Paul Ryan: Inner City People Need To Be Taught “Good Discipline, Good Character”

Tommy Christopher picked up on the substance of what Paul Ryan said before he and his handlers had a hissy fit and pulled him from an interview.

 …the hissy manner in which he ended the chat seems to have buried the ugly substance of what he said while trying to evade questions about gun control and his tax plan. Asked whether this country has a gun problem, Ryan responded that that it’s a “crime problem,” and volunteered that “The best thing to help prevent violent crime in the inner cities is to bring opportunity in the inner cities. Is to help teach people good discipline, good character.”

…What you don’t often hear spoken (out loud, anyway) is that the real problem with gun violence in America is the “character” and “discipline” of people in the “inner cities,” a very specific delineation from other city folk. Obviously, if you shoot someone to death, there’s a good chance you have a major character flaw or two, but what about all the “inner city” people who are doing the dying? Did they lack the “character” or “discipline” to dodge a bullet? Are rural or suburban murderers and victims more virtuous?

Apparently so. Apparently, crime in our cities has nothing to do with poverty, and systemic failures, fueled by generations of institutionalized racism, but with the character of those people. So says Paul Ryan, and so says Mitt Romney. If you’re poor, it’s because your culture is inferior.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.