Politixia
Few things more plainly illustrate the MAGA movement’s worldview than its outrage at a campaign ad from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders touting a “welfare-to-work requirement.” MAGA’s fury stems not from any issue with the policy but from the ad’s example of welfare fraud: a layabout named “Brad,” played by a young white actor. Conservatives including Jack Posobiec and Pastor Joel Webbon of Covenant Bible Church characterized the ad as Sanders’ — and thus the Republican Party’s — attack on young white men.
Jenna Ellis, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge related to efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia, wrote, “Don’t make the young white male (a voting demo the GOP needs) the enemy here.”
As defensible as it is to argue that members of every race and sex can and do cheat, people don’t want political commercials to challenge their thinking.
James Fishback, who ran a remarkably racist campaign against Byron Donalds, the Black U.S. representative who won the Republican nomination for governor in Florida, responded, “White men named Brad don’t typically commit welfare fraud. I’d recommend you start with the baby-momma with a BMW who just got back from her Carnival Cruise.”
Cryptocurrency venture capitalist Nic Carter said on X that the governor’s ad was “lying about the demographics of benefits cheats,” but he added that if that “is what it takes to end welfare fraud, I’m ok with it. We can pretend it’s young white dudes.”
Meanwhile, Sanders, a White House press secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term, made light of MAGA’s anger. Referring to the snack “Brad” scarfs in the commercial, she wrote, “Some critics online don’t like my welfare work requirement ad. Next thing you know they’ll say I should have used cookies instead of cheese balls. If you are able-bodied you should not collect welfare simply because you choose not to work. Period.”
One might think that if these particular conservatives are angry, then Sanders must have made a good ad. But given that she was trying to connect with conservative voters, it seems clear her ad is a failure. As defensible as it is to argue that members of every race and sex can and do cheat, people don’t want political commercials to challenge their thinking.
The purpose of political ads isn’t myth-busting but myth confirmation.
When it comes to this particular issue, Republicans have run against the “welfare queen” for at least 50 years. The specific term dates to the mid-1970s, from local news coverage of a notorious fraudster in Chicago who drove a Cadillac. Ronald Reagan, beginning with his failed 1976 presidential campaign, amplified and exaggerated the story to whip up animosity against welfare recipients. That first “welfare queen” was a racial chameleon whose birth certificate listed her as white. But in conservative mythology, the welfare queen — in keeping with the public perception of who receives welfare — is always Black.
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