for Social Security, unemployment insurance and the minimum wage. They hated LBJ for the Civil Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid. They hated Obama for the Affordable Care Act. They hate all Democratic leaders for gay marriage and the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. The way Republicans see it, anybody who benefits from the least amount of help from the government is a lazy good-for-nothing, deserving of nothing. It’s more apparent now than ever, under our MAGA overlords, that our particular system of capitalism is designed to protect the wealthy [straight] White males, who financially support the politicians who, in turn, do their bidding. Our system is not so helpful to the struggling middle and lower classes.
But the question is, “Do Democrats Want More People on the Dole?” That is how the Wall Street Journal framed it in a recent editorial. “The dole” is an old term of insult for any government program that helps poor people. It used to refer only to unemployment benefits, but Republicans, who know a good epithet when they see one, now use it as a general term of opprobrium for any government assistance they don’t like, which is all government assistance, except that which goes to Christian churches.
The Journal’s editorial focused on a situation in the state of Minnesota in which a well-organized welfare scam involving Medicaid cost taxpayers millions. Some of the scammers allegedly were immigrant Somalis, whom Trump has lately declared war on, along with other “shithole countries” mostly in Africa. The Wall Street Journal, pretending to be fair and impartial LOL, notes that “the main problem…isn’t ethnicity or immigration. It’s the incentives for indolence and fraud at the heart of the welfare state.”
Notice the sweeping generalization. Anyone who receives a penny of “welfare” or “the dole” is “indolent” and committing “fraud,” excepting, again, if they’re running churches trying to take rights away from Gays and women. The editorial concludes, “Democrats won’t acknowledge fraud because they want more Americans on the dole.” The implication is that Democrats like it when people are poor because poor people tend to vote Democratic.
This is a serious charge. I would respond that both parties try to help their constituents. If you hate homosexuals and are against abortion—both currently are protected rights under our Constitution—and you wish to make America a Christian nation (which would have horrified the Founders), the Republican/MAGA party will support you, and change the laws, or make new ones, to make your crusade easier. And the MAGA Supreme Court, dominated by evangelicals and hard-right Roman Catholics, is there to help them do it. So, yes, the Democratic Party in turn does try to help poor people, Gays and women who want to control their bodies, and non-Christians who deserve to live in a free country. But who else would help them, if not Democrats? Certainly not Republicans. Certainly not Trump. Certainly not the so-called “Christians” who constitute Trump’s base, when they’re not waiting for the Rapture.
At the same time, we have to acknowledge that the Democrats do have a welfare-grift problem. Living in Oakland, we see all the time how taxpayer money is ladled out to people of exceedingly dubious credentials. I ask you, dear reader, what do you know about the people who lead so-called “anti-violence” programs? Do you know if these programs have any accountability? After all, it’s your money we’re talking about. I know enough about Oakland to know that there are horrifyingly corrupt relationships between our electeds and the nonprofits they enrich. I point to the situation at the Oakland schools, whose appetite for public funding is endless, even as their performance puts them at the bottom of the barrel in terms of students. The situation with the Duongs and Sheng Thao, which is only the tip of the iceberg, is similar: public officials involved in bribery and personal gain. The horror of it all is that the ignoramuses who voted for these bad actors understand that corruption is part of the game in Oakland, and they don’t care.
So, Republicans, before you blame Oakland, take the beam out of your own eye: the beam of homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, anti-science, religious quackery and anti-intellectualism.