Playing the Fear Card
I had the privilege of filling in for Todd Starnes on his national radio program yesterday; unlike the local programs we do here, that program does encourage listener telephone calls.
I had just completed an interview with South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the Freedom Caucus, about the lack of movement on getting federal spending bills passed before the end of the fiscal year later this month. He said that even a continuing resolution to kick the can down the road a few months was not a sure thing, and that a government shutdown may be the only way for them to leverage political responsibility.
That led to a woman calling in from North Carolina…her name was Sally, and she said she was concerned about a federal government shut down…because she was on a fixed income, relying on social security. She asked, in a somewhat frightened voice, if she would still get her monthly social security check during a government shutdown. When I told her she would, she said, “That’s all I needed to know. Thank God. And thank God for you, sir.”
Frankly, that few moments summed up what is wrong with our system…where one side demonizes issues to suggest that seniors won’t get their social security checks on time…akin to the ads not that long ago showing one party pushing grandma in a wheelchair off a cliff.
Some 70 percent of Americans are already stressed about finances. This poor, dear woman was afraid that she wasn’t going to get her retirement check every month and the only outlet she had was to call a national radio show.
Shame on both parties and their so-called leaders. The uniparty in the swamp is at it again, scaring people about what one side or the other is going to do to them.
It’s far too early for Halloween and related scary pranks…besides, that stuff is all in good fun…this is serious business.
