Scapegoating the Poor

I recently read a Facebook post that asked what facet of today's life would be the most difficult to explain to someone who time-traveled from the Fifties. The typical responses from folks, predictably, had something to do with the sweeping technological changes that have occurred. And to be sure, the idea of having iPads, social media and even microwave ovens would be inconceivable to people who lived in a world where television sets were tuned to 'Uncle Miltie' every week. Overlooked, however, among the answers was today's political mood, which I believe has taken an almost unrecognizable shift to the right during the last six decades.

You might be scratching your head at this moment wondering how I can justify such a claim. After all, longstanding racism with segregated schools and unfair voting practices remained the norm during the Fifties. The decade also produced unbridled Cold War paranoia that climaxed with the Communist witch hunts conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy. It was also a time of enormous conformity where mainstream society frowned upon overt individualistic expression and thought.

Nevertheless, as seemingly unenlightened as the Fifties were, today's political climate tops those times in dysfunctional obstinacy and downright cruelty.

The clear distinction between then and now is how the general attitude about poverty has shifted away from benign ignorance to contempt. Being poor today has become a crime literally in some instances. After performing an internet news search using the words 'being poor is a crime', I came across several stories, all dated within the last month. The most recent one reveals how two Texas teenage boys had to perform community service for school tardiness, which came about because their families couldn't afford to buy a working car to get them to school on time.

Moreover, it seems that in many American cities, local businesses and governments have begun a 'get-tough approach' with the homeless, encouraging police to issue more frequent arrests for heinous crimes like sleeping in public, loitering, littering and public urination. It seems wickedly peculiar that many people in the wealthiest country in the world treat its stray animals better than their fellow citizens who are down-and-out.

This intolerance of the poor is becoming increasingly reflected in government policies aimed at battling the so-called 'debt' crisis as many right-wingers politicos have decided to preach the claim that entitlement programs have transformed the U.S. into a nation of takers. In the name of austerity, governments at the federal, state and local level have gone out of their way to slash programs aimed specifically at helping the poor while leaving corporate welfare policies intact. While providing unnecessary tax breaks for defense contractors and massive subsidies to wealthy farmers, our political leaders seem to be competing to see who can introduce the most callous measures that ensure that the poor endure a disproportionate share of sacrifice. This reality couldn't have been more evident than on Thursday when some conservative congressional lawmakers rejected this year's farm bill because its proposed $20-billion-dollar food stamp funding cut DIDN'T GO FAR ENOUGH! Until recently, Congress routinely passed farm bills, which are considered bipartisan pieces of pork.

Such blatant inhumanity wasn't evident back during 1950s. Yes, some conservatives called for rolling back the New Deal. But, most Republicans, including President Eisenhower, decided to continue carrying out most of FDR's popular and effective programs. In fact, Ike helped initiate several new, large-scale public works programs including the Interstate Highway System.

This is not to say that America embraced the poor during this relatively affluent period. As a political issue, poverty didn't really take on any emphasis until the next decade when Lyndon Johnson initiated the 'Great Society' and the 'War on Poverty'. Nevertheless, neglecting the poor is quite a far cry from demonizing and punishing them.