Tea Party Favorite Lisa Fritsch in Texas Illustrates What is Wrong with Ultra Conservative Philosophy

A Willingness to Let Other People Suffer Rather Than Violate Their So-Called Principles

Thanksgiving probably means nothing to these people

The New York Times has a story about a candidate for the Republican nomination in the race for Governor next fall. 

A Tyler native and seventh-generation Texan, Ms. Fritsch said she unwittingly became a Republican in the second grade. After asking her mother why they did not sign up for federal welfare benefits so she would not have to work so hard, Ms. Fritsch said her mother pulled her car over to the side of the road.

“She looked me in the eye and said, ‘I would rather us both starve than for me to put you on a path where you didn’t have dignity and you would feel like a victim,’ ” Ms. Fritsch said. “At that moment, I was transformed.”

Notice the things that are horribly wrong in the above passage.  First there is the idea that getting government benefits is wrong.  It is not.  Second is the idea that getting government benefits reduces the dignity of a person.  It is does not.  Third is the concept that getting government help makes one feel like a victim. That is not true.

But the real revelation here is the statement that Ms. Fritsch’s mother says she would rather have her child starve than receive help.  What kind of parent says something like that, even in hyperbole.  And also what is truly revealing is that attitude here, that Conservatives are more than willing for other people to suffer horribly rather than offend the philosophies of those same Conservatives. 

That is not a political philosophy. That is cruelty, plain and simple.  And yes, Conservatism has for many, not all but many Conservatives, evolved into a cruel and indecent political force.  We do not know the details of Ms. Fritsch's childhood, and we hope that she had the basic necessities.  But if it turned out that she suffered from hunger and symptoms of mal-nutrition and did not have the basic pleasures every child should have when she was young, we would not be surprised.  We would be sad and sympathetic, but not surprised.