Playing The Angles

While Think Progress has great coverage of this disastrous interview, I think it needs some more reflection.



This is not something new, as conservatives have been prattling on for over a year and essentially telling the unemployed they should “suck it up” and get a job at McDonalds working the drive-thru window. And while there are jobs like that open, they certainly aren’t going to meet even the most basic needs of many that find themselves unemployed.

It’s not that people are spoiled, it’s that they need to survive. You’re not going to be able to make a house payment AND have food on the table making minimum wage. Conservatives just don’t understand that. And to this preposterous notion that there are enough jobs out there to satisfy the unemployed, I have to wonder exactly how connected this woman is to reality. Certainly, she’s playing to the most base instincts of the conservative movement, and it will likely garner her some votes, but it’s this type of empty rhetoric that caused the Republican party’s downfall in 2006.

The unflinching idiocy of this woman and those that believe as she does is no longer shocking, as conservatives operate on two basic levels. Firstly, they are masters at creating and maintaining a narrative of fear. It’s brought them a wide audience – and not just of people that watch out of agreement, these people are akin to a train-wreck complete with toxic chemical spill – that they equate with accuracy in their delivery. Secondly, they are the movement that espouses overtly simplistic solutions to complex problems. From the economy, to healthcare, even the Gulf oil spill have been lifted up as examples of how the two most used words in the conservative lexicon are the catch-all problem solvers for the country – Free Market. It’s this type of reactionary posturing that has, at times, ground the progress of this nation to a standstill.

The ripple effect of people lowering their expectations and resorting to delivering pizza 4 days a week would actually create a much worse senerio than Ms. Angle is willing to admit.