Throughout the past four years, and ad nauseam in Tampa, Republicans have denounced Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on top income earners as “class warfare.” Yet, in another example of trying to have his cake and eat it, Romney has propagated ads on welfare that are demonstrably divisive on demographic lines. These ads imply that Obama is a Redistributor-in-Chief who is wasting YOUR hard-earned tax dollars on help for the lazy poor, a tactic which Republican strategists admit “triggers anger in white blue-collar voters.” Oh – FYI – the allegations made in these ads are false. But, on a fundamental level, isn’t appealing to one group of populace by exploiting their dislike of another group a clear case of class warfare?
Hypocrisy – the kind of hypocrisy that permeates the GOP.
In his review of the Democratic Convention, Charles Krauthammer singled out Sandra Fluke’s speech as the worst of the lot. His evaluation:
Angry, humorless and entitled. Not a good combination. Her cause? Free contraception. Translation: A Georgetown law school grad like her (average private-sector starting salary: $160,000) demands that her birth control be paid for by everyone else (median household income: $51,000). – The DNC scorecard, so far
Charles Krauthammer has an estimated net worth of $9 million. As a columnist, he staunchly supports a party with a tax policy that disproportionately benefits him more than median-income households.
He dismisses one of her arguments – that American women should have access to contraceptives – with an ad hominem attack on the basis of her presumed economic success. Some nerve. This is class warfare – an attempt to manufacture public support by pitting the median household income earners against Sandra Fluke. Krauthammer cannot refute Ms. Fluke’s case with facts, so he turns to fallacy. Some nerve.
While we’re on the subject – Krauthammer also grossly oversimplifies Ms. Fluke’s cause. She wasn’t focused on one issue related to women’s reproductive choices and health – she cares about them all.
It would be an America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms. An America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds we don’t want and our doctors say we don’t need. An America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it; in which politicians redefine rape so survivors are victimized all over again; in which someone decides which domestic violence victims deserve help, and which don’t. – Sandra Fluke, partial DNC transcript (emphasis added)
Republican Congressman Joe Walsh jumped on the bandwagon and added to the attacks, saying “Go get a job, Sandra Fluke.”
Rep Walsh has some good advice. If Ms. Fluke is willing – I’ve got a job prospect in mind: take a seat from Rep. Walsh or one of his colleagues in the 2014 midterms.
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