While we're all remarking on how the Donald Trump campaign is mainstreaming white supremacist themes and worldviews, let's take a moment to gawk at The Tennesseean, "part of the USA Today network," for choosing to publish this truly remarkable "commentary" from Cheatham County Republican so-and-so. It is an anti-welfare screed titled "Feeding 'the animals' makes them dependent."
Isn’t this what Hillary and the Democratic Party are doing — continuing to make more and more people dependent by continuing to “feed them?” [...]
It’s like animals at the zoo — they are totally taken care of — food, shelter, medical help, etc. As you all know, they can never be released back into their natural environment to fend for themselves and be productive in any way.
It is no different than the generations of Americans, born into an environment on the dole from government handouts . . . no longer able to fend for themselves and be productive in any way. And they have lost the distinction between right and wrong.
Like the “Skittles” argument offered up by Uday Trump, we've seen this specific argument before as well. The comparison of welfare recipients to wild animals eating out of good Americans' trash cans and bird feeders has been a longtime trope, among, primarily, racists who use it to paint pictures of shiftless, mostly minorities, they reckon with their hands in your wallet. "Welfare queens," I believe one especially prominent Republican blowhard put it. (It's been an ongoing theme among other Republicans for some time as well, popping up in 2014 in the Facebook posts of South Dakota Senate candidate Annette Bosworth, who is currently on probation after being convicted of felony election law violations in that race. Glad she had time to warn us all of the inherent crookedness of the poor before her own felony conviction—it would have looked awkward the other way 'round.)
For their part, The Tennesseean explains that it wasn't their fault, it's because Gannett op-ed submissions all go through a central clearing house of crap and they would never have published such a thing. It's just one of those things that happens.
"The op-ed submission went through the Ashland City Times, which carried it in print Sept. 7, and was published to provide the author the opportunity to lend her voice in the political debate," Plazas says. "The article solely reflects her point of view. While controversial, the piece has generated plenty of discussion, including a response carried in print Sept. 14, which has been published this morning."
As the Nashville Scene writer acutely observes: "if we're measuring engagement by Facebook shares, retweets and online comments alone and not in the quality of the message, that's bad, particularly in an election cycle when we need smarter commentaries from all sides, not just inflammatory ones."
It definitely feels like Trump is making a difference in the nation already. It's far more acceptable to peddle Klanesque talking points to American news outlets for their all-important both sides files than it was even a few years ago. It's likely to outlast his campaign by a good margin, too.