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Apr

14

Eric Cantor’s Solutions Center epitomizes GOP’s failure to understand, relate


After reading Eric’s post at Plunderbund about House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s attempt to offer online answers to (his notion of) constituent concerns, here’s what I wrote in a comment at P-bund:

What is most obviously out of touch about Cantor’s site is that it is geared ONLY toward people who:

-already have a job
-already have a house
-already have savings

as opposed to the more than 22 million who are either out of work or are underemployed, the millions who’ve lost their home already, the millions who are tenants whose landlords have been foreclosed on and therefore the tenants are evicted and the people who have no savings AND no job that will bring them a chance to save.

I abhor namecalling, but if ever I were to break my rule on that…

Seriously.  It’s not only that the images on the site are of a white married couple with a young boy and a baby standing in front of a stereotypical home that cued me into the website creator’s vision of who would need this site. Or that when you click for answers, one of the nice white people with perfect hair and a perfect body offers you the answer.

It’s that the site is created for the haves.  And Cantor, on behalf of the GOP membership in the House of Representatives, is now outfront and center demonstrating how little the Congressional members from his party care or think about the have-nots.

Unless he’s planning on creating a mirror image website for them.

I wonder what the cartoons and characters would look like on that one…

Foreclosed home, stack of unpaid bills, food stamps, unemployment line, insurance denials, single parents…

And, oh – people of color, perhaps?

Sigh. I don’t use this phrase much but if anything deserves to be called an epic fail, Cantor’s attempt at offering solutions is it.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:23 pm April 14th, 2009 in Civil Rights, Congress, Culture, Government, HouseofReps, Housing, Politics, Race, Republicans, Social Issues, Taxes, democracy, employment, leadership, social media 

Comments

4 Responses to “Eric Cantor’s Solutions Center epitomizes GOP’s failure to understand, relate”

  1. 1 Lou on April 14th, 2009 8:14 pm

    “Do not reward those that created this problem” – the only truism on the site, the only thing missing from the list of “those”; mortgage brokers, speculators, ratings agencies, insurance companies, appraisers, lenders, servicers, and a whole host of others. That is not to say that there were not homeowners who over-extended or misrepresnted, but when looking at the most recent data, perhaps the McMansion crowd really shouldn’t be so positively depicted on the site.

  2. 2 reignman on April 16th, 2009 10:49 pm

    Jill, why the long face? Maybe this will cheer you up. See 4/14 entry at http://straightflushing.blogspot.com/

  3. 3 Jill Miller Zimon on April 17th, 2009 6:17 am

    Lou – I agree w/your sentiment. Thanks for commenting.

  4. 4 Jill Miller Zimon on April 17th, 2009 6:21 am

    Reignman – I’m not sure what you mean. I read the posts there. I don’t get the connections I guess you are making. Also – not a long face here, just a role of the eyes. What Cantor did is exactly what the GOP needs to overcome – it’s why they’re having such a hard time appealing. I do not support all out image is everything. But if you can’t even phrase the questions in a way that shows that you recognize what the millions of people who are in the most dire straits are worried about, you don’t belong in control of our tax dollars or our gov’t.

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