Media, Politics, Uncategorized

The Republicans’ “Ideas Man” & The Junior Janitors of America

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

A lot of interesting news stories have broken since I last posted at the Turley Blawg nearly a month ago. I’ve kept a running list of them. The story I decided to post about today is one that I placed under the heading “Asinine and Inane Ideas of the 2012 Presidential Candidates.” Now, truth be told, I had a plethora of stories from which to choose…so it wasn’t easy. I finally selected one about the new Republican frontrunner, a man who has worn many hats—former professor, author, ethically challenged Speaker of the House, serial adulterer, historian, covert lobbyist, king of bling—the one and only Newt Gingrich!

I have often heard talking heads on television refer to Newt Gingrich as the “Ideas Man” and the “intellectual” of the Republican Party. It may be true that Newt has a lot of ideas—but I have to question whether the talking heads consider all of his ideas to be good ideas. I admit that even I was surprised when I heard Newt’s recent pronouncement that child labor laws are stupid when he spoke at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. I was truly taken aback when he suggested that school janitors should be fired and that poor kids should clean the schools that they attended.

Newt’s Poor Kids Can Clean Concept

Newt Gingrich:

“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.”

“You’re going to see from me extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America.”

That’s one radical proposal for sure. And one for which the “Ideas Man” received quite a bit of criticism. Newt bowed “to concerns that janitorial work is dangerous.” He then decided he needed to clarify his proposal and provided more specifics. He said poor kids could mop floors and clean bathrooms after school. He also suggested that they could sit in a clerical office greeting people.

I’m not sure where Newt thinks school systems will find money in their strained budgets to pay pupils to work after school hours. Has he thought about the valuable time school janitors and secretaries would have to spend training the children? And wouldn’t adults at the schools have to supervise the child workers?

I wonder what the little clerical school greeters might say to visitors. “Hi, my name’s Tommy. I’m poor and I got this job because I want to earn honest money and develop good work habits. I don’t want to grow up to be a lazy lump like my parents. Who are you?”

Do you think parents would be happy to learn that the bathrooms at the schools their children attend were being cleaned and disinfected by some of their fellow classmates?

Is this the kind of radical proposal that could actually change the face of poverty in America? Does putting poor children to work cleaning bathrooms and greeting visitors at their schools sound like a good idea to you?  Is Newt Gingrich really an “original or rigorous thinker?” David Boaz of the Cato Institute doesn’t think Newt merits that description “because he doesn’t drill down on ideas, integrate them into a larger philosophy or bat them around with peers.” Boaz said: “He strikes me as a guy who thinks of lots of ideas and never runs them through a sanity test before spilling them on a stage. I think he has had a tendency to just have idle thoughts occur to him as he’s reading the newspaper and then announce them without even running it by a colleague.”

According to an article in Politico, a number of conservatives think that Gingrich “is more idea impresario than idea generator, a bright and savvy politician who uses a facade of deep intellectualism effectively — but not authentically.”

Roderick Hills Jr., a constitutional law professor at New York University who’s active in the Federalist Society, said of Newt: “Nobody thinks of Gingrich as a wonky type. Nobody thinks of him as someone who has serious positions, white papers, policies on a wide array of issues coming from deep knowledge and experience. I don’t think of him that way, and I don’t know of any professor who thinks of him that way.”

The Republicans have been claiming that the Democrats are guilty of class warfare when they propose that people who earn $1 million dollars or more a year can afford to pay higher taxes. Do they think Newt is guilty of class warfare when he proposes that poor kids should mop floors and clean school bathrooms?

Newt’s Poem to Poor Kids

Go fetch a bucket

And grab a mop.

Now get to work.

Clean up that slop.

Scrub the bathrooms

From stem to stern.

Don’t be a slug.

It’s time to earn

Your living, kid.

You’re poor. Boohoo!

I have no pity

For kids like you.

SOURCES

Newt Gingrich, Pseudo-Intellectual Free-Trade Kool-Aid Drinker (Huffington Post)

Newt Gingrich: Child Labor Laws Are ‘Stupid’ (Huffington Post)

Newt Gingrich is an Idea Man (Quality of Ideas Not Guaranteed) (Huffington Post)

Is Newt Gingrich as smart as he thinks? (Politico)

Gingrich Doubles Down On Child Labor: Poor Kids Should ‘Clean The Bathroom’ (ThinkProgress)

Newt Gingrich says poor kids have no work habits, suggest janitorial work (Global Post)

Newt Gingrich’s child labor plan cleans up (The Guardian)

97 thoughts on “The Republicans’ “Ideas Man” & The Junior Janitors of America”

  3. About the kids working as janitors in schools, obviously this is for the poor kids so they can be shown the value of work — not for kids of the rich, who know that the value of work depends upon their SUCCESS and not their SERVITUDE. More importantly, it is an unsafe approach.

    Janitors in any establishment (hospital, federal office building, school, private building) have to know what to do to keep the premises clean and safe. Their job should not be a punishment, although obviously it can be. As I cleaned, when I ran a day-care center, I kept up a running commentary on what I was doing, how I was doing it, and why it needed to be done. I would say, for instance, “OK, this milk spilled and some of it got on the carpet. I am blotting it up with paper towels first because I want to get as much liquid out of the carpet as I can before I clean it. [Asking a kid] Do you think this is enough?” Invariably the kid says, “no!” and he or she grabs a paper towel and instructs me in how much MORE it needs. Then we proceed to cleaning it and I get two or three more helpers instructing me. Finally one of the young engineers will build an enclosure so the area can dry. One girl said to me, “When I grow up I’m going to be a cleaner.” Her parents were a lawyer and a publisher, respectively. She probably will NOT be a cleaner. But she could learn to do that if she wanted — and it would take some learning.

    Gingrich is showing several things with this irresponsible suggestion:

    1. People are, to him, “human resources” to be used for whatever use he thinks they should be used for, for his [and his’] benefit.

    2. Education is, to him, a method whereby the 1% forms the others into useful resources: among them, freesources (such as prisoners).

    3. Policy is, to him, a way to organize a society into something that he personally would enjoy and that would not significantly tax him.

    4. He probably doesn’t know how to clean anything.

  5. eLAINE:

    I dont think children should work in the public school system unless there is a private grant.

    Sweeping floors is a little different than cleaning toilets.

    What does Paris Hilton have to do with this? She is a member of the lucky sperm club.

    Also I doubt Newt was thinking only about work in public schools, his idea is applicable across a broad spectrum of industries and organizations.

  6. Nal 1, December 4, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    Punish the children for their parents’ poverty – despicable.
    ===========================
    That says it all.

  8. Bron,

    Many school systems in this country have been cutting educational and enrichment programs and teacher and librarian positions because they are strapped for money. Where do you propose these school systems find funding to pay kids to work after hours? A student sits in a school office greeting people. What’s the purpose of that? Do you believe young children should be cleaning toilets and urine and excrement in their school’s bathrooms? This post is about poor kids working at their schools–not for some kindly gentleman of means–and differentiating between the have and have-not children. Children born into wealth like Paris Hilton never have to worry about working a day in their lives.

    Elizabeth Warren rocks! I hope she gets elected senator from my state. She’d definitely be an improvement on “pretty boy” Brown.

  9. great, “nigro” restroom restroom attendants at the “gingrich school for boys”

  10. If Gingrich can keep his mouth shut for about eight weeks, he will be the nominee. If he can’t, who knows what will happen. Paul could win the Iowa caucuses as his followers are the most dedicated.

  15. You have got ol Noot completely wrong! He does not mean YOUR kids – he means THOSE PEOPLES kids, you know those people.

    And certainly we need to end the power of unions to bargain for living wages for any work that could be done cheaper. Why do you think Noot is such a big fan of illegal immigration? Since they are not as anxious to come here now that his party has demonized them so well he needs a new supply and child labor could be the key.

    Its not just Noot BTW – bills have been proposed in at least 3 States by Republican officials to eliminate all child labor laws. Dickens would be so proud.

  16. Elaine:

    what is wrong with children working after school for a few hours a couple of times a week? Sweeping floors or answering phones? It is a good way to learn the value of a dollar but as you say if it is just another subsidy how much is it really worth?

    After school jobs can help children learn job skills. Maybe an evil rich guy could hire a couple of kids to help around his office and spend a little time with them. If enough evil rich guys did that maybe these children would have a chance to become contributing members of society and I think that was Newt’s point.

    The only way out of poverty is extremely hard work and a good economy. Many people do it, pretty much on their own [Elizabeth Warren to the contrary] but they probably had some sort of role model.

    I think 12 or 13 is an acceptable age for children to start doing light work a few hours a week.

  18. If this is the best the GOP can do Elaine we are in trouble as a country……nation.. The thinking man….. So far his ideals have not worked out well…. Except for his pocket book… The contract on America…. Viva la pancho villa….

  20. Great story Elaine. It is preposterous to most reasonable people to imagine that child labor laws are in danger of being repealed. Class warfare indeed.

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