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There's an emerging theme in Republican Jon Bruning's campaign for the U.S. Senate - CLASS WARFARE. But, rather than the familiar claim that Democrats are targeting the rich, Bruning is declaring open war on Nebraska's poor and working class.
I first noticed Bruning's politically-motivated targeting of those who rely on public services last month when the Chadron Record reported:
"What I don't want is for that group of people that can work harder but doesn't, to have the government take care of them," [Bruning] said. That is already a large group, according to Bruning, even though there are "ample opportunities for people in this country," who want to find work.
In a nation that's been suffering high unemployment for years, Bruning showed himself to be quite ignorant and out of touch suggesting that there are so many "ample opportunities" and that all people need to do is "work harder." While milllions of Americans have been looking for work and haven't been able to find jobs, here Jon Bruning was pointing a finger at them for accepting help from the government to take care of their families.
Speaking to Kearney business leaders last week, Bruning went even farther than attacking the unemployed. Like the hero of an Ayn Rand novel in the middle of a 50 page monologue, he suggested that the bottom 50% of Americans are freeloaders and had better be careful or the rich who pay for everything will just disappear. The Kearney Hub reported:
"Half the people are in the wagon and the other half are pulling the wagon," [Bruning] said. "If you run your taxes up to a certain point, people are going to leave the country."
Bruning insults a whole lot of Nebraska voters who wouldn't meet his qualifications for "pulling the wagon." It also appears he thinks it's reasonable that wealthy Americans would leave the country if they're taxed at the same rate they were just ten years ago (before the budget-busting Bush tax cuts).
Still, it wasn't clear just how hostile Bruning is to all those who are "in the wagon" until Talking Points Memo got its hands on the following video from a Tea Party gathering this weekend in Papillion. In it, Bruning honestly compares welfare recipients to scavenging raccoons:
"The raccoons, they're not stupid. They're gonna do the easy way if we make it easy for them. Just like welfare recipients all across America. If we don't incent them to work, they're gonna take the easy route."
To Jon Bruning, the unemployed are just lazy. If your family's on shaky ground financially, you're probably a freeloader who should be thanking the rich for keeping you afloat. And, if you receive welfare, you don't even deserve respect as a human being. You're little more than a raccoon looking for a free lunch.
What a shocking testament to the political age in which we live and the shallowness of Jon Bruning. His is a campaign that preys upon people's resentment of the weakest, poorest, and most disadvantaged in our society. This is despicable. This is true class warfare. This is your call to action if you believe Nebraskans are better than this and deserve better than Jon Bruning.
