South Dakota GOP Senate candidate Marion Michael Rounds went to Iowa last week to rub shoulders with Rick Santorum. The Displaced Plainsman notes that Rounds got to hear Santorum brand Ronald Reagan and every honest demographer in America a Marxist:
Don't use the term the other side uses. Who does Barack Obama talk about all the time? Since when in America do we have classes? Since when in America are people stuck in areas or defined places called a class? That's Marxism talk.
When Republicans get up and talk about the middle class, we're buying into their rhetoric of dividing America. Stop it. There's no class in America. And call them on it [Rick Santorum, speech at GOP fundraiser, Rock Rapids Iowa, 2013.08.08].
I can only take so much of Rick Santorum's McCarthyesque fake rhetorical rage, especially when he's lying about a simple statistical and sociological construct.
But "call them on it"? O.K.:
I want to make it clear that had Congress done nothing, middle class families in South Dakota would be paying $2,000 more this year in taxes. I refused to stand by and allow that to happen [Rep. Kristi Noem, "Why I Voted to Avert the Fiscal Cliff," official House website, 2013.01.04].
Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today denounced the Senate’s failure to protect small businesses and middle class families from looming tax increases scheduled to take place at the beginning of next year [office of Senator John Thune, "Thune Denounces Senate Failure to Protect Small Businesses and Middle Class Families," official Senate website, 2012.07.25].
President Obama’s economic strategy has resulted in a lower standard of living for all Americans, particularly young people looking for jobs, middle class people who have lost their jobs and the value of their homes, and senior citizens who have had their retirement accounts decimated... [South Dakota Republican Party, Resolution 13, state convention, summer 2012].
Republicans talk about the middle class all the time. Marxists everywhere! Throw them all out, right, Rick? Right, Mike?
Next up: Rounds starts quoting loyal Joe McCarthy supporter Karl Mundt from his House Un-American Activities committee days.
Santorum HAS no class
Santorum must be a Marxist. His campaign website has this:
"Santourm hopes to rebuild the middle class."
http://www.ricksantorum.com/news/2011/09/santorum-hopes-rebuild-middle-class
Watch this disappear, like the homosexuals he and Putin want to extinguish.
There's the money quote I was hoping for! Thanks, Donald, for taking time to search! Of course, now we have to keep an eye on Santorum to see how long it takes him to use that term again and forget his little Rock Rapids rant.
Can anyone tell me where this meeting was held?
Maybe I was not clear as I should be. Was it in a city hall? AOP? AOP is a home schooling company.... mostly a "Christian" home schooling company, which is a large employer in Rock Rapids.
When candidates get close to the brass ring, but fail to reach it, they take one of three paths: A. They regroup and retool to do an honestly better job the next time around; B. They go gently into that good night accepting that they gave it a great try and with the memories and appreciation for all that they acquired by making the try; OR C. They become the victims (and inhabitants) of a fantasy world where everyone who did not "appreciate" their efforts (read: agree with them 100%) is an enemy of them as well as what they consider society. Guess where Santorum comes in?
"Middle Class" isn't Marxist, it's meaningless. I have seen the term defined by ranges of $25,000 to over $200,000 in annual income (Washington tends to use $250,000 as the end of middle class when legislating tax breaks). Thinking anyone that makes (near) poverty wages is in the same economic class/status as someone making eight times that salary is nonsensical.
Middle class needs a real, meaningful definition before anyone uses it in any way as a rhetorical tool.
Now Steve's critique I'll accept, since it is based not on a political or propagandist agenda, but a desire for clearly defined terms.
PL, the location appears to have been the Forster Community Building in Rock Rapids.
Thanks Cory!