With protests in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray (not to mention decades of police violence) still ongoing, you knew we were going to see some people showing their asses. Earlier this week, Maryland state Delegate Pat McDonough may have won the Most Unconscionably Horrible Quote From a Politician Award when he proposed cutting off food stamps to protesters’ families.
Via RawStory’s David Edwards, McDonough, whose district includes parts of Baltimore and Harford Counties,* was hosting his regular radio show on April 29 (of course he has a radio show, don’t be an idiot) when a guy identified as “Rick in Dundalk” (or Rich, McDonough can’t seem to make up his mind here) called in and asked that if protesters could be identified who were “too young,”** why couldn’t the state take away that protester’s parents’ “welfare”—the implicit assumption being, of course, that all the protesters are on welfare, which is dog whistle #1 (hang on, there are more coming). McDonough’s immediate response was, of course, “are you fucking kidding me, that’s horrid, how could any human being suggest something that like that and sleep at night.”
KIDDING! What he actually said was this:
Sure, yeah. That’s an idea and that could be legislation. I think that you could make a case that there is a failure to do proper parenting and allowing this stuff to happen, is there an opportunity for a month to take away your food stamps?
McDonough then pointed out such legislation would never make it into law, because “it seems a little bit harsh” before again crediting the protests to a “lack of parenting.” I would unpack everything wrong with and horrible about these quotes, but I don’t have the eight hours necessary to do so.
The above quotes would be bad enough, but McDonough wasn’t done. After pointing out that hey, maybe a good tactic to deal with those demanding basic justice and accountability would be effectively enforced starvation, later in the show with a different caller, McDonough started talking about a “thug nation” in the black community across the country. At one point he states, “I don’t think anybody’s written a book yet called ‘Thug Nation,’” says McDonough at one point, to which the caller responds, “No, that would be an interesting book if somebody did.” I would like to request to not live on this planet any more, please. If you’d like to listen to all of this/throw up in your mouth, by the way, the audio is through the above link.
If you needed further evidence for what kind of person Pat McDonough is, know that one of the main sections of his hopelessly out-of-date website is all about defeating the Maryland Dream Act (hence the above picture, which, wow), a voter referendum on the 2012 ballot that would allow undocumented immigrants who came to America as children to receive in-state tuition at Maryland public universities if they met certain reasonable requirements. In happier-if-very-old-at-this-point news, because fuck this guy, the Dream Act won in a landslide.
* I lived in or near Maryland for most of my life, and this is honestly the first time I’ve ever even heard of Harford County. I seriously did not even know it was a thing.
** I wasn’t aware there were age restrictions on being allowed to protest for basic civil rights, but then, I live in a reality informed by facts, rather than my own imagination. Which is a shame, really, because my imaginary reality features way more pizza parties with Nathan Fillion than the regular one.
Image via Pat McDonough/Facebook.