September 21, 2013 by David K. Sutton
35-Year-Old Afghanistan Veteran Writes That He’s On Food Stamps, Tells Republicans He Would Prefer Not To Starve
If you are a Republican in congress voting to cut food stamp funding, you must convince yourself you are doing right by the people. You don’t want people telling you that you are an uncaring person who wants people to starve, because you don’t see it that way. So you must utilize a series of lies to assure your psyche of absolution, that you are only participating in this exercise out of concern and love for those less fortunate. Because you are the adult in the room. You are the authority on this topic. You must teach people a hard life lesson, and possibly be the bad guy for a while, for the people to see the light.
And then this happens…
My Name Is Jason, I’m A 35-Yr-Old White Male Combat Veteran…And I’m On Food Stamps | the Sterling Road — My name is Jason. I turned 35 less than a week ago. My first job was maintenance work at a public pool when I was 17. I worked 40-hours a week while I was in college. I’ve never gone longer than six months without employment in my life and I just spent the last three years in the military, one of which consisted of a combat tour of Afghanistan.
Oh, and I’m now on food stamps. Since June, as a matter of fact.
Why am I on food stamps?
The same reason everyone on food stamps is on food stamps: because I would very much enjoy not starving.
I mean, if that’s okay with you:
…Mr. or Mrs. Republican congressman.
…Mr. or Mrs. Conservative commentator.
…Mr. or Mrs. “welfare queen” letter-to-the-editor author.
…Mr. or Mrs. “fiscal conservative, reason-based” libertarian.
Republicans love to posit a full array of “ideas” about why people are on food stamps, or receiving unemployment benefits, or can’t find a job, but they never offer proof. Instead they offer anecdotal examples like “I saw someone at a checkout line buying a steak with food stamps,” or “I know someone who sits at home all day collecting unemployment insurance.” They say people are lazy and living large on the taxpayer dime. But they never offer concrete evidence of this “widespread fraud” they incessantly talk about. And that’s because (a) there is no widespread fraud, and (b) even if there was widespread fraud, they wouldn’t bother to do the legwork necessary to gather the evidence. Who’s lazy in this equation again?
In the conservative mind this is an open-and-shut case. There’s no reason to debate and there’s definitely no reason to lift a finger, because they already know how this works. According to conservatives, people are inherently mischievous and untrustworthy, and government programs always have widespread fraud because they are funded by taxpayer dollars (so somehow that means there’s no accountability). This is at the core of the conservative belief system, and believe me, it is truly a belief system. But unlike their Christian monotheism, their conservative ideological belief system is a fully functioning polytheistic creed with worship of conservative deities like Ronald Reagan, Ayn Rand, and Rush Limbaugh. These “deities” have preached to their flock, convinced them they have dominion over human behavior. But this conservative polytheism is a albatross to progress, an impediment to building a more compassionate society. Because believing the worst in people will never result in a more civil society.
