Brazen Brazile

Elitist condescension from government types never fails to amaze and gall. Maybe it’s the insult of the not-so-subtle assumption the rest of us are dumber than a box of hair. Only with the Superior Guidance of the Elites or, as Tom Sowell put it so well, “The Vision of the Anointed”, can the rest of us poor schmucks learn how to pull on our pants/pantyhose on each morning. Just as the Gulf Coast is littered with Katrina’s waste from Florida to Louisiana, the American media landscape continues to be littered with the dreck and dregs of elitist opinion.

Donna Brazile, you may recall, was the campaign manager back in 2000 for Al Gore, the laughable lug who invented the internet. Ms. Brazile never ever presented herself as the open-minded sort, but rather an in-your-face demagogue who wasted no time playing the Race and Gender card on the TV Shout Fests. Remember her now? Well, she has an article in today’s (9/20) “Roll Call” (www.rollcall.com) for whom she is a Contributing Writer. It is a USDA Prime example of the how the “Vision” of this Anointed is hobbled by the congenital myopia that afflicts all Big Government fans of all political persuasions.

Here’s a little slice of “Can You Hear Us Now? Let Poor Americans Speak for Themselves”:

When I was back home over the weekend, I saw numerous ads for

construction workers, builders and other professional skills. No

offense, but can someone cut a radio spot and inform people where to

apply? Better yet, post this information in the shelters and organize

local transportation to take shelter inhabitants to job interviews.

Again, think like the people you want to help. Tell them when and where

to report and how they can get back and forth. They are ready to work.

“No offense”? Sorry, I am offended. Ms. Brazile was born and raised in New Orleans; I worked and had a son born there. We are both LSU graduates. We can both read the Times-Picayune want-ads. But despite “numerous ads: for workers, according to Brazile, no one can do enough to help these “shelter inhabitants”. This is the same dependency attitude displayed at the Superdome and Convention Center during the worst of Katrina’s aftermath: “What and when are you going to do for me?” the plaintive cry of those unable, unexpected and/or unwilling to help themselves. That job opportunities are in the newspaper isn’t enough; they should buy radio commercial time. (Many of the New Orleans stations aren’t back on the air as of this writing.) But that wouldn’t be enough. Employers – or someone other than Donna Brazile – should post the ads in the shelters. And someone – other than Donna Brazile who “ is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Washingtonian Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington, D.C., Essence Magazine’s 50 Most Powerful Women in America and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Award for Political Achievement owns her own company – should organize and provide transportation to job interviews. Maybe too modestly, Ms. Brazile fails to mention just how much personal and financial assistance she offered the poor “shelter inhabitants”. But that can’t be right. The Anointed never pass up an opportunity to blow their horn of faux altruism.

“Think like the people you want to help”? Sorry, I don’t “think” so. Ms. Brazile states these folks must be told “when and where to report and how they can get back and forth. They are ready to work.” But too stupid to ask? Too lazy to try? Smart enough to hammer, pour concrete, measure and pour – but too ignorant to figure out their own transportation? What an insult – and a near-perfect example of “the soft bigotry of low expectations” from a black woman who wants points for having been there/done that but can’t seem to grasp the reality that just about anyone can make it without her “vision” if she and her Big Momma Government would get the hell out of the way.

And then there is this:

“If it takes a national conversation on race and poverty to get things

moving, I want to start the dialogue. I want Americans to learn how

people who live from paycheck to paycheck budget their time and limited

resources. I want America to hear what it’s like living with no health

insurance and waiting for hours to see a medical professional. I want

America to hear what it’s like working two shifts at a minimum-wage job

so everyone will understand why President Bush’s decision to waive the

Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees that federal contracts pay workers

prevailing wages is an awful mistake and an insult to the people of the region.”

Let’s parse together: First, be assured Ms. Brazile is not interested at all in starting any “dialogue”. That would mean, from time to time, she would have to shut up long enough to hear (with comprehension) what other people with opposing views would have to say and then give them due consideration. Such is the nature of “dialogue”. Then there is the assumption that America needs to be lectured on how tough it is to be poor with the contention that “race and poverty” are inextricably linked and those who not thus categorized never had the “paycheck to paycheck” experience. What America would be better off hearing is how poor decisions about getting an education, getting married before making babies and not becoming a government dependent might actually save your life and the ones you love one day. Ms. Brazile even disses the free market principle of self-contracting, needing the clout of the omniscient imperial federal government to force companies to pay “prevailing wages”. Or else….what? Rather than work voluntarily for a mutually acceptable wage, the Anointed Donna and her choir would have the unemployed – who “are ready to work” – idled by some half-assed federal law and paid not to work (see: welfare) by American tax payers. As they say in the Guinness ads: BRILLIANT!

If Ms. Brazile and her fellow Elitists are looking for a real insult “to the people of the region”, they only have to re-read her article.