Republicans know that most people don't distinguish between "income taxes" and "taxes," so they assume he's talking about those deadbeats that are simple free-loaders. But in fact the 47% who pay no "federal income tax" includes all those who pay a pretty good part of their income in Social Security taxes and sales tax -- a much higher percentage of their income than Romney does, with all the tax advantages given to wealthy people.
But that's not the main point. Jonathan Chait, writing in New York magazine, says that this is not a simple gaffe but Romney's true character coming out, and it reveals him to be "a sneering plutocrat."
Instead the video exposes an authentic Romney as a far more sinister character than I had imagined. Here is the sneering plutocrat, fully in thrall to a series of pernicious myths that are at the heart of the mania that has seized his party. He believes that market incomes in the United States are a perfect reflection of merit. Far from seeing his own privileged upbringing as the private-school educated son of an auto executive-turned-governor as an obvious refutation of that belief, Romney cites his own life, preposterously, as a confirmation of it. (“I have inherited nothing. Everything I earned I earned the old fashioned way.”)Romney has explained, at another time, that all the money that he and Ann inherited, they gave away to charity. So he has "earned it the old fashioned way" in one sense. Chait scoffs at this making him just like everybody else, what with all his advantages.
It is possible to cling to some version of this dogma and still believe, or to convince yourself, that cutting taxes for the rich or reducing benefits for the poor will eventually help the latter, by teaching them personal responsibility or freeing up Job Creators to favor them with opportunity. Instead Romney regards them as something akin to a permanent enemy class – “I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” . . .This is strong stuff -- and I think Chait is directly on target. My only difference with him is that I saw this long ago, as I keep saying, it was there when he was 17 leading the mob to cut off the non-conforming boy's long hair.
The revelations in this video come to me as a genuine shock. I have never hated Romney. I presumed his ideological makeover since he set out to run for president was largely phony, even if he was now committed to carry through with it, and to whatever extent he’d come to believe his own lines, he was oblivious or naïve about the damage he would inflict upon the poor, sick and vulnerable. It seems unavoidable now to conclude that Romney’s embrace of Paul Ryanism is born of actual contempt for the looters and moochers, a class war on behalf of his own class.
Glad to know others are catching on. I've called him a self-righteous prig. I like Chait's "sneering plutocrat" too.
Ralph
David Brooks, writing in the New York Times, also sees this as defining Romney and wrecking his chances to be president. He says there are sensible conclusions to be drawn from the facts of how many Americans receive benefits and that our entitlement programs need reform.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Brooks says, these are not the conclusions Romney draws in this informal conversation with donors.
He reveals that he doesn't know much about this country he inhabits -- that those getting government benefits include the Iraq veterans going to the VA for health care, the student with a loan to go to college, the retiree getting Social Security and Medicare. They are more likely middle class workers than poor deadbeats who prefer being dependent on the government.
Brooks calls this Romney's "country club fantasy" and says that he is running "a depressingly inept campaign."
ReplyDelete
Other pundits have also been critical, one saying that Romney's hasty press conference to explain was worse than the original leaked comments.
ReplyDeleteAnother pointed out that many of the people Romney seems to be dismissing are actually Republicans he would be counting on to vote for him -- that's how little he knows about what he's saying.
Joe Scarborough said: "This is one of the worst weeks for a presidential candidate in a general election that any of us can remember."
On top of everything else, Romney has destroyed one of his "brand" attributes -- the competent manager. With such a campaign operation and so many repeated failures, he no longer looks like a good manager and CEO.