http://www.dailywire.com/news/4665/trumps-tribal-vote-buying-scheme-no-better-obamas-ben-shapiro#pq=l78bkATrump's Tribal Vote-Buying Scheme No Better Than Obama'sBY: BEN SHAPIRO APRIL 5, 2016
On Monday, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, a thoroughgoing Donald Trump cheerleader lacking only the pom-poms, penned a piece accusing those who criticize Trump’s supporters of elitism. Scarborough writes:
[W]hat is most astonishing is the rising level of rage among Trump’s political enemies from inside the Republican establishment. Many of my conservative friends are sounding as arrogant and unmoored as left-wing pundits let loose on MSNBC during the Bush years….denigrating millions of working-class Americans let down by a quarter century of Bush-Clinton rule as drug addicts or white supremacists is even more destructive to the conservative cause.
There’s no question that anyone deriding all of Trump’s supporters as backwards hicks, alt-righters, and as Scarborough puts it, “drug-addled losers” is guilty of that charge.
But nobody does that.
What Scarborough is really complaining about is that some conservatives aren’t willing to grant special privileges to white working class members who claim victimhood at the hands of the system. Scarborough is a proponent of the welfare state, so at least he’s consistent here – he thinks big government is helpful for blacks and whites alike.
But Scarborough isn’t the only one offended by conservatives’ complaints about white working class voters who want big government. There are a whole group of Trump supporters who complain about the reliance of minority communities on big government, yet willingly embrace big government economic interventionism when those calling for it are members of the white working class.
Take, for example, Pat Buchanan, a Trump quasi-surrogate. Here’s Buchanan on trade barriers just a couple of weeks ago: “I think if you get Trump as the nominee, his potential is going to those states where he did well – Michigan and I think he’s going to do well in Pennsylvania and New Jersey….Democrats, you know, white working-class folks, Reagan Democrats, and go put together that kind of coalition.”
Now, here’s Buchanan circa 2008 on Barack Obama’s campaign:
Untold trillions have been spent since the ‘60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream….We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?....Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
You can’t hold both these positions simultaneously. If government’s economic redistribution and interventionism is an evil, that holds true across the board. It holds true for tariffs and social safety nets. Trump’s big government white working class supporters aren’t any better than Barack Obama’s big government working class black supporters: if you want big government to steal from some to give to others, whether directly through welfare or indirectly through trade restrictions, you’re promoting theft.
But there seems to be a warmth toward white working class economic grievances that don’t apply to blacks or Hispanics for some populist Trump backers. Kevin Williamson of National Review got hit hard in some quarters for stating that Trump’s appeal to the white working class on the basis of supposed economic victimization is immoral, but he’s right. Many of the same folks calling Williamson an elitist anti-blue collar jerk for pointing out that individuals are responsible for their economic wellbeing rather than the government are happy to push that line when the racial shoe is on the other foot. Here’s Trump himself on food stamps: “The blatant waste of taxpayers' dollars doesn't bother Obama, because it's all part of his broader nanny-state agenda. Perhaps that's why his administration doesn't give a rip about policing fraud or administering responsible oversight-he's buying votes.” Yet Trump is happy to buy white working class votes with indirect taxation and redistribution.
It is not the government’s job to find you work. It is not the government’s job to take money from others to ensure your employment. If you believe that government should do that for one group but not another, it’s fair to ask why you favor some groups over others. That’s not elitism. That’s decency and consistency.
