The Mask Slips Again

Thanks to the internet, it's much easier to catalog the incidents where Republican politicians slip and tell the truth about how they view people, particularly the least among us.

South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said Saturday he could have chosen his words more carefully when he compared people who take public assistance to stray animals Friday.

But Bauer, in an interview with The State Saturday, said a furor over his comments doesn't change this fact: South Carolina needs to have an honest conversation about the cycle of government dependency among its poorest residents.

Bauer, a two-term Republican who is running for governor, said there are parents who are dependent upon the government for food and shelter, but who are unwilling to engage in their children's education. This, he said, robs children of a chance to break out of poverty.

And as a candidate for governor, Bauer said, now is the time to start talking about something that others are unwilling to tackle. Bauer said he wants to lead that conversation.

"Why shouldn't you have to do something?" Bauer asked of people receiving food stamps, free school lunches and public housing. "In government, we are too often giving a handout instead of a hand up."

Friday, Bauer said giving food to needy people means encouraging dependence. It also gives the recipients a license to have children who will also be dependent on public aid, he said.

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals," Bauer told a Greenville-area crowd. "You know why? Because they breed.

"You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

To Bauer, "an honest conversation about poverty" means "Why the hell do we have to help these people?  They're not even human."   If you think Bauer didn't choose his words carefully and said exactly what was on his mind about South Carolina's poor in a Southern state facing 12.6% official unemployment and an unofficial rate close to 20%, you're crazy.

Bauer simply spoke the truth.  And the best part is there are enough people in the Palmetto State who will agree with him and are more than willing to throw millions of their neighbors to the wolves rather than place the blame on the Republicans who got the economy into this mess (never mind the racial undertones about comparing poor people to stray animals who breed.)

Rich banks got greedy.  You had to pay to fix it.  Now let's make those who can least afford it pay you back!

Hell of a platform to run on.  But it's a winning message in 2010 for Republican candidates so far.