The North Carolina Speaker of the House, Thom Tillis, won the Republican Nomination for the United States Senate in the state’s primary elections on Tuesday. ?Now I can officially say that I support the Democratic Nominee, Kay Hagan.
Many liberals do not have an undying love for Mrs. Hagan that might make them eager to travel to the polls in November. But if you don’t do it because you?love?her, please just do it to help defeat Mr. Tillis.
I don’t particularly care about the specifics of his policy?beliefs;?yes he doesn’t support a raise on the federal minimum wage, and yes he opposes same-sex marriage,?but it is his overall perception of the people in which he hopes to serve that leaves me with an unnerving feeling.
A video from 2011 recently came out, and Tillis is seen and heard describing a victory plan. This plan where he wants to divide and conquer what we?would call the “deserving” versus the “undeserving;” essentially, those who’should be on government assistance, and those who shouldn’t. Here is probably the most strikingly abhorrent part of his speech:
“We have to show respect for that woman who has cerebral palsy and had no choice, in her condition, that needs help and that we should help. And we need to get those folks to look down at these people who choose to get into a condition that makes them dependent on the government and say at some point, ?You’re on your own. We may end up taking care of those babies, but we’re not going to take care of you.??
This rhetoric is common for modern day Republicans, and while I wish it was more shocking than it is, I am especially disturbed since Mr. Tillis could end up representing me if he defeats incumbent Kay Hagan in November. I am a 24 year old college graduate currently looking for a steady job. I have been looking for months since being laid off of a law firm, with very little luck. I also have been suffering a chronic back problem that sometimes leaves me almost unable to walk at all. I have no kids and I am on no government assistance, although I probably could be on a lot. While I do not have the misfortunes of the woman stricken with cerebral palsy with whom Thom Tillis describes, but I am not a mooching, lazy, deservedly poor individual either. To just so casually say that people “choose” to be poor and on government assistance, shows how Republican candidates continuously lack the intellectual capacity to complexly decipher human behaviors and conditions. How many of these “folks” has Tillis actually talked to? Sure, there are people taking advantage of the system. This is always going to be the case. But the majority of people on government assistance within working age range, actually DO work, and some hold down multiple jobs. It is because of low wages (something that Tillis seems to support) that puts even working individuals on government assistance.
Also, it has to be said that Tillis’ remarks are just down right deplorable. Leaving out the statistics and social research that could easily mute such nonsense, his ideal?of having disabled people “look down at” those who are poor (and I am guessing not disabled), is disgusting. All of us struggle. Just because you are not legally or medically classified as disabled, does not mean that you just choose bad decisions and that is why you are in the position that you are in. I am all for personal responsibility, but even Republicans have been yelping for years that Obama’s economy is?so bad?and there aren’t enough jobs and blah blah blah.
SO, there are no jobs, but if you don’t have a job, or a good paying one, it is because you are a morally bankrupt individual; and you disabled people, aka the deserving handout recipients, you all look down on these aforementioned people. This ridiculous and hateful ploy should be condemned. Tillis was on MSNBC Wednesday and tried to walk back from his remarks, as usual. He said he shouldn’t have used the term “conquer” and that he was trying to say that people are taking advantage of the system, etc. But we know that this is a fundamental belief that the Republican Party seems to hold. Their incredulous lack of understanding of those on government assistance is continuing to be exposed, and it ain’t pretty.
I hope NC voters will wake up and realize that like Mitt Romney (who just endorsed Tillis) he too looks down upon a large amount of the people for whom he hopes to be working for. Since he looks down upon you, look down upon him, and VOTE FOR KAY HAGAN!
