"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing."
Said Willard M. Romney, thinking he was still in an age when you could say things and the words would just fade away.
Romney was, of course flattering his audience as politicians always do; flattering people who like to think of themselves as special because they make or have or have inherited a good deal of money - or people who certainly would be rich if it weren't for all those freeloaders and Democrats. Build up their self-esteem,and a good way to keep up that head of steam is to look down on others. And so Mitt reminded them that his job is not to worry about those people, which is a sideways way to say his job as president would be to worry about these people, his wealthy constituents. Remind them that Obama supporters are just looking for an excuse to pick their pockets.
And should any be troubled by Marley's chains rattling in the background, Mitt is there to remind them that those people don't rate sympathy because they all think of themselves as victims, because they depend on the largesse of the large-assed assembled patricians. Don't worry about those people. His concern is with the 5% the 10% who are thoughtful, not the ignorant under $250K a year rabble with all their cooties.
Those 47% of course don't really live tax free of course. 28% do pay payroll taxes and we're not talking about Social Security and Medicare -- and nearly everyone pays real estate taxes directly or indirectly and we all pay sales taxes. About 17% just don't make enough money or are elderly and dependent -- those whose jobs went to India perhaps or those devastated by huge medical bills, but although there are millions of different stories, it's good to know that Mitt thinks the President's job is not to worry about them. Let them worry about themselves. The real problem for a president according to people like Mitt is that he and his audience have to pay taxes. America is about us. The business of their president is asset retention and Mitt is here to tell them he's their man -- one of these people.
The pundits kept right on saying that Mitt was simply sewing up his own party support with his inflammatory rhetoric, outrageous statements and extreme positions on everything from deportation, the Dream Act, Medicare and flat tax schemes. That somehow he would magically drift back to the center some time this summer and put forth a moderate platform with broad appeal. You can't tell undocumented Americans to simply go back to their countries of birth and start out all over again and expect them to forget that you ever said that. You can't expect their children, cousins, neighbors and friends who will be voting to overlook such a statement. Black voters certainly see right through his invective. Yesterday, he was simply thumbing his nose at the proud Angelenos assembled before him, just as he was mooning those in attendance at the NAACP.
ReplyDeleteI've been saying all along you can't run away from these kinds of positions. I’m surprised he even bothers to make a fool of himself in front of these groups. His only hope is to get better than 50% turnout among his base, including mail-in ballots from nursing homes and count on the red states to suppress every black, brown, poor or intelligent vote humanly possible.
Florida courts seem to be thwarting some of our governor's attempts to suppress votes but I agree - that may be their only hope now. Still it ain't over til it's over. . .
ReplyDeleteTo quote an Occupy poster:
ReplyDelete"Why is it easier to believe that 150 million Americans are being lazy rather than 400 Americans are being greedy"
I hope this buries Rmoney's chances in November ... and the GOP for a generation!
You know the difference between Mitt and Thurston Howell III? I actually like Thurston -- Mitt, not so much. He is the paradigm of an arrogant plutocrat, and his comments captured on video, I think, make that point in an undeniable way. He said that stuff because he believed he was amongst friends. What a jerk!
ReplyDeleteI liked Mr. Howell,too. Romney, not so much. Okay, not at all.
ReplyDeleteThirst-N-Howl? The one who slept with his teddybear? Nope, they don't make SitComs like that anymore.
ReplyDeleteNo Thurston was a cut or two above Willie-Mitt. I don't recall his having tried to construct a raft out of his fellow castaways' bodies.
ReplyDeleteThey've been arguing by stereotype forever, which is effective because that way you don't have to address facts or numbers. Certainly there are welfare cheats and there are people quite content to live on the dole, but as that unscrupulous, geriatric dipshit Reagan did, you can make up endless fictional accounts of 'welfare queens' driving Cadillacs and everybody with a chip on his shoulder about how hard he has to work to pay for the Mercedes will buy into it without pausing for a nanosecond to see just how many cheats there are and what percentage they constitute.
Lies are so much easier and more effective and there's no limit to the quantity you can come up with.