DeVos and Trump Know Their Constituents Well
by tristero
Betsy DeVos wants to kill funding for the Special Olympics. It likely won’t happen, but that’s not the point. The point is that neglecting the disabled is a positive virtue — for a certain sort of person.
It’s the reason why Trump openly mocked a disabled reporter. He knew exactly who (and what) he was appealing to. He was appealing to this kind of mentality:
Soon after Hitler took power, the Nazis formulated policy based on their vision of a biologically “pure” population, to create an “Aryan master race.” The “Law for the prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases,” proclaimed July 14, 1933, forced the sterilization of all persons who suffered from diseases considered hereditary, such as mental illness (schizophrenia and manic depression), retardation (“congenital feeble-mindedness”), physical deformity, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, and severe alcoholism.
In short, defunding the Special Olympics and mocking the disabled is part and parcel of a deliberate program to win the hearts and minds (such as they are) of American white nationalists, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis. It’s what they expect Trump to do. And he is nothing if not obliging.
“Deplorable?” No. Despicable.