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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRick Santorum, you are a cruel, insensitive SOB
Your children had a stay at home mom, they even were home schooled. Yet you brag about your contribution to welfare reform in the nineties, sending single mothers of very young children back to work.
I was a single mom and for a couple of years I was on welfare. I was sick, had no car, family support, or even a phone, but Rick Santorum would have insisted that I go back to work even though I could not afford childcare. My children did not deserve even one full-time parent because we were poor. I'm trying to picture how I was suppose to take my 3-year-old to a childcare facility in the middle of winter without a car and then find my way to a job that probably didn't pay the most basic expenses.
My children are grown now and they are assets to society, but if people like Santorum had their way, their lives would have been much different. Welfare got us through a couple of really rough years and my children had a parent at home, even though things were difficult in most respects.
Rick Santorum's comments about welfare reform were like a kick in the gut for me this morning. Enduring the hardships of my life were difficult enough, but to have them trivialized by a self-righteous ass like him, is like rubbing salt in the wound. Walk a mile in my shoes Mr. Santorum, even a quarter of a mile you idiot, and then talk to me about welfare reform! When you open your mouth, you make a mockery of my life and you discredit the value of my children. How Christian of you.
w8liftinglady
(23,278 posts)Santorum can kiss my butt. I can't stand his self-serving,judgemental rhetoric.Excellent post!
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)I've been living with this gut pain all day and had to vent. I watched his beaming wife on television and even found myself liking her. Then I read about how SHE had an abortion because her life was in danger and she had children at home who needed her. But abortion for other women is wrong.
My children were/are every bit as important as theirs. These people have NO empathy whatsoever.
rufus dog
(8,419 posts)I was not aware of that. Seems like she made the right decision, too bad Rick can't comprehend how others can do the same.
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)and yes Rick can't comprehend how others make the same decision.
http://oursilverribbon.org/blog/?p=188
Whisp
(24,096 posts)and be correct. Everything that spews from that hole in his head is against what the said Jesus preached. Newt and the rest seem like cuddly teddy bears compared to this hateful abomination.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)PatSeg
(46,817 posts)I don't understand how anyone can care so much about HIS family and not be able to apply that understanding to other families. My children are very important human beings, not just to me but to society, but because we were poor and disadvantaged, he would have diminished their worth.
His story about his grandfather was very touching and effective, but somehow I feel he missed the point of his own story.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)day is lost on him. He is so engrained in his sanctimony and self belief that he truly can't see anything else. Something terrible happened to him growing up for him to be this way. I feel pity for him.
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)but I've known men like him and wonder if his ego overrides his core beliefs. I am so very tired of men who think they have all the answers and would impose their beliefs on the women in their life.
stillwaiting
(3,795 posts)Their egos are horrific. In addition, their worldview necessarily indicates that they view themselves as better than most everyone else. Their reality is one in which you have your "betters", and for successful right wingers that clearly indicates that they consider themselves better than those they deem beneath them and unworthy. Ayn Rand was crystal clear on this point, and I find it absolutely nauseating. So many are not worthy of love, right Ayn?
The thought of being in a room full of "successful" (as defined by our society) right wingers is simply nauseating for me. The sheer amount of smug, self righteous assholes would lead me to run, not walk, from such an event. How very self satisfied they all are. It's simply gross.
I feel something entirely different for working class conservatives who have been manipulated and brainwashed into fighting against their own economic stability.
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)and the men are paternalistic towards women and women's issues. I'm quite sure Santorum makes most of his wife's major decisions for her.
gateley
(62,683 posts)No love in his heart, no compassion, no empathy. Absolutely chilling.
I hate the motherfucker.
YOU'RE in the right here, and we all know it.
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)all the anger and pain that I've carried for years. To disagree politically or philosophically is one thing, but this is really personal. I am only one of many, many women who struggled to raise their children on their own. Does he really, really think that any of us wouldn't have wanted to have been in a loving marriage? Oh no, we chose to be poor and miserable and hungry because................uh, we wanted to defy his idea of an ideal life?
I don't know. I don't know. I couldn't stay in an abusive relationship and then I am rejected and abused by society because I choose to survive and want to protect my children. Rick, go home to somewhere in the nineteenth century.
gateley
(62,683 posts)that it could actually happen to them. It happens to people like THAT, not people like ME. Until, of course, it does.
I saw someone post on DU about the disease no one talks about -- poverty. It's true.
I'm so glad you WERE able to get some help, and you did the right thing. Look at your wonderful kids now!
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)poverty IS a disease, one I know too well. We don't talk about it, because people fear it, just as they fear the homeless person on the corner. Somewhere inside, we ALL know it could happen to us.
People like Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich don't want to talk about it, because they've been too close to the edge. Look at me, look at me, I survived so can you, and they don't ever have to feel any compassion for the poor souls who don't make it. Fuck them! The struggle and pain is very real, and just because they escaped doesn't mean they don't have some responsibility for those left behind. Oh yeah, their kids can mop the floors at their schools..................
GoCubsGo
(32,061 posts)They regularly kick the down and out. Just ask all of the unemployed, who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, yet are regularly being accused of being drug addicts, lazy, stupid, illiterate, and all sorts of other nasty things. One repug after another is trying to require that the unemployed take drug tests in order to collect on the insurance they have been paying into throughout their careers. Others are trying to require them to prove that they have a high school diploma or force them into GED classes in ordeto collect what is due to them. Never mind that a large portion of them have at least one college degree. The whole fucking lot of them are disgusting, heartless wastes of human flesh.
PatSeg
(46,817 posts).....go you or I. It is a lesson that they just don't get.
So many cliches come to mine lately - "Life is short", "You can't take it with you", etc. I get it, but evidently they don't. As I get older, I can say that life really IS short and some people are clueless.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)How I wish it were possible to enforce "trading places" experiences for people like this.
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)they are inclined to believe they, for some reason, are different. When it happens to them, it is a cruel accident of fate. Others, however, asked for it.
jillan
(39,451 posts)Won't little Ricky be surprised when he ends up in Hell?
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)I hear them talk and it dawns on me that they are essentially saying that people who don't fit a certain criteria should just DIE. I'm sorry, but its true and I see it all the time where I live. Without healthcare and proper medication and nutrition, there are people I know that would die.
So these particular people no longer serve a valuable purpose? I really like some of them and enjoy their company, so I wonder if we as a society are prepared to cut off services to them because they are no longer an asset to society by some people's standards. Well, actually sometimes I have to wonder if I am still an asset to society and if I should still be using valuable services.
What kind of society makes me think like that???
DesertFlower
(11,649 posts)when my POS ex husband went to prison. i spent almost 2 years on welfare. that was in the early 60s. thankfully i've been married to a wonderful man or more than 40 years and we're doing fine.
back then i did what i had to do and i'm not ashamed of it.
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)I did what I had to do for my children.
It really hurts when someone like Santorum treats our pain and struggle as something so inconsequential, almost as if it was OUR failure, but little is said about the fathers failure to take care of their children.
Grammy23
(5,808 posts)I was so disheartened when there was a discussion (during the debate this a.m.) about the cuts in funds for LIHEAP (money to help low income people with heating costs). Romney launched into comments about POLICY and had not one word about the suffering of the people who have no heat in their homes. They have not a clue and frankly act like they don't care. They are mean spirited and not afraid to show that. I guess because so many people who will vote for them feel the same way.
I hope anyone watching this bunch of heartless bastards recognizes them for what they are. They all claim to be Christians and try to get the rest of us all misty eyed over that but it seems to me that they have missed the central message of Christianity no matter which denomination they are and that is to love one another and care for those who are less fortunate. "For as you have done for the least of these, you have done for me." I lost my taste for organized religion long ago for just this reason and the candidates running for the Republican nomination are the embodiment of all that is wrong with Christianity. They talk the talk but can't even begin to walk the walk. It ain't in 'em.
I scream at the TV and I know that they really don't get it.
We aren't talking about people necessarily being better off or worse off. We are talking about whether people live or die. And these guys just don't get it.
I really have mixed feelings about people who vote these days. You know, if you don't take the trouble to understand the issues and the candidates, maybe you should just stay home. I know what it is like to be politically ignorant and I kept my mouth shut.
opihimoimoi
(52,426 posts)PatSeg
(46,817 posts)he brought forth in me is beyond description. I thought all that was behind me, but now it is all fresh and new.
opihimoimoi
(52,426 posts)Cheers for a new year....
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)Whenever I show a lack of empathy, I am given some stark reminder of who I am and the world I live. I can only hope that the same forces may affect Santorum's world, but I don't think he is as receptive as we are.
Grammy23
(5,808 posts)I actually found myself in tears when I realized that the discussion was turning into an academic discussion of policy. So dispassionate they could have been discussing the weather. And people's lives are at stake when they don't have heat in their homes during winter. And extreme heat in the summer is just as dangerous. People can and do die every year in extreme heat or cold. I guess when you have no direct contact with people in that situation you cannot really understand it, but damn, even a child can have compassion for the less fortunate without even knowing them personally. My seven year old granddaughter rang the bell for the Salvation Army kettle this year (along with her 10 yr. old brother) and they were fully aware that the money was going to help those less fortunate than them. And they were proud to do it and actually excited to be able to help. What is wrong with these grown men who are so heartless and don't have the insight that a child has? Guess that includes some women because if Michelle Bachmann had been on that stage she would have agreed with them.
I've been in tears all day. They can discuss such profound pain like the weather. God help them. They have clearly sold their souls already.
I don't know how much longer I have on this earth, but I certainly am not going to allow the likes of Santorum or Gingrich to diminish my significance on this planet because I was a single mother.
PA Democrat
(13,225 posts)barbtries
(28,704 posts)i was on welfare for a couple years too. single mother too.
Amaril
(1,267 posts)......during my commute. I like to listen to them while I'm driving, 'cause they're all so calm; their voices so soothing........like a bunch of kindergarden teachers.......so, they tend to keep ME calm by extension as I battle my way thru traffic.
Anywho, they were talking to a group of ladies in New Hampshire that have been attending debate watch parties together. I think there were 6 of them in total, and they were pretty divided over which candidate they supported.
The one common thread, though, seemed to be that they were all -- with the exception of the 21 year pharmacy student who plans to vote for Huntsman -- anti-abortion & anti-same sex marriage.........or, as I've begun calling them........the anti-freedom brigade. A couple of them also tossed "no more entitlements" bullshit in there.
Not sure what it was -- maybe I was already cranky & just hadn't realized it yet -- but their discussion threw me into an absolute rage. I was screaming at my radio, gesturing wildly, and more than one curse word came flinging from my lips. I'm sure anyone who saw me probably thought I was an absolute lunatic.
I'm just so goddamn sick & tired of this "I got mine, fuck everybody else" attitude from the right, and from people who should KNOW better. Over half the women in that group were retired. Do they not get that a LARGE contingent of the GOP power circle consider social security & medicare to be "entitlements"? Do you ladies REALLY think that -- left to their own devices -- they will stop at welfare & food stamps for poor people when they start taking an ax to things in favor of rich people / corporations having to pay less taxes?
No, apparently, they don't. Their biggest concern seemed to be "values". This country is circling the drain, and they plan to choose who runs it based on whether he will force women to carry babies they don't want to have to term, and if he thinks that same sex unions are as icky as they do. Jeebus! I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it.
Oh, and there was also one of their "wo/man on the street" interviews with a teacher, who said -- quite proudly -- that she was voting for the candidate that is going to go to Washington and dismantle "BIG government". Sister-woman, do you not understand that one of the VERY first things they will put on the chopping block is education........which means YOUR job, benefits and retirement will be on the line? You are -- one would hope, anyway, since our children are entrusted to you -- an educated, intelligent person. How do you NOT get this???
Ugh! I was still P.O.'d when I got to work. I think I'll be listening to my iPod from now on.
PatSeg
(46,817 posts)I would have expected better from a teacher though.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Amaril
(1,267 posts)You are so right, Shirley...........errrr, YOU!
I just don't understand the inability of their "base" to see what the rest of us see so clearly. It's true what they say..........there are none so blind as those who will not see.
Quantess
(27,630 posts)He is multi dimensional in his vileness.
n/t
Smilo
(1,944 posts)my mum couldn't work because she had to look after him and 8 children. Without welfare we could not have existed . My parents did what they could, through no fault of their own they found themselves desperate and needy - but today, we are all grown and have all become good contributing members of society with good jobs and the knowledge that we have much to be grateful for. We don't take things for granted and we give back when we can. Santorum is no Christian, nor is he humane, heck I hardly think he is human to make comments about things that affect others and which he really has no experience of.
gopiscrap
(23,678 posts)You deserve a medal for going through those hard times...I can't stand shit heads like Santorum who have had it easy their whole life and then crap on the poor and the oppressed.