Thom Tillis Plays Tina Turner

Video has emerged of Republican Speaker of the NC House Thom Tillis, speaking in Madison County last Friday and calling for a virtual steel-cage match between single mothers in our state and the disabled. Best way to shrink the budget, apparently, is to "divide and conquer" (Tillis' words) the poor and the infirm.

Was Tillis displaying, quite unintentionally, his Republican "brand"?

You betcha.

The sense of naked entitlement Mr. Tillis exhibited is reminiscent of Marie Antoinette. Tillis evidently regards the poor and the infirm as his pawns, to be moved about in conflict with other pawns. No, it's more like Jonathan Swift's deadpan solution for "the Irish problem." "Let's eat the poor!"

Only difference is that Tillis can't resist playing with his food.