James Patterson — Why the GOP Is Really Waging Its War on Food Stamps

Why the GOP Is Really Waging Its War on Food Stamps

The attack on SNAP is mere political symbolism–but that symbolism is lucrative.
During my service at the Republican National Committee in Washington in the 1990s, I learned just how important symbolism is, both to GOP leaders and their political base.

The House impeachment of President Clinton, for instance, was largely symbolic. Though the public disapproved and the Democrats in the Senate made the two-thirds requirement for Clinton’s removal from office highly unlikely, House Republicans impeached him anyway. House Republicans enacted the political drama purely as symbolic rage—and according to my conversations with GOP fundraisers during that time, that rage helped the RNC rake in millions.

Though I am no longer at the RNC, I smell the same tactic in House Republicans’ recent vote to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, popularly known as food stamps: It is simply more symbolism and political soap opera for Fox News viewers and Limbaugh Leaguers—and, in turn, another opportunity for Republicans to reach potential donors....

Moral: There is high office and lots of money in targeting abusers of welfare and food stamps.

In These Times
Why the GOP Is Really Waging Its War on Food Stamps
James Patterson

Gutter politics.