Callousness from the Top Down

I'm astounded this morning by two accounts of callous attitude from the political right and/or the so-called upper class. First, something I've mentioned before on this blog from someone I've mentioned before: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who previously insisted that Joplin tornado victims get no relief unless it was offset elsewhere in the federal budget, told his constituents that any relief from this week's Virginia earthquake would have to be taken from elsewhere in the budget. Further, with the approach of massive Hurricane Irene to the east coast, Cantor preemptively announced that any disaster relief would have to be offset with budget cuts (see link below). Even Tom "the Hammer" DeLay did not go this far when he led House Republicans, denying disaster relief unless the federal budget was cut somewhere else.

Second, National Review writer David French said what many have thought the well-to-do and/or modern conservatives really felt: the poor are at fault for their lot because of personal defect or deficiency. Seriously. French wrote August 24 (see link below) "It is simply a fact that our social problems are increasingly connected to the depravity of the poor. If an American works hard, completes their education, gets married, and stays married, then they will rarely — very rarely — be poor. At the same time, poverty is the handmaiden of illegitimacy, divorce, ignorance, and addiction." Such outrageous twaddle would be laughable except that too many people are anxious to believe it. In a time when job opening announcements often have some variation of "unemployed need not apply" on them, it is apparent that blame-the-victim attitudes have taken much too firm a root in our society.

A sense of responsibility is essential in a society. So is a sense of compassion. What I see happening lately is a sense of smackdown.


The Sources of Poverty - By David French - The Corner - National Review Online

Political Animal - Cantor’s callousness turns preemptive

Analysis: Why Congress and Standard & Poors deserve each other - Yahoo! News

Bill Saporito of Time.com offered his thoughts on S&P and Congress. S&P contributed to the Great Recession by giving AAA ratings to collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) backed by "garbage mortgages" from " Alt A subprime pond scum." Congress gave the ratings agencies their power and left it intact even after the financial meltdown. "After all, this is a Congress that let the banking industry run amok, bailed it out with access to trillions of dollars of credit, and has since done precious little to ensure that the process won't be repeated. Nor would Congress reform the ratings industry, which played vital role in the crisis. Nor did it agree a deal worked out between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that would have preserved the AAA rating. If our Congress is that dumb, perhaps we deserved the downgrade."

Analysis: Why Congress and Standard & Poors deserve each other - Yahoo! News