Indigo Journal

Bauer's 'Stray Animals' Comments Represent GOP Orthodoxy

Posted on 24. Jan, 2010 by Tim Kelly in SC Politics

There’s a reason not a single Republican candidate has stepped forward to condemn Andre Bauer’s comments saying poor people are stray animals – because Bauer is only expressing mainstream thought in the SC GOP.

Henry McMaster, Nikki Haley and Pretty Boy Barrett know that repudiating Bauer will cost them votes in the June primary. But their silence isn’t just a political calculation – it’s a core conviction of the party they represent.

The first thought of every GOP candidate who heard Bauer’s remarks wasn’t shock and disgust; it was, “Damn, that son of a bitch beat me to the punch.”

But Andre Bauer wasn’t just appealing to the populist bent of his party – his remarks are (forgive the pun) the classic “dog whistle” of GOP electioneering. When Bauer talks about low-performing schools, free and reduced lunch and people “voting for a living instead of working for a living,” it’s code for, “These people need to get off their black asses and get a job.”

In a country that worships at the altar of unfettered capitalism, there is no greater sin than being poor, except being poor and black at the same time.

Andre Bauer isn’t, as he claims, a lonely voice crying in the wilderness; he’s the preacher in front of the GOP choir. And his fellow candidates are pissed that he stole the sheet music.