Is Romney inarticulate or just out of touch?
Mitt Romney’s error, says Paul Ryan, is that he was inarticulate when he said that 47% of the American public will not vote for him because they’re dependent on government and entitlement programs. These people, Romney said, do not pay income taxes and believe they are victims.
So I wondered how Romney could have been more articulate. Maybe he could have said, “Nearly half of Americans are moochers. They choose not to work so they won’t have to pay income taxes. They’ll come to your house for dinner and eat enough for two days. Of course, I wouldn’t invite them over for dinner, but you get the point.”
Maybe he could have said this: “Look, a lot of these people are old. They actually think that because they’ve paid into Social Security for years and years that they actually should be entitled to this government entitlement.”
Or this: “Sure, a lot of these 47% work, sometimes at places like Wal-Mart where they don’t make enough money to pay income taxes. And you know what? They can’t afford health insurance either so they sign up for Medicaid for their kids. What mooches!”
Maybe Romney could have been more loving in his comments. He could have said things in a way to show that he deeply cared about these people even though government couldn’t be all things to all people. Maybe this. “Bless their hearts, most of these people aren’t smart enough to dig their way out of their misery and take responsibility for their lives. But you just can’t ask the job creators to pay them a living wage in this global economy. Our businesses have to compete with Bangladesh businessmen and moochers aren’t coddled there.”
But Romney seems to be taking a different approach to being less inarticulate. He says that President Obama is being divisive. Apparently, he means that Obama is pitting the successful job creators against the dependent 47% of Americans who feel victimized.
And, apparently, he doesn’t think it’s divisive to declare almost half of the population as dependent moochers who don’t want to work and don’t want to take responsibility for their lives.
Well, it’s all a little confusing, but it seems to me that Mr. Romney is quite articulate. It’s his understanding of how the other half lives that he doesn’t get.
Phil Cardarella
8 months agoLots of the rich who have earned their own money are quite generous and mindful of the fact that “There but for the grace of God, go I,” when seeing the less well-off.
Some of the children of wealth — JFK, Bush, SR., Kerry — have had the leveling experience of the wars — seeing those no less worthy than they die while they survive.
The Mitt Romneys of the world, alas, are born to wealth and and power prestige, insulated by the same, and educated only to seek “more” — more wealth , more power and prestige.
They have never been of the non-rich. money has never been an object of concern. They have never found themselves hunkered down and sharing the same battlefield terrors as the child of a plumber or teacher.
The reason that Romney’s experiences at Bain is important is not because he made lots of money. Not even because his actions created or destroyed jobs in one move or another. He is not a cartoon villian, out to destroy American jobs. Whether or not jobs were created or destroyed was of absolutely no concern to Mitt. The ONLY concern was to make money. His indifference to the “how” is what is important now.
So, a tolerant, moderate, pro-choice governor who created universal health care in Massachusetts can become an anti-gay rights, anti-immigrant, anti-choice candidate demonizing the idea of universal health care — because the actual POLICIES are of utter disinterest to Mitt. Only the desire to win the office.
It is not that individual rich-rich are not kind and generous to their families and those they know peasonally. It is just that they have no ethical or empathetic relationship to others in general. They believe that they are very different. And they believe that they are oh-so better.
To the rich-rich, waiters are not guys like them or their kids, maybe working their way through college. The rich write a check for Harvard or Yale. To them, waiters are servants — and servants are basically pieces of furniture bearing trays of drinks. It does not occur to them that these fellow-citizens about whom they speak so disparagingly have eyes and ears and feelings — and, ultimately, digital recorders.
A cat may indeed look at a would-be king — and show us just how unkingly he is when showing his naked contempt for us.
Kevin Sheely
8 months agoOur economy is in a shambles, our embassies are being burned to the ground, our ambassidors are being murdered, our credit is being downgraded, one in seven americans on food stamps, our dollar is worth about fifty cents, etc etc etc, but the BIG STORY on the minds of our intrepid news media is some offhand comment Mitt Romney made four months ago that was illegally recorded.
Steven Fetter
66223
8 months agoNow that Phil has psychoanalyzed Romney, can you please put President Obama on the couch.
Has the formerly antiwar candidate gone mad with militaristic power after raining missiles on allied countries such as Pakistan and Yemen?
Or how about the man that would give KSM a trial is now summarily executing American citizens abroad?.
Does the fact that his autobiography being inaccurate indicate anything amiss?
Did he really mean what he said about clinging to guns and religion? Or being a religious man for 20 years in Rev Wrights’ church?
How about being for public financing of elections until he realized he could swamp the opposing candidate? Since then, he has become a serial campaigner, raising billions, seemingly unable to break away to meet with key allies or Congress.
Or the man that was to close Gitmo, obtain Congressional approval prior to military excursions, be transparent, and bring unemployment and the seas down, now has morphed into a veteren politician. His punishing of enemies and rewarding friends would make the Daly machine blush.
All in all, it would appear that our President will say or do anything to achieve his re-election. Dr. Freud could have a field day with all this material.
George Hunsucker
Northland
8 months agoSo George, maye this was just a coincidence huh???
http://washingtonexaminer.com/crs-report-number-of-able-bodied-adults-on-food-stamps-doubled-after-obama-suspended-work-requirement/article/2508430#.UFm26o1lREN
George Harris
Kansas City
8 months agoGeorge, the article you provided the link for is confusing/misleading. Surely you don’t believe that the number of people on food stamps has doubled in the last month, as the article seems (to me) initially to imply. It is true that the number of people on food stamps went up dramatically after Obama signed the stimulus bill. This was the basis of Gingrich’s attack on Obama as “the food stamp president.” But the Gingrich criticism was fact checked and largely debunked. (Google ‘fact check obama food stamp president’) Here is another link that gives a little more perspective on the issue: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-01-18/fact-check-gingrich-obama-food-stamps/52645882/1
But, to the larger point: There’s no doubt in my mind that some people prefer to get food stamps than to get a job. Some may be lazy mooches, but others do the math: They make more money than they could with a minimum wage job. Neither option is very good.
Or, the larger part of this article: By far most of the people getting benefit from government “entitlement” programs are “entitled” to the benefits because they’ve paid into the Social Security and Medicare systems. This isn’t government dependency, it’s an earned benefit. Many, many other people getting Medicaid benefits are the working poor; they’re people who work full-time or work two jobs and still don’t make enough money to get health care for their kids. (If I worked at a minimum wage job, my gross income wouldn’t pay for my health insurance. Literally true.) These people aren’t lazy mooches who want to be dependent on the government. Romney just is clueless about this.
Then there are the people with mental and physical disabilities who truly cannot work. OK, they’re dependent on government but good grief, are we going to kick them to the curb? I don’t know what this percentage of the total population is, but by definition, 3% of the population is mentally retarded. There’s another several percent with physical disabilities. There are many, many veterans who are no longer able to work. I see these guys regularly in my work. Society is going to have to decide whether or not we want to provide support for these people with our taxes.
I admit that it’s often hard to tell the needy from the greedy, but in my work over the years with people with physical and mental disabilities, I’ve realized that the general public doesn’t see these people, who are often in group homes or institutions. I’d love to take Romney on a tour sometime.