Shutdown: Conservatives’ Revenge Against the “47 Percent”, Pt.1 

October 10, 2013
Terrance Heath

During the first days of the government shutdown, conservatives were beside themselves with joy. Michele Bachmann (R, MN) told the Washington Post, “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.” Conservative media figures looked forward to “a long siege” that would “ideally” keep the government closed through the 2014 election. It was as if Republicans were relishing revenge against the “47 percent” that Mitt Romney disdained during the 2012 election, and the rest of the American electorate for rejecting the GOP’s agenda.

Shutdown: Conservatives’ Revenge Against the “47 Percent”, Pt.2 

October 11, 2013
Terrance Heath

Punishing the Poor

In the first days of the shutdown, conservatives alternated between celebrating and downplaying the impact. RedState.com’s Erick Erickson insisted Americans would barely notice the government shutdown. But the consequences of the government shutdown are only too real for the families who will lose food assistance, and the children who would lose access to Head Start. Read between the lines. It’s not that no Americans will suffer as a result of the shutdown. It’s that no Americans will suffer who don’t deserve to suffer anyway. According to the conservative worldview, they are the “immoral undisciplined people” who receive undeserved benefits from government, and those who provide those benefits.