Donald Trump took his dog whistle to Florida last weekend, where he supposedly told him a room full of donors: “When you're a Democrat, you essentially start at 40% because you have the civil service, you have the unions, and you have welfare.” Then he made this point: “And do not underestimate well-being. They get welfare to vote, and then on top of that, they cheat — they cheat.”
It's hard to believe the trope still works on people. It's always been nonsense.
opinion columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports, and living life in America.
Of the 341 counties experiencing persistent poverty, according to the US Census. Approximately 80% are in the southern states. who voted for Trump. In fact, most of our poorest states have voted Republican in every election since 2000 and have had Republican controlled state legislatures for years. The “wellness vote,” if there is such a thing, will not go to the Democrats.
Lord knows I'm not suggesting that blue cities and states don't have their problems. But today, with so many Americans living hand-to-mouth, the problem of “poverty” is not just an urban one. It's also not a good indicator of what Trump really wanted to convey: presumably race.
You would think that by now there would be a less Reaganite way to unite Republicans than by railing against mythological “welfare queens.” Perhaps with all his court appearances, Trump didn't have time to find new material. Or maybe he doesn't need it. His audience knows what he means. At home, they are doing everything they can to make “black” synonymous with “poor.”
When President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty” began in 1964, 1 in 5 Americans lived in poverty. However, the rate for blacks was 40%, a disparity that elected leaders in the Confederate states seem happy to defend. For example, Republicans have had complete control of the Mississippi government since 2012, and blacks in that state are almost three times more likely to live in poverty than their white counterparts.
It's no coincidence that many of the poorest counties are clustered in the same red states of the Confederacy: Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas. It is also no coincidence that right-wing politicians characterize the poor as lazy and deserving of their lot in life. This “wellness” dog whistle works for them.
In 2018, the Heritage Foundation, a powerful conservative think tank, released a report on poverty. which is read in part: “If the amount of work done in poor families with children increased to the equivalent of an adult working full-time year-round, the poverty rate among these families would be reduced by two-thirds.”
Take a moment with that implication: here we are at a moment in history when 78% of Americans live hand to mouth, and the Heritage report wants to present poverty as if it were a work ethic issue. Not one of rising inflation or decades of wage stagnation. Not one of systemic racism. And it's certainly not a side effect of Trump's tax cuts that diverted even more wealth from workers to the rich.
The Heritage Foundation has a plan for 2025 if Trump takes back the White House. Let's say that when it comes to helping the poor (or not), the group's opinions haven't changed much. For the people in that room in Florida to whom Trump was airing his grievances, I'm sure it's good news.
Generally speaking, Trump is just the latest conservative to criticize the federal government's attempt to help the poor. President Nixon did it. Newt Gingrich's “contract with America” had to do with that. Both bushes. It's all part of the conservative narrative that sees the infrastructure failures of big cities run by Democrats as evidence that too many “welfare queens” are receiving handouts. You know, unlike the loss of tax revenue from white flight. EITHER federal underinvestment in infrastructure since the 1960s.
Meanwhile, the same predominantly white rural areas Johnson referenced 60 years ago are still among the poorest.
And its residents continue to vote for Republicans like Trump, who restrict attempts to help the poor. They do not believe that a war against the poor will harm them. Presumably because they keep being told that they are not the face of “social welfare.”
