Romney's 47% Remarks

Mitt Romney's done it again.  I've commented before on the Republican nominee's tendency to let his plutocratic Thurston Howell III inner self show through in unguarded comments.  See my February 2, 2012 post "Romney's Not Very Concerned About the Poor."  You remember the kind of statements I'm talking about.  He "likes being able to fire people."  He's "not very concerned about the poor."  He thinks "corporations are people, too."  He offered to make a little friendly $10,000 bet on the stage in a nationally televised debate.  When asked about the jobless he quipped, "I am also unemployed!"  He characterized the $370,000 he made in speaking fees last year as "not very much."  He thinks those who believe the wealthy should pay a greater share in taxes are "motivated by envy."  He advises those who want to start a business to just ask their parents for the money.  Well, why not?  It worked for him.       

But this time he has really outdone himself.  He was captured on video telling a $50,000 a plate crowd at a Boca Raton fundraiser that 47 percent of the American people do not pay income tax and will vote for President Obama no matter what because they feel they are victims to whom the government owes a living.  He further opined that such people do not care about their own lives, and that, for himself, "My job is not to worry about those people."  Watch the actual recording here.  If you have not yet seen or heard it prepare to be dumbfounded. 

The disdain and contempt encapsulated in these remarks are delivered with feeling by a clearly energized and peeved Romney.  As with his earlier above-referenced series of "gaffes," he follows a well-trod path of condescension and contempt toward those below his socioeconomic level.  The arrogance and enmity of these attitudes are exceeded only by his lack of comprehension of how most people really live.  Americans are among the hardest working people on earth.  Most of those who pay no income tax are senior citizens on Social Security who did pay income taxes for forty to fifty years.  Most of the rest are the working poor, who already pay withholding taxes for Social Security and Medicare but who make too little to pay income tax.

Rather than try to explain he didn't mean to insult and demean nearly half the American people or call them all lazy parasites, today Gov. Romney doubled down on his rhetoric.  He admitted his words might have been "inartfully expressed" but he stands behind his characterization of nearly half the  population of the country.   To hear such remarks from a major party nominee is remarkable.  It's strange for such a high-profile candidate to be so politically clueless.  Even if one holds such views, an astute politician must always presume everything said will be recorded and reported on.  An astute politician would recognize the folly of demeaning nearly half the electorate.  A citizen who had rubbed elbows with everyday people would have understood how inaccurate and unfair a stereotype such pejorative attitudes are.  But Mitt Romney isn't, isn't and hasn't.  It is getting more and more difficult to identify a more poorly suited major party nominee for the office of president within living memory.