...The conservative Washington Times staff writer, Marybeth Hicks.
It’s amazing how the far-right is so totally unable to see the truth, or ” the forest for the trees”.
Recently, Ms. Marybeth Hicks, the right-wing conservative author of "Don't Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid: Confronting the Left's Assault on Our Families, Faith and Freedom," and a self-appointed “culture columnist”, Ms. Hicks decided to add her own two-cents regarding the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests. Her rant has apparently gone viral on the internet.
As expected, her explanation for what she saw and understood about the OWS movement, and its participants, was about as far off-base as it’s possible to be. But it was certainly right in line with what you might expect to hear on Rupert Murdoch’s FOX TV Network or coming from the mouths of Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter.
The first area of total misunderstanding was of her referring to all of the protestors as if they were all under the age of 30, and that most were college students sporting facial piercings and tattoos. It was surprising that she didn’t also refer to them as dirty, filthy, hippie drug addicts, as has so commonly been stated on FOX and other right-wing radio talk shows.
The reality is that it has been documented by many reputable news organizations that the average age of the OWS protestors is more like 45-50, with many retirees as well as many union workers, nurses, college graduates and working, or out-of-work, professionals.
Apparently, based on her previous writing experience, she is once again seeing herself in the position of being the righteous parent giving moral instructions to misbehaving adolescents, aka: the OWS protestors.
In fact, she starts her review of the OWS movement in the form of asking the maternal question: "Who parented these people?"
She then goes on to take the role of the aforementioned “parent”, or of being the more intelligent individual, and she proceeds to give the protestors five things that, “the OWS protesters' mothers should have taught their children but obviously didn't, so I will.”
But, also as expected, the assumptions that Ms. Hicks has made regarding her five different pieces of profound knowledge, are basically all incorrect. Without stating them in their lengthy entirety, here are her five assumptions condensed down to one sentence each.
#1: The protestors feel that they aren’t being treated fairly and they should be getting whatever it is that they want just by asking.
#2: The protestors expect to get “free” college tuition and “free” health care.
#3: The protestors expect their expensive college loans to be eliminated.
#4: The protestors are spoiled and protesting just for getting more attention from the media.
#5: That the reason the protestors don’t have jobs is that they are all sporting, “tattooed necks, gauged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks” which make them unfit for most jobs.
Ms. Hicks goes on to support her apparent idea that the protestors are all mostly college students by incorrectly stating that, “Only 4% of college graduates are out of work. If you are among that 4%, find a mirror and face the problem. It's not them. It's you.”
I don’t know where she got that percentage, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the current unemployed college student rate is currently 18.8%.
So, OK, let’s take on her assumptions one at a time.
#1: The protestors feel that they aren’t being treated fairly and they should be getting whatever it is that they want just by asking.
Over the past three decades, the wealthy have increased their wealth 200-300% while over the average middle-class wages have stagnated. The protestors are saying that the average wages from the 1940’s to mid 1970’s basically followed along with the increases in wealth for very rich Americans. This all stopped, beginning with Reaganomics, in the 1980’s. The protestors basically want to stop what has been going on for the last 30years in forcing them into the poor house. They want changes in fiscal policy that evens-the-playing-field. An area in which the conservatives do not want to change.
#2: The protestors expect to get “free” college tuition and “free” health care.
Most of the industrialized countries around the world offer free education from K-12 through college as well as tax paid-for health care. In fact, the US is the only industrialized country that has “for-profit” health care providers. In most European countries, it’s literally against the law to offer for-profit health care.
Starting with Thomas Jefferson’s, Virginia Technical Institute, that was the first US college that provided free upper education. Every US state at one time had free education available through four years of college. Today those free colleges are disappearing in the United States. It started when Ronald Reagan, as the governor of California, started charging its residents to attend state colleges. The protestors want to go back to tax-payer provided higher education and health care, that also competes with the rest of the world. They do not expect to not pay higher taxes to receive these items.
#3: The protestors expect their expensive college loans to be eliminated.
When the Republicans took low cost student loans away and gave it to private banks, the cost of those loans soared. This increased cost, plus the increases in college tuition, have caused students to finish college with debts similar to the costs of buying their first homes. The protestors want the loans to return to being managed by the government at lower interest rates and longer terms. They do not expect the loans to just, “go away”.
#4: The protestors are spoiled and protesting just for getting more attention from the media.
As it was with American Civil Rights and the War in Vietnam, it takes a movement of the people to change politics and policy, not the reverse. That is why there are movement protests all over the country and also starting up in Europe. The majority of the Americans of all ages want to change the current policies and politics. The last time this occurred with the US economy was after the 1930’s Great Depression. That movement took 3 years before the changes were made in Washington DC for beginning to build what became the greatest middle-class in the world. That’s what the OWS protests are all about. They are not spoiled kids looking for attention.
#5: That the reason the protestors don’t have jobs is that they are all sporting, “tattooed necks, gauged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks” which make them unfit for most jobs.
Yes, there are some young people sporting tattoos and piercings within in the OWS movement. But overall these are not just “kids” of bad parenting. As stated, there is a cross-section of many Americans that want change. And Ms. Hicks comment about 4% unemployed students is totally off base. This is a legitimate “Movement”, not some prank by a bunch of juveniles.
Unfortunately, Ms. Hicks attitude is right in line with most of the dyed-in-the-wool right-wingers. I guess it should have been expected.
Copyright: G.Ater 2011
Follow me on Twitter: gater01
2 comments:
After someone sent me Hicks's article in a chain email, I did some research, and was so happy to find what you wrote. I agree with it 100%. I sent it back to the person who sent the Hicks article to me.
To mirror the author's off handed smirky retort concerning Ms. Hick's article; he is just another typical liberal who has no clue how a free market system operates and is perfectly willing to be loose with other people's tax dollars.
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