the meanness of Georgia Republicans

[old timey villain]

So...in a nutshell: Georgia GOP justifies war on poor by convincing slightly less poor white people that the really poor ones (usually black) are leeches and if they are cut off then everyone else will become filthy rich.

No surprise to this Georgia resident. The state GOP has become a filthy concoction of bible thumpers, tea party crazies, rednecks and modern day plantation owners. They must be stopped...but how?

[old timey villain]

It's become more and more common that Republican policies are based more on resentment for certain demographics than "smaller government" or any of the buzzwords used to justify it. Another example: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?action=profile;u=6521;sa=showPosts

well, obviously. That's why they do so well in the South. We invented racial resentment.

[old timey villain]

One could argue that a significant part of the GOP has always wanted to knock the poor off the dole out of spite/meanness.

That attitude is hardly something new and prevailed as the main policy until the early/mid 20th century.

The truly mean part about it is that we've now seen what programs that lower poverty can do for society and we still choose to screw these people.

The problem is that very wealthy people seem to be ok with programs that help the poor. It's been my experience that very wealthy people whose money aint going anywhere have a sense of noblesse oblige. But Republicans, increasingly, are becoming the party of blue collar to middle class whites and they seem to be the ones who have a problem with these programs. Many are a paycheck away from being on the dole themselves, so they think that increased money and resources spent on poor people will hurt them in the process. This could explain the shift in Republican attitudes.

[old timey villain]

One could argue that a significant part of the GOP has always wanted to knock the poor off the dole out of spite/meanness.

That attitude is hardly something new and prevailed as the main policy until the early/mid 20th century.

The truly mean part about it is that we've now seen what programs that lower poverty can do for society and we still choose to screw these people.

The problem is that very wealthy people seem to be ok with programs that help the poor. It's been my experience that very wealthy people whose money aint going anywhere have a sense of noblesse oblige.

Nah.