Newt, Newt, Newt -- You Hideous, Useless, Evil Man

[filkertom]

Once again, you can tell the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of a Republican presidential candidate, especially Newt Gingrich, with a simple clue -- his or her lips are moving:

Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of “I do this and you give me cash,” unless it’s illegal.

Gingrich also repeated his notion that child labor laws are "truly stupid" (last week, he suggested that schools fire most of their cleaning staff and pay a starter wage to kids to clean their own schools).

I'm not gonna dissect this too deeply, because it's not very deep. It is, however, appalling.

Newt starts from the premise that poor people are all unemployed, lazy crooks. Frankly, in this political atmosphere, I'm surprised he didn't call them "shiftless" and "uppity", just so the very very slow among his chosen constituency couldn't possibly miss it.

Yeah, let's take kids with no help and no hope -- their families have trouble getting jobs because the jobs aren't there and, after all, they're committing the heinous crimes of being not-rich and possibly not-white so we don't expect them to work anyway, the lazy bastids -- and let's assume the kids are all crooks as well. But we can fix that. After a full day of school, let's take away their down time, their homework time, their social time, and have them clean their own schools (not incidentally through a process which at best circumnavigates union contracts and unemploys people who already have families). Let's let 'em play with dangerous chemicals and equipment far too big or unwieldy for them. Oh, hey, that's a new industry -- My Little Cleaning Stuff!

Let's break 'em with work, and let them know where their place in our society really is.

Some would say it is necessary, again in today's political climate, to counter this argument.

No, it's not.

It's wrong. It's all wrong. On a moral and ethical level, as an economic plan -- even as a tiny part of one, as a way of looking at people, as a way of solving problems... it's simply all wrong.

Newt Gingrich believes he is a man of ideas. And he is. Problem is, they're ideas dealt with a very long time ago, by Charles Dickens and Upton Sinclair.

If you think child labor laws are "stupid", if you want to work kids the way they used to be worked in the 19th century, if you simply assume that poor people are lazy and incapable of holding a job and criminals and suggest policy from there... you not only do not deserve to be a candidate for any elected office in these United States, you need to take some serious time to look at where the hell your life went so very wrong.

ETA: Added a link to the "truly stupid" remark, in which indicated kids should start working at the age of nine.

Comments

*sigh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

That man is about as much fun as a candiru in a swimming pool.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

I am so -very- annoyed with Newt. In one way he is possibly the most intelligent of the Repulsive* candidates and has had better ideas in some matters than the others [allow illegals to stay with permanent residency but without voting rights so as not to split up families - is IMO an excellent idea] - but he is just so darned stupid in others.

The 'have the kids clean' idea is COMPLETE Simon Legree cr@p, his personal morals are only slightly better than that of a mink.


[* the 'Repulsives' are not Republicans - they are repellant stooges who have overwhelmed the GOP and I want them out of the pool so I can actually -vote- for a candidate from the party I am registered with.]

[jovan-scorn.livejournal.com]

The more and more I see the "poor people are lazy and stupid" argument the more I think society hasn't developed enough to see ideas like this that we hold as axioms are a plague on progress of all fronts.

Also no one ever asks Newt why all the congressmen spend a bulk of their time campaigning and fund raising rather than serving. It's almost like their lazy.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

The McCarthyist wing of the GOP is in control now. That branch is not looking to be particularly friendly to people designated as "the other" in any way, shape or form. The GOP looked for its way to gain power; this was the most efficient way. I am sorry to tell you this, but the party you wish you could vote for at the federal level is filled with many corrupt, self-serving and venal power-bosses both behind the scenes and in office.

[danceswithlife]

If the issue is that children don't have role models to show them how to slave for the upper classes at minimum wage (since most poor people are just lazy) then a more logical answer is TO EMPLOY THEIR PARENTS OR CAREGIVERS so they have role models, more money, and a chance to be kids and learn to be something other than janitors.

Another point is that 13 year olds (like their child laboring ancestors) mostly aren't yet trained to do work that isn't mindless and repetitive. That's what high school, trade schools and college is for. So if you want jr high school children to work, it might look like their choices are limited.

But what about giving them access to computers, and libraries, and art supplies, and music and sports equipment and letting their creativity and energy run wild for a few years? Often the strongest encouragement to self-discipline is doing something you love with teachers and mentors and peers who can help you do it as well as you possibly can.

Your post articulated what was bugging the shit out of me about this--thanks.

[adamselzer.livejournal.com]

Remember when he suggested bringing back orphanages, for some reason? Or when he came out for bringing back corporal punishment on some MTV special? Or when he....

aw, forget it. As a historian, he really SHOULD know that history rarely smiles on people who get elected by playing on people's basest fears and prejudices so shamelessly. It CAN get the elected sometimes, but they go down in history as jackasses unless they spend the last thirty years of their lives apologizing. He's much more creative than most of the other candidates, but lacks the poise to realize when one of his ideas is going to horrify most people of normal intelligence.

THe only three words to describe him are as follows, and I quote, "Stink. Stank. Stunk." You nauseate me, Mr. Gingrich.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

With apologies to 'Mr. Grinch':

You're a mean one, Newt Gingrich
You really are a heel,
You're as cuddly as a cactus, you've forgotten how to feel, Newt Gingrich,
You've got bad karma and a stalker's sex appeal!

You're a monster, Newt Gingrich,
Your heart's an empty hole,
Your brain is full of spiders, you'll kick babies off the dole, Newt Gingrich,
I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!

You're a vile one, Newt Gingrich,
You have dementors in your smile,
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile, Newt Gingrich,
If you end up taking power I think I'll take a case of permanent exile!

You infuriate me, Newt Gingrich,
With an extra pile of 'fur',
You're a serial wife dumper with the morals of a cur, Newt Gingrich,
You're a three decker sandwich made of mold, flip-flops and dirt!

You're a foul one, Newt Gingrich,
You're an untrustworthy skunk,
You sold you soul for power and then had your heart removed, Newt Gingrich,
The three words that describe you are as follows, and I quote, "Stink, Stank, Stunk!"

You're a rotter, Newt Gingrich,
You're the king of tangled plots,
Your eyes are flashing neon stained with market update spots, Newt Gingrich,
Your brain is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots!

[tandw.livejournal.com]

I can't remember where I read this (and I'm too tired to go looking for it now), but IIRC his PhD dissertation in history was an analysis of the Belgian colonization/exploitation in Africa, and he basically made Leopold out to be the misunderstood good guy.

And his morality doesn't really seem to have improved since then.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

and he basically made Leopold out to be the misunderstood good guy.

...

Even the other imperial monarchs in Leopold's day thought he was an evil butcher. To defend him... yow.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Personally I'm very weary of the whole poor people are lazy, stupid, potential criminals trope.

As things stand I live with my family and I have no income at this time. I'm lucky to have a place to live and I'm on foodstamps. The Repubs absolutely do not have the moral highground when it comes to helping the poor.

I get enabling people to become successful in life and I support that idea; but we need a social safety net to help the people who fall down on their way to being successful.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

and just think.. for however vile repulsive and down-right evil Newt is... there are people who think he's right and should be the next President. And they vote.

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

This one oughta get posted on the lj filk community for general praise and elaboration!

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I don't call it "falling down" when people are run into the ground and injured by their employers's carelessness and a general lack of OSHA enforcement. Plus getting outright sick; so in either case, their health care costs more than they can afford, so they go bankrupt
It doesn't have to be like that. Insurance companies are doing just FINE in all those so-called socialist companies in the Eurozone, even with the financial crisis.
Newt is the intellectual helping the others make excuses for a pre-determined position. They'd change their tune unbelievably fast if their fundraising environment changed, since these creatures only swim with the tide. Perhaps we ought to be looking at the matrix that created and now maintains such repulsive creatures.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The worst part is that Newt is specifically talking about kids as young as nine years old (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/19/gingrich-laws-preventing-child-labor-are-truly-stupid/). He mentions paper routes and washing cars, which are fine up to a point... but in the same speech as cleaning schools and other adult jobs. Washing cars is a few hours on a weekend; a paper route is an hour or two a day. They are not the same thing as cleaning a fucking school.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

"Newt Gingrich is the intellectual of the Republican field the way Moe was the intellectual of the Stooges."

-Andy Borowitz

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

Then I was ten, through a series of fucked up events, I had to do EXACTLY what Herr Gingritch suggests; in order to get fed lunch at school (and bringing it from home was a non-option, seriously,) I had to work half my lunch hour in the school kitchen.

It was thoroughly illegal in every way, but the kitchen ladies offered it as a way for them to still feed me lunch without giving me a free ride. (Don't ask me why it was less morally reprehensible to put a ten year old to work in the kitchen than to give her some food on a regular basis, but there you have Arizona in the early 80's.)

I can speak with absolute certainty on what this does to kids. It 'Others' them. Plain and simple, it takes them out of the company of their peers at a time when children are building critical social skills, and it paints a huge blot on them that their peers see, and target. It alienates them from could-be friends, and shoves them into a place where they are seen as bizarrely different, and worthy of scorn and abuse. Kids, please remember, are psychos until around the age of 16, when they begin to learn empathy and courage.

It also encourages kids to drop out at ever earlier ages, and to turn their hands to things they might be not only better at, but which would 'pay' better as well.

And what it also does, is expose kids to the more sadistic tendencies of teachers as well. At present, it's actually illegal to give a kid a Snape kind of detention, and for good goddamned reason -- I've known many, many teachers who would have very much abused such authority over their least favorite students, and told themselves they were just handling a little 'discipline problem' by grinding the kid's self-respect into a paste. If they'll do it in class, you good goddamned bet they'll do it afterward.

And shall we now get into sexual abusers on the child-cleaning-crew-management staff, and how much easier it is to get the privacy to commit rape when the kids are there, and their classmates either aren't, or are kept busy elsewhere?

Tt;Dr? I did just that when I was ten. I survived it. I believe Herr. Gingrich is a loathsome individual for suggesting such a practice as an institutional measure. Actually, I think he's a loathsome individual altogether, and one whom I'd actually like much better if he would just stop breathing please.

[ldyerzsie.livejournal.com]

Having friends and family who have worked as custodian in schools and given the general lack of caring about property that isn't ones' own that is the current attitude, I personally think that at the junior high to high school level, kids should--in groups--shadow a janitor for one evening. If they see how hideous the job is, they may stop making it harder and grosser. Making them actually DO the job? No, I don't think so. My brother and I quit at a small factory when they tried to make him use a hot glue gun. He was 15. I was 18, so I had taken my turn with it, but it was dangerous and they were breaking the law by having a 15 year old employed there anyway.

Also, the menial jobs I had in high school and college really made me want to get a degree and a nicer job. Someone with else it might turn to a life of crime or dancing in dive bars.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

With newspaper readership going down, paper routes aren't as common. Plus they can be dangerous in certain areas and when I was growing up a kid having a paper route also meant a parent was along side them helping and making sure they're OK. As for washing cars, these days you have the $2 self wash stations and $5 car wash fundraisers. You also have SUVs which is pretty hard for a 10 year old to reach the roof.

So even those traditional jobs are out of reach of kids these days.

What happens when you make poor kids do manual labor to pay their way in a school environment.

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User kingsgrave referenced to your post from What happens when you make poor kids do manual labor to pay their way in a school environment. (http://kingsgrave.livejournal.com/232693.html) saying: [...] posted on this issue here [...]

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

I had a paper route from first to sixth grade. I got double pneumonia in sixth grade and was hospitalized for dehydration, and my parents made me stop the paper route so my health wouldn't continue to suffer. I'm not sure paper routes are much better.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

That is an insult to Moe Howard. The Three Stooges displayed far more moral character, intelligence, and artistry than Mr. Gingrich ever did in his years in Congress.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

My high school did something different: For 10 minutes every day (10:05am-10:15am), the entire school population would clean the school. Every advisor and his or her kids was assigned to a room or a part of a hallway. The end result was less work for the school janitors and far less vandalism. After all, when you know your peers are going to have to clean up after your prank, who do you think is going to come after you afterwards?

[lone-cat.livejournal.com]

<APPLAUSE>

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Shows how much I get 'around', but what is the LJ filk community called?

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

filk, and you'll need to join the community to make posts--but it's also a great resource.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

A great idea, on the Japanese model. But that only works in smaller, more accountable schools. I went to high school in a fast-developing area where the schools couldn't keep up, using portable buildings, and after other developments have finally built their own schools, it now has 1500 students. It had a lot more back then.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Oh, so there's a misunderstood reason you'd cut off black people's hands, is there, Uncle Newt?

Man, the entire GOP slate is repulsive to any woman with a working brain and an ounce of self-respect, but by god they keep trading off each other's shovels to dig themselves deeper.

I'm terrified that there's enough angry-old-white-d00dz out there who've been fed a 3-year course of racism and lies who could tip the balance next year.

What happens when you make poor kids do manual labor to pay their way in a school environment.

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User queen_bellatrix referenced to your post from What happens when you make poor kids do manual labor to pay their way in a school environment. (http://queen-bellatrix.livejournal.com/5777.html) saying: [...] posted on this issue here [...]

[batyatoon]

This! I was trying to figure out a way to address the only legitimate point in that heap of waste, which was "hey, kids might maybe have a hard time with getting employed if they don't have a role model for employment in their lives". (And even that semi-legitimate point was delegitimized further by the assumption that "nobody in this kid's life works" is a statement that applies to all of the "really poor".)

Right here is an excellent example of just one much, much better way to address that particular problem.

[enjis.livejournal.com]

The one thing he's not wrong about is that a child is not going to learn good work ethics and habits from thin air. That's pretty much a given. You have to be taught to clean yourself up, show up, do your job, do your time, get paid, do it again. What these kids need is to be taught how to do these things.

[elf]

What these kids need to be taught is that those things are useful; they need to see that "show up, work competently all day, increase skill over time" will be rewarded. The reason they don't learn good work ethics isn't because they have no role models who work, or work well--it's because all they see of work is exhausted, absent-minded adults who constantly fret about money, and absolute panic if anyone gets sick for longer than three days. If that's the rewards of "good work ethics," why bother?

And no adult can look those kids in the eye and say honestly, "if you study hard and learn a good set of skills, you'll be able to work 40 hours a week at an honorable job and be able to support a family thereby." *That's* what they need, not practice pushing a mop.

(Um. Sorry if I sound rantish. No idea exactly where you stand on this. I agree that kids need to learn good work habits & ethics. I disagree that Newt's plan of forced labor in their preteen years will do this.)

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

LOL, I love your icon!!

[enigmaticfox.livejournal.com]

Oh excellent -- I was going to post this, but you beat me to it. :)

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

Happy to oblige. :) Got a lot of love for the world's oldest boy band.

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

Remember his "reasoning" as to why women couldn't/shouldn't serve in combat? Which IMO was grounded in his own fears about menstrual blood. Back around that time, I read a post from a nurse who was a Vietnam vet, who explained very thoroughly why having a period didn't really make much difference when you're in a combat zone (other than the infantry had a habit of using up all the tampons to clean their rifles). The crowning point, though, was when she told Gingrich that she knew her fellow soldiers would rather serve with her than Gingrich, and that no one in the military could afford to be afraid of a little blood.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Newt Gingrich believes he is a man of ideas. And he is. Problem is, they're ideas dealt with a very long time ago, by Charles Dickens and Upton Sinclair.
Well said.

[enjis.livejournal.com]

I agree with you 100%. My dad used to fret over young folk who came in to his workplace to fill out job aps. He wondered that none of them had a pencil, or dressed nicely. 'Didn't anyone teach them how to look for a job?' he'd ask. The answer was usually, no, no one did. I applaud job services that teach these skills. I agree with you about the role models too...these days, there are few Ward Cleavers to show us the bennies of a good 9 to 5 job. Heck, with so few full time jobs even available, who has time for just ONE job?

[wanted-a-pony.livejournal.com]

Applause!!