National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent demonized those in poverty, describing them as “stupid” and having “no one to blame but themselves,” while attacking their access to “luxuries” such as “air-conditioning,” “bling-bling,” and “clean water.”

Nugent, who is also a spokesperson for Outdoor Channel, wrote in a July 16 column for WND, “America's Whining 'Poor' -- And Other Conundrums,” that “the squawking poor just keep on getting poorer, and as is always the case, they have no one to blame but themselves. Stupid is as stupid does.”

He went on to complain that “America's so-called poor live a life far better than do real poor people around the world and have luxuries they can only dream of,” citing access to clean water and other supposed “luxuries” :

As the Democrats continue to get away with their crimes, the squawking poor just keep on getting poorer, and as is always the case, they have no one to blame but themselves. Stupid is as stupid does. Brainwashing only works if you give up your brain and your soul to the brainwashers. Another mind-boggling conundrum is the fact that America's so-called poor live a life far better than do real poor people around the world and have luxuries they can only dream of. With their cell phones, automobiles, microwave ovens, air-conditioning, new clothes, manicures and pedicures, bling-bling, clean water, more food than they can eat, pretty much redistributed everything handed to them, they still whine how America should be more like those other countries.

Nugent once again cited Democratic politics as the reason for poverty in the United States, asking, “Who doesn't know that every state and city run by liberal Democrats isn't a hellhole of waste, fraud, deceit, corruption, runaway unaccountable spending and in ruins?” He went on to attack his hometown, writing, “Have you been to Detroit lately? No wonder the movie 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' is such a big hit.”

Those in poverty and anti-poverty programs are frequent targets for Nugent. He previously claimed the Democratic Party is the “modern-day slave master” to low-income Americans, suggested cutting “social welfare programs” as punishment for “poor decisions,” and called for disenfranchising those who don't pay federal income taxes, a policy that would take away the vote from the working poor and retirees. Nugent has described the Great Society programs of the 1960s, which are widely credited with reducing poverty, as “a systematic and engineered welfare juggernaut that would do more damage, cause more harm and become responsible for more destruction to black America than the evils of slavery and the KKK combined.”

Nugent's attacks on the poor are in line with a conservative media that stereotypes low-income people as lazy and/or too well off for owning basic appliances such as a microwave or air conditioner.