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Brenda

(1,717 posts) Sun Jul 27, 2025, 07:30 PM Sunday

The Class Politics of Idleness

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For decades, Republicans have promoted the stereotype of the shiftless and unscrupulous poor person — along with its quasi-mythical counterpart, the self-made businessman who bootstrapped his way out of poverty — to justify their reactionary economic project. That project, which is driven by the dual aims of dismantling the “welfare state” and slashing taxes for the rich, has never been particularly popular with voters on its own terms. Thus, conservatives have long cloaked it in populist rhetoric and presented it in terms that obscure class lines and turn working people against one another. Every time Republicans have tried to chip away at the safety net or shower the rich with tax breaks, they have invariably deployed the familiar tropes of the idle welfare recipient and the industrious “job creators” who owe all their success to a superior work ethic.

It’s no surprise, then, that Republicans have fallen back on the old playbook to defend their widely unpopular reconciliation bill. In the months leading up to the passage of the “big, beautiful bill,” Trump and congressional Republicans worked hard to spin it as “pro-worker” and “pro-family” legislation, despite the fact that it includes the biggest rollback of the social safety net in a generation. It is also forecasted to leave millions of Americans without health insurance or critical food assistance in the very near future.

On top of their usual xenophobic drivel, Republicans have dusted off the well-worn myth of the lazy moocher living off of public largesse. Fifty years after Ronald Reagan helped popularize the racialized myth of the “welfare queen,” Republicans have updated the avatar of the undeserving for the digital age. “You don’t want able-bodied workers on a program that is intended … for single mothers with two small children who is just trying to make it,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “That’s what Medicaid is for, not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games.”

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-class-politics-of-idleness/

4 replies

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The Class Politics of Idleness (Original Post) Brenda Sunday OP

Idle rich class mooching off the public. Irish_Dem Sunday #1

Yeah - you are right about that. Brenda Sunday #2

How many people actually enjoy their jobs. I retired after 30 years. Ping Tung Sunday #3

The false charges against the "idle poor" go back to the Middle Ages. love_katz Monday #4

Irish_Dem

(72,750 posts)

1. Idle rich class mooching off the public.

Reply to Brenda (Original post)

Sun Jul 27, 2025, 08:25 PM

Sunday

They have nothing better to do than plot to take control of the US govt and financial system.

Brenda

(1,717 posts)

2. Yeah - you are right about that.

Reply to Irish_Dem (Reply #1)

Sun Jul 27, 2025, 08:32 PM

Sunday

But they will lose: There is no way their Project 2025 will last another 3.5 years in America!

Ping Tung

(3,177 posts)

3. How many people actually enjoy their jobs. I retired after 30 years.

Reply to Brenda (Original post)

Sun Jul 27, 2025, 09:08 PM

Sunday

I never had a job that I enjoyed so much that I would do the work for free and most of time I could think of all kinds of things that I would rather be doing.

Hard working Americans who love their work is a silly myth usually spread by people who never had to dig a ditch on a hot day or deliver mail in deep snow. Most people watch the clock and count the days 'til the weekend.

love_katz

(3,122 posts)

4. The false charges against the "idle poor" go back to the Middle Ages.

Reply to Brenda (Original post)

Mon Jul 28, 2025, 02:51 AM

Monday

This tired and false drivel was used to justify the theft of commonly held land through enclosure.
From the theft of common land (which belonged to the community) for the raising of sheep by the wealthy, to the "clearances " in Ireland and Scotland, where people were rounded up, accused of fake crimes and deported to penal colonies, the outright theft of First Nations lands through genocide and false treaties or legitimate treaties that were never honored, it has followed the same basic play book. Blame and punish the poor for their poverty, and aid the wealthy in stealing whatever land and property that the poor have.

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