From the annals of terrible people, via Tengrain, we have utter grasshole Chuck Grassley, GOP senator from Iowa, telling poor people why they don't deserve a tax cut like wealthy heirs are going to receive if the horrible GOP tax bill is voted into law:
“I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”
First off, the sexism of this comment has to be addressed- Grasshole doesn't even acknowledge working women, even though women are increasingly becoming the principal earners of their families. Sorry, straight ladies, grasshole doesn't think you count.
Now that we've addressed that, grasshole's comment demonstrates an utter contempt for the working class- he thinks that working stiffs blow all of their money to satisfy their desire for entertainment. Poor people go boozing and wenching while the worthy rich spend their money on traveling to far-off places to kill endangered megafauna, the more charismatic, the better.
It remains to be seen if grasshole's constituents will keep voting him into office, even after his display of scorn for them. Perhaps Iowa, in order to reduce the tax burden on plutocrats, can follow Kansas' lead by raising taxes on booze and smokes. In the meantime, booze and sexytimes remain affordable entertainment options, so to hell with poverty:
To hell with Chuck Grassley too.
C'mon, man. You CAN'T take these douchebags seriously. First of all, he's not saying something he believes (even if he does, most of them do not), he's signalling an ideological position. It's not to be taken literally by anyone on either side of the partisan divide - it's a dog whistle to his rural white christianist constituents.
ReplyDeleteWhich brings us to your question about whether he and his ilk will suffer political consequences for such ideation. And the answer is of course not. How naive would you have to be to believe that at this point? The people who vote for Grassley et al know he's not talking about THEM, he's talking about those brown people and liberals who are all communists anyway. THEY'RE the ones who spend their money on booze and women.
Seriously. The key lesson of the current political era in the US is a simple one, and it must be kept front-of-mind in any political or economic discussion. It is simply this:
There were enough bigots, misogynists, sectarians and white supremacists among the American population to elect Donald Fucking Trump president of the United States. These are your fellow citizens. Do not pretend they are your friends, or that they believe what you believe.
Ever.
I would invest, except that I have nothing left over after I blow my entire pay check on booze, women, and movies. (Luckily, Mom pays the rent and sends over Chinese takeout.) However,my lack of excess cash problem will be solved soon, since I expect to inherit one hundred and twenty buhzillion dollars just as soon as a certain relative kicks the bucket.
ReplyDeleteYours crankily,
The New York Crank
in my younger days i spent a fair amount of money on booze, women and movies - i also paid for stuff to smoke (not tobacco, however)
ReplyDeletethe rest i wasted
now i get high on the real thing - a clean windshield, a full tank of gasoline, and a shoeshine*
[*this line quoted from 'the firesign theatre']
mikey, in attributing malevolence to all the trumpistas, is overdoing the nastiness, as usual - while some are as described, others are doing the best they can with the poisonous propaganda they are continuously fed
'people will believe anything' - todd rundgren, song titled 'black and white'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDKpK3T_ckY