“President Obama is the most successful Food Stamp President in American History” – So saith NewtGingrich, during his 2012 Presidential Campaign Kick-off at the Georgia Republican Party Annual Convention in Macon Georgia, May 13, 2011.
Newt Gingrich is famous, or infamous if you prefer, for crafting & turning the quintessential catch phrase. So it is no surprise that his FoodStamp quote is not his only, or even his most recent stroke of profundity and verbalized genius. After all, that was way back on Friday. On Sunday, May 15th, the GOP savant, speaking to NBC Meet the Press interviewer, David Gregory, characterized Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposal as Right-Wing Social Engineering. Ryan, the Wisconsin Congressman who has been accorded near cult hero status among GOP-TParty circles for his widely acclaimed bold budgetary initiative was not amused. He noted that his proposal was not radical, and wondered why Gingrich was joining Democratic critics attacking the GOP Budget Plan.
In classic SMH (Scratch My Head) fashion, Ryan quipped, during an interview on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, "With allies like that, who needs the left?"
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/16/rep-ryan-fires-gingrich-medicare-plan-criticism/#ixzz1Mez2Ddbh
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/16/rep-ryan-fires-gingrich-medicare-plan-criticism/#ixzz1Mez2Ddbh
So sage and wily Newt skewers Obama, and sucker punches Ryan, all within 48 hours after announcing his candidacy for President. While that may sound like an auspicious start for just about anyone else, no one else is Newt.
To put a cherry on top of the ice cream sundae, so to speak, Mr. Gingrich weighed-in with his unique GOP-T Party anti-establishmentarianism by invoking an Obamaesque declaration that surprised a number of detractors and surely dismayed hordes of supporters. In the same Meet the Press interview cited earlier, he told David Gregory he believes that all Americans should purchase health insurance. Translation; Mr. Gingrich admitted he supports the highly controversial, especially among conservatives, insurance mandate that Republicans, except perhaps Mitt Romney, have made so much noise roundly repudiating.
In taking the high level view of the Food Stamp President question, it is important to make note of certain specific and important details. Let’s start with the name of the program. The proper title is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That has been the case since 1998, which to be clear, dates all the way back to the time Mr. Gingrich was in Congress. That means the then Congressman was directly involved with vetting and approving the new name.
With that stipulation, it is clear Mr. Gingrich’s choice to use the term Food Stamp President in connection with Mr. Obama was not accidental, or due to lack of knowledge, but a purposeful tactic. Some have defaulted to the position of accusing Candidate Gingrich of racism; a charge he vigorously denies. In fact, not only does he deny it, he aggressively attacks those who would suggest such a thing.
Having taken an historical look at the Gingrich School of Political Thought, I am going to surprise some regular readers of this space. I submit, to refer to Newt as a racist is unfair. In fact, it understates the pernicious nature of what is best described as an attack strategy. To view the practices as a function of racism fails to do justice to the nuanced and wide-ranging modes used to denounce, denigrate, malign and otherwise cast aspersions on political opponents. During the period that most observers suppose will always be thought of as his heyday, Mr. Gingrich crafted a memo (in 1994) entitled, “Language: A Key Mechanism ofControl.”
The objectives of the memo appear to be three-fold:
- Create and apply the most negative descriptive monikers possible to political opponents and their proposals
- Contrast that by assigning the most positive descriptors possible to political allies and their positions
- Repeat both processes as often as possible, especially in the media
- Food Stamp President
- Kenyan anti-colonial con man
- Socialist
- The new Jimmy Carter
- A man with a less robust resume than Sarah Palin
- Willfully blind
- A President who refuses to retaliate against enemies who attack
- A President who smiled and shook hands with Hugo Chavez
- A President who is creating a dictatorship
- The most radical President in American History
Get used to it. I am sure “The Food Stamp President” has come to terms with both the message and the messenger. Of course, one, apparently non-essential (in his perspective) detail excluded from Mr. Gingrich’s characterization is, Mr. Obama has presided over a nation embroiled in the most trenchant economic downturn since the Great Depression. So just maybe, there is a justifiable reason for there to be more Americans receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program than at any point in our country’s history. Alas, why allow a good insult to be tempered by the facts?
I’m done; holla back!
Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:
Posts
1 comment:
I hear you! As you have pointed out, the media is a venue by which idiotic tyranny is perpetuated. Who knew Newt wrote the book on "media mind (or mind-less) manipulation"? I dare say, that we (American folk- black, white, et al), must be careful not to allow our intelligence to be insulted because of our short-sighted memories. Our political views are just that, ours. This and other rhetoric is aimed at controlling our points of view. Let's continue to speak truth and support what is substantiated.
Post a Comment