SMART ASS CRIPPLE

MADISON CAWTHORN IS NOT MY WHEELCHAIR BROTHER

MIKE ERVIN, a writer and disability rights activist in Chicago, writes the blog Smart Ass Cripple at smartasscripple .blogspot.com and writes regularly at Progressive.org. I should be ecstatic, but instead I image and agenda to Congress, it Cawthorn portrays himself as feel cheated. would be better for disabled folks the antidote for what he sees as

On Election Day, the voters if he wasn’t there at all. the poisonous political agenda of North Carolina’s Eleventh Con- Cawthorn is so obsessed with of legislators like Ocasio-Cortez. gressional District elected Madi- Congresswoman Alexandria Oc- “She’s definitely the vanguard for son Cawthorn to the U.S. House asio-Cortez that it makes me her party right now,” he said in an of Representatives. Cawthorn, like wonder if there was a girl in his interview, “and that’s something me, is a guy in a wheelchair. And high school who looked like her I want to be for the Republican he’s only twenty-five years old, but wouldn’t give him the time of Party.” which will make him the youngest day. He has often attacked her and member of Congress! Cawthorn will get a lot of atthree other progressive women in Congress, sometimes collectively As some readers may recall, Cawthorn was a featured tention because he’s young and known as The Squad. On his cam- speaker at the Republican Nationhandsome and in a wheelchair. paign website, he says, “I decided al Convention in August. Now I He’s a good orator, too. That’s why I to run for Congress because I don’t readily admit that I didn’t watch a should be ecstatic. I should be cel- want to raise a family in a country nanosecond of that convention as ebrating Cawthorn’s rise it unfolded. I love you to as a major breakthrough death, dear readers, and for disabled folks. Here’s I will do just about anya new voice in Congress thing for you. I’ll swalto speak for us. And he low swords and wrestle knows what it’s like to alligators if it pleases navigate through life in you. But I have to draw a wheelchair because he’s the line somewhere. If been doing it every day you want to know what for several years. diabolical things went

But the Eleventh Dis- on there, you’ll have to trict used to be represent- ask someone else. Please ed by Mark Meadows, Photo of Madison Cawthorn from his Congressional campaign. forgive me. who gave up his seat to But fortunately (or become the latest chief of staff for run by leftwing socialists. We need maybe not), we live in an era the squatter currently still occu- leaders who will stand up and fight where videos are available on the pying the White House. It stands AOC, The Squad, and the radical Internet. So I have watched Cawto reason that his successor would left-wing mob.” thorn’s RNC speech several times, have to be as much of an over-the- “My generation,” Cawthorn without having to sit through any top reactionary as he is. And that continues, “is looking for results of the rest of the cavalcade of evil describes Cawthorn all the way. socialism can’t provide. Socialism clowns. His campaign website declares, only produces shared misery.” In In this speech, Cawthorn talk“I’m ready to take on the liberals his victory speech on election ed about the terrible car accident in Congress.” night, Cawthorn said, “The days in which he was involved at the

So a moment in history that of AOC and the far left mislead- age of eighteen that made him a should make me buoyant with ing the next generation of Amer- paraplegic. He said he was given a hope and elation has me filled with icans are numbered. Tonight, the 1 percent chance of survival. His dread. Damnit! I really wish I could voters of western North Carolina first public outing in a wheelchair, root for Cawthorn. But as much as I chose to stand for freedom and a he said, was to a professional basewant to be in his corner, I just can’t. new generation of leadership in ball game: “Before my accident I If Cawthorn carries his campaign Washington.” was six-foot-three. I stood out in

a crowd. But as I wheeled through the stadium, I felt invisible.”

Cawthorn likes to portray himself as a “fighter.” But for what and whom will he fight?

In an appearance on the Fox Business channel, Cawthorn said he wants to be the “face” of health-care reform for the GOP. “One of the biggest failings of the Republican Party for the past few decades is just that we have not had a real plan when it comes to health care,” he said, adding that his vision for equitable access to health care amounts to “utilizing the free market and opening up competition.”

Cawthorn’s campaign website proclaims, “The problem is not that the free market has failed in health care. The problem is that it has never really been tried.”

And so I picture young Congressman Cawthorn shilling for the greedy health-insurance industry by spewing the absurd notion that health insurers are champing at the bit to design packages that cover the many medical expenses of people with disabilities for a low monthly premium, if only given the chance. I fear that because he sits in a wheelchair, it will give him a false credibility as an expert who has heavily consumed health-care services.

This makes me feel an urgent obligation to not only refuse to embrace Cawthorn as a wheelchair brother but to make it clear, as loudly as I can, that he doesn’t speak for me.

One of the harshest truths my disability experience has taught me is that the almighty free market usually doesn’t give a flying crap about ensuring my well-being. Ensuring my well-being cuts too deep into its profits. Having a disability is too expensive.

For example, I have what might be considered to be health-care services administered to me every day by the members of my pit crew. That’s what I call the people I’ve hired to assist me in my home. What they do for me isn’t skilled nursing care or anything like that, but it is nonetheless essential to my well-being.

They help me get dressed, get in and out of bed, take a shower, and so on. And their services don’t cost me anything, except for some of my tax dollars, because their wages and this program are paid for by Medicaid and other public funds. Private insurance never has and never will offer a product that provides me with that amount of indispensable assistance, especially for free. There’s no money in it for them and that’s the only reason the industry does anything. When I look to the private, for-profit market for this kind of help, that’s when I feel invisible.

In his GOP convention speech, Cawthorn said he recovered from his accident, “thanks to the power of prayer, a very loving community, and many skilled doctors.” But he didn’t say anything about health insurance.

I’m glad Cawthorn was able to bounce back. But I’m guessing he must’ve been fortunate enough to have some mighty good coverage to pay for his expensive rehabilitation. Because if he didn’t, he would have had to turn to Medicaid for help, like millions of disabled Americans.

Without Medicaid to pay for people like my pit crew, so many disabled people who rely on others to assist us in our homes would be stranded. We wouldn’t be able to get in and out of bed every day, no matter how hard we prayed or how many skilled doctors were around us or how much the people in our communities loved us. It takes way more than that. A lot of us would probably end up in nursing homes. And Medicaid would still have to pay for that.

But isn’t all this the socialism that Cawthorn so fervently decries? In his Republican convention speech, he said, “Republicans,

If Cawthorn carries his campaign image and agenda to Congress, it would be better for disabled folks that he wasn’t there at all.

under President Trump’s leadership, want to rebuild, restore, and renew . . . . Join us as we, the party of freedom, double down on ensuring the American dream for all people.”

But over the last four years, Republicans (and in particular the squatter) have repeatedly tried to eviscerate Medicaid. They’ve failed largely because disability activists have screamed bloody murder about it.

So what happens when the Republicans go after Medicaid again, which they surely will do, no matter who’s in charge? They’ll probably try to play the same game they play when they trot out someone like Ben Carson to prove they’re not the least bit racist. It’s a strange game of racial rummy, where one Ben Carson is supposed to trump a thousand Black Lives Matter voices. The rules are permanently rigged in favor of the dealer.

No doubt Republican leaders will try to prevail upon Cawthorn to play the same role. When other disabled people are raising hell, will Cawthorn roll out and be the benevolent face of cutting the hell out of Medicaid?

If so, having him in Congress will only make things worse for disabled people. ◆