This is the kind of crap I find despicable, essentially pushing an idea that welching poor people are the cause of the crisis. By using the labeling of "poor people", it permits a sort of lazy stereotyping to provide easy scapegoats. Under this political argument scheme, homebuyers become a new brand of welfare recipients which the government forced big, Wall Street banks into lending to.
Its an overstatement of the role of CRA, an understatement of Wall Streets culpability in creating exotic credit default swaps and derivatives and other opaque and unregulated financial instruments, and a stereotyping and scapegoating of regular people doing one of the most American things we do; buying a home to raise a family and become investors in the American way of life.
That's certainly a "creative" way of interpreting what he said.
ReplyDeleteObviously if he says that the problem is that nobody in Congress did their duty to oversee the millionaires at Fannie and Freddy, he's blaming "the poor."
(p.s.: The Republicans aren't the ones in power. This is Congress' job, and Congress is controlled by the Democrats.)
I would call this the latest meme pushed by anti-Republicans on the internet, but anti-Republicans have been pushing that meme for decades.
My friend, we're talking about the undertone thats going on here. Conservatives are pushing very hard the position that CRA regulations forced banks to make loans to people who could not afford them. This is a slight variation on the idea that the government is taking taxpayer money and handing it out to people on welfare. Its the undertone at work here that I'm calling out, an undertone that plays on stereotypes and prejudice.
ReplyDeleteI think we are talking about your own prejudices regarding conservatives. I understand what you are saying, but I see that as blaming the lawmakers, not the people who's only crime was trying to get their kids into a better school district.
ReplyDeleteI am a conservative (at minimum, a social con, and a bit of a fiscal con as well) It is not simply blaming the lawmakers thats going on here. Right now, there are probably two-four video hit pieces making the rounds that are pushing hard the association between CRA and lawmmakers, and between Fannie & Freddie and lawmakers. As these pieces are evolving, they seem to be making a point of connecting CRA and Mac/Mae to black lawmakers.
ReplyDeleteNow, I certainly believe that Mac/Mae's lobbying was an influence on democratic lawmakers, including the black legislators being called out in the videos. But that simply lends plausible deniability against the charge that this particular attack tactic is a sophisticated dog whistle that plays on stereotypes of blacks and welfare and corrupt black legislators taxing industrious working white people
to give their money to indolent poor people.
Does Newt say that? Do the other videos making the rounds explicitly say that? No, they don't. But they are suggestive of that and they are playing to that line of thinking. Why be incredulous at my suggestion that this is whats going on? The GOP is the party of hard ball tactics, and we pride ourselves on this point. To think that the people who put this stuff together do it with no awareness of the undertones contained in them is to engage in kool aid drinking. This ain't bean bag
This is like republicans who insist that McCain suspending his campaign was not done for its value as high political theater. Or people who think Obama incapable of voting for FISA to deprive his political opponents of a weapon against him.
The people who develop these pieces know what buttons they are pushing.
Phelps, on re-listening to this piece, I'll concede its not the best example of the concern I'm raising. I saw this after seeing the other pieces that I think do demonstrate my point and so I riffed moreso off the other stuff than the content here. I will simply note that Newt is however echoing this they gave our money to poor people theme, and that part of it is a very much a dog whistle to me. But this piece is not the best example of my overall point.
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