I’ll have more to say about this at some future point, but one of the unspoken influences in the Democratic primary is the use of racist and sexist stereotypes in the 1990s to sell welfare reform–largely for political gain (within the Clinton administration, the policy types across the spectrum predicted welfare reform would be a human disaster, especially during economic downturns; the political operatives, including Hillary Clinton, realized this would be politically popular). With that, it’s worth noting what one of the effects of welfare reform has been in a Mississippi Delta Black community. From $2.00 a Day by Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaeffer (boldface mine):

In the evenings, and especially on the weekends, trucks, with their radios blasting, fill the parking lot at Salvatore’s… All this activity makes Salavatore’s a prime place for a mom desperate for some money–a respectable mom by day–to meet a john and “go for a ride” when a bill needs to be paid…

How was she supposed to think about the fact that her next-door neighbor, who attended the local Baptist church and sang in the choir, was also known to walk the half mile to Salvatore’s on a Friday (payday for the farmhands) whenever her family was really desperate to get the power back on? After socializing for a while, she would disappear into a beat-up truck with some guy, the two of them heading off down the road. Forty-five minutes later, the truck would roll back into the parking lot, kicking up dust as it came. She would reemerge from the passenger side, straightening her hair and rearranging her clothing. Once more, twice more, as often as it took to make sure the light bill got paid….

To put it simply, not having cash basically ensures that you have to break the law and expose yourself to humiliation in order to survive. And when some among the community leadership…prey on the poor by charging too much for decrepit trailers or by offering food or vital cash in exchange for sexual favors, the line between good and bad blurs even further, especially in the eyes of a child….

Two of the girls whose families we describe [from six families total] have ended up selling their bodies in exchange for food and money. One had to be treated for multiple sexually transmitted diseases at age fifteen. Certainly, this is too high a price for children to pay.

Somehow I don’t think this is what is meant by leaning in. Not a whole lot of intersectionality is apparent either. And back in the day, one Democratic candidate proudly and publicly supported this bill for political gain and continued to do so for years and years afterwards, while another, elected by an overwhelmingly white state, thus taking a position that was not trivial in terms of political risk, given the not-so-covert racial appeals welfare reform appealed to, opposed it.

Something to consider. And, by all means, let’s reward bad behavior. Because while history doesn’t repeat, it does rhyme.