Liberals Angry and Horrified That SNAP Benefits Are Being Restored – HotAir
Up next
Author
Tags

As Ed wrote last night, the Schumer Shutdown is finally ending. 

Democrats are FURIOUS! Righteously angry. In a total meltdown. 

HOW COULD THOSE TRAITOROUS SENATORS BETRAY THE CAUSE?!?!?!?!





Gee, I thought the shutdown was the Worst Thing Ever™ and it was all Donald Trump’s fault. People were starving, after all. Without SNAP benefits flowing, there were soon to be corpses in the streets and bodies floating down every waterway in America. 

The liberals on Bluesky and on MSNBC are furious that the Democrats “caved,” or more precisely that 8 Democrats voted to end the filibuster and get the basic functions of government going again, including full funding for SNAP through the end of the fiscal year. 

Even if a new budget standoff breaks out—only a few appropriations bills have actually been resolved, so a new standoff is likely—SNAP beneficiaries won’t suffer any cuts. 





You would think that, of all the people who would be thrilled that the money for poorer Americans starts flowing again, it would be the progressives, right?

Wrong. Nobody is more upset by the pain ending than progressives. They are absolutely furious at the Democrats who voted to get the money flowing again to SNAP beneficiaries, government workers, and air traffic controllers. They absolutely LOVED the shutdown. 

Why? It’s simple: progressives actually want to turn up the pain and pressure on the American public because they believe it enhances their power. It is a simple calculation for them, and one that leftists have made for two centuries. It is an essential strategy in revolutionary politics, and one of the key reasons that leftism, terror, and terrorism almost always go together. 





Marxists, for instance, worked against unionization for decades because they believed that unions would reduce the revolutionary pressures brought about by the exploitation of workers. That exploitation, they argued, was essential to creating the pressure for the coming revolution. Social insurance states were an obstacle to the victory of communism. 

Out of pain comes their power. The unhappier people were, the more likely they would turn to the communists. 

In the 1960s, two radical professors argued that massively expanding the welfare state to the point that it was utterly unsustainable would help usher in a similar revolution. It is known as the Cloward-Piven strategy. When you describe it to liberals, they believe you are speaking nonsense. When you talk to leftists about it, they nod and say “Yes!” Heighten the contradictions in society to achieve revolutionary change. 

The Cloward-Piven strategy was developed by professors Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven during the 1960s. In their strategy, Cloward and Piven outlined a plan to implement monumental changes in America by abusing the nation to the point of destruction. Rather than dismissing this radical idea, the left has chosen to largely adopt the strategy and assist in its materialization. 

The Cloward-Piven strategy was originally published as “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty” in The Nation on May 2, 1966. The primary objective of the strategy is to create chaos with the hopes of destroying America’s capitalist economy and replacing it with a socialist system that includes guaranteed incomes. For their malicious dreams to come to fruition, Cloward and Piven recommended “a massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls.” However, this is not because Cloward and Piven are altruists. Rather, they are anarchists. The point of surging welfare claims is to enroll as many individuals as it takes to send the United States into an economic crisis.

Cloward and Piven specifically mention targeting America’s large cities for their colossal welfare push. As Cloward and Piven put it, “A series of welfare drives in large cities would, we believe, impel action on a new federal program to distribute income.” The duo also asserts that conditions on benefits, such as work requirements, are “violations of civil liberties throughout the nation, and in a pervasive oppression of the poor.”

An artificially ballooned welfare system is not the only element of the Cloward-Piven strategy. In their blueprints, Cloward and Piven reveal that the best way to achieve their goals is to create a new loyal voting block out of the rapidly increasing number of welfare recipients. According to Cloward and Piven, “If organizers can deliver millions of dollars in cash benefits to the ghetto masses, it seems reasonable to expect that the masses will deliver their loyalty to their benefactors.” 





Obamacare is another example of this strategy. Obamacare subsidies were the main sticking point for many Democrats, but what most people don’t understand is that the battle was over extending COVID-era extraordinary subsidies that were always intended to sunset. When they were passed, it was supposed to be a temporary measure to aid people survive during the COVID disruptions, but health insurance costs have continued to skyrocket, and the price shock will be something to behold. 

The reason why the expiration of those subsidies could be so devastating is that…Obamacare is a disaster. Without MASSIVE government subsidies to people who were never supposed to get them in the “original” plan, even upper-middle-class people couldn’t afford insurance. 

That’s because the “Affordable Care Act” was always intended to make health care unaffordable as quickly as possible. People who were spending four or five thousand a year in 2014, when the program kicked in, now face bills that are as much as ten times higher than that. 





In ten years, insurance rates and deductibles have skyrocketed that much. And that, my friends, was always the point. It was to destroy the system in order to replace it with government-run healthcare. 

Marx referred to this as “heightening the contradictions,” which is essentially a way of saying that the only way to achieve what you want is to create such dire circumstances that revolutionary change becomes possible. Think of it as blowing up the building so you can replace it with your preferred structure. 

For many on the left, the “suffering” of people who lose their SNAP benefits helps create and reinforce a sense of class consciousness. People who were pretty comfortable getting a substantial amount of money from the government through SNAP and various other subsidies were suddenly awakened to the reality that they needed advocates. 

Democrats created the problem, of course, but they blamed Trump and the Republicans and hoped to harvest the anger for votes, and likely did last Tuesday. 





“Moderate” Democrats were satisfied with the results and wanted to get back to business as usual. Progressives are angry because they wanted to “heighten the contradictions.” This is, for them, not just about elections; it is about fundamentally restructuring society. 

That’s why restoring SNAP funding is such a loss in their eyes. They WANT the suffering to get worse. They want the air travel system to collapse. They want to maximize the pain. 

And present themselves as the solution to all the problems that they caused. 





You May Also Like
Was It Wrong To Mislead Audiences With The Latest Mean Girls Film?

Was It Wrong To Mislead Audiences With The Latest Mean Girls Film?

Mean Girls has finally been released! Originally scheduled for Paramount Plus, the…
Pictured here is Ryan, a 27-year-old data analyst from Putney, beaming with joy

I sleep in a boat stationed in my parents back garden at Christmas – it’s not very comfortable but its worth it to be with family

Christmas may be one of the only times of year you get…
What to Know About New York Yankees Draft Pick Dax Kilby

What to Know About New York Yankees Draft Pick Dax Kilby

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images New York Yankees draft pick Dax Kilby With…
Ford Slashing EV Production in Half Next Year – HotAir

Ford Slashing EV Production in Half Next Year – HotAir

By now, most of us have seen the reluctant reporting from media…