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Defending Paul Kanjorski

Living almost literally on the opposite side of Pennsylvania from the 11th Congressional District, I’ll admit I have no idea what kind of lawmaker and representative Paul Kanjorski has been for his constituents.

But as a resident of a working-class area where I’ve watched many people over the course of my life thrown out of jobs, downsized, or otherwise become unemployed through no fault of their own, I can say with certainty that I saw absolutely no racism, bigotry, intolerance, arrogance or any other sort of ill will in the comments he recently made.

On the contrary, while the congressman may have expressed himself rather clumsily, his words were a rebuke of those who truly do voice those very ideas. From welfare mothers to lazy assembly line workers, Catholics to Jews to Muslims, the criminal element to illegals, there is always some group handy to be scapegoated by those looking to score personal or political points for themselves. And the most recent of these now seems to be our nation’s unemployed.

In case “conservatives” haven’t noticed—and it must be nice to have a life where you don’t—the world is still in the midst of a major recession. European economies are teetering on the brink of collapse, job growth here at home has slowed, and millions of Americans are out of work because when people don’t have money to spend, there’s no demand for anything, hence fewer jobs!

Apparently, Republicans in Congress are blissfully unaware of these realities. Just this week, they blocked plans to extend long-term unemployment benefits to those who have still been unable to find work because they think that this “government handout” is just encouraging “laziness” and that taking away the federal teet will “encourage” those who’ve become much too comfortable with it to get off their carcasses and get a job. Like I said, apparently these “fearless leaders” of ours are oblivious to the fact that there are no jobs to be had (although you would imagine they would know this since they routinely use this fact to criticize the policies of the Obama administration). And this, of course, from the party who last year suggested that summer school lunch programs to assist families were actually an attempt by feds to separate families and that they wouldn’t be necessary anyway if the apparently unmotivated children in question would just go and get jobs (remember—if you get a job at McDonald’s, they’ll feed you for free on your break?).

In one of the articles about this incident here at pa2010.com, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Tory Mazzola issued a statement suggesting that Kanjorski owes an apology to “every hardworking American.” No, Mr. Mazzola, it is your party that owes those Americans an apology for suggesting that they are nothing but lazy opportunists who must have their goodies taken away before they will find the ambition to go out and search for a job. It is your party that owes an apology for standing in the way of every effort to ensure that those hard-working Americans will be treated fairly, paid a living wage, and have the basic needs of themselves and their families addressed. It is your party that owes an apology for doing nothing to help the millions of Americans who are out of work, and out of options, but is first in line to jump on them, and others, to use for your own purposes.

It is not Congressman Kanjorski who is responsible for the offensive language.

He was simply, albeit awkwardly, addressing those who are.

June 30, 2010 at 1:16 pm

--Tammy Alonso

Tags: Lou Barletta, Paul Kanjorski

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