Excellent piece by @johnshuntington and @DavidAstinWalsh on the long history of "entitlement conservatism," from the Liberty League of the 1930s through the segregationists of the 1960s up to Trump.
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/0…
@johnshuntington @DavidAstinWalsh "In this vision [of entitlement conservatism], only wealthy elites are entitled to run the government, only white people are entitled to unequivocally claim the rights of citizenship, and only conservatives are entitled to reap the benefits of state power...."
"...At its core, this philosophy aims to protect conservative entitlements at the expense of everyone else, and in Trump’s America, it dominates the Republican Party."
This nicely sums up how a white person on Medicare who gets regular Social Security checks can be so opposed to Obamacare because "it gives health care to *those* people who don't deserve it." Or why they'd be so irrationally obsessed with "Obamaphones."
It also explains how a Tea Party conservative could scold a Congressperson to "keep your government hands off my Medicare." Benefits white people get are perceived as "earned" and legitimate...extending such things to others is regarded as "socialism."
huffpost.com/entry/get-your…
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