After blaming generational poverty on “broken people” who don’t believe in God, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor loses her bid for re-election.

ABC reports:

Following a Saturday runoff election, the Alamo City has elected a new mayor into office. Ron Nirenberg garnered 54.59 percent of the votes with 54,010 votes, beating out incumbent Ivy Taylor who obtained 45.41 percent of the votes with 44,919 votes.

Earlier this year, while speaking at a mayoral forum, Mayor Taylor was asked about the “deepest systemic cause of generational poverty.”

Mayor Taylor replied:

To me, it’s broken people. People not being in a relationship with their Creator, and therefore, not being in good relationship with their families and their communities, and not being productive members of society. I think that’s the ultimate answer…

(Watch: San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor claims poverty is caused by “broken people” who don’t believe in God –)

In short, Mayor Taylor claims generational poverty is caused by “broken people” who don’t believe in God, essentially making the ludicrous claim that atheism causes poverty.

The mayor’s remarks about poverty reflect an astonishing and willful ignorance. Perhaps more important, there is something deliberately cruel and profoundly vicious in Taylor’s attempt to claim the root cause of poverty is people who don’t share her religious superstition, and that those individuals who do not share her religious superstition are somehow “broken people.”

After the election results came in, Taylor conceded the race, telling her supporters:

A majority of the votes have come in. It doesn’t look like it’s going the way that we anticipated this evening. But you know what? I am so grateful to God … I am at peace. I am so thankful to God for each and every person in this room, for your support, for your prayers, for being here.

Ron Nirenberg, Taylor’s opponent, and the new mayor of San Antonio, told his supporters:

Tonight, the voters got it right — on a lot of things. Tonight, the voters rejected the politics of division and false choices. And they said yes to a bigger and brighter vision of inclusion, of diversity, of fairness, or respecting each and every person in San Antonio, no matter if you live on the North Side, the South Side, the East Side, the West Side or any place in between. Tonight, the voters said yes to a mayor for all of San Antonio.

Bottom line: Mayor Taylor is an intolerant conservative Christian with no respect for poor people or atheists. Her remarks indicate a callous and insensitive disregard for both. As such, she has no business serving as Mayor of San Antonio.