"I Work Hard . . . Doesn't He Know That, Doesn't He Get It?'

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from David Corn at Mother Jones:


The Most Damning Line in the Secret Romney Video: I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.


____ Here was Romney sharing his view that Americans who don't make enough money to pay income taxes and his fellow citizens who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, or other government programs are lesser people than he and the millionaires before him. These people, Romney was saying, are not adults; they do not, and will not, fend for themselves or do what they must to feed, clothe, shelter, educate, and care for themselves and their family members. It was an arrogant insult spoken with true detachment. This was 100-percent 1-percent.

My view of this one line was reinforced this morning. I walked into a store to buy some cleaning products. The 40-something woman at the counter rang up the purchases and kept looking at me. Once I had paid, she said in a low voice, "I really don't want to bother you, but..."

Go ahead, I said.

But I know who you are, and I just want to say that Mitt Romney doesn't know what he's talking about. Not at all. I am college-educated, but look where I'm working now. I can't find a better job now. And, and….

She paused and lowered her voice more:

I'm on food stamps. I didn't have a choice. I'm making about $12,000 a year now. And I need them. I work hard. And I'm looking for other work. But just because I'm on food stamps doesn't mean I'm not taking care of myself. Doesn't he know that? Doesn't he get it?

read more: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/09/most-damning-line-secret-romney-video

[sarge43]

1. He doesn't know; he doesn't get it and he doesn't care.

Just what we want in a president.

[liberal N proud]

2. No Romney does not get it.

He has not clue how hard the Working Poor struggle to make it.

And the biggest reason these people struggle is because the likes of Romney have made it difficult for them to get ahead.

[Jennicut]

3. The way he makes people like this feel

pisses me off. He is lowlier then low, Mr. I-have-an-elevator-in-my-garage.

[Control-Z]

4. K&R n/t

[Jamaal510]

5. He probably gets it and wants to pretend like he doesn't

just so he can fool enough people to vote for him. But the question is...do Republican voters get it? Do they realize that nobody truly wants to be dependent on government assistance, and that the economic policies that their party advocates only help about 1% of the population?

[Major Nikon]

6. I'm not really into Marxism

But the reality is that Willard and his type just don't give a shit about labor. I don't begrudge rich people, but Willard is the worst sort of rich person. He's nothing more than an economic leech that sucks the lifeblood of others for his own enrichment and all the while accusing his host of being the parasite.

[oldsarge54]

29. That is OK

Marx got a lot wrong, but he got a few things right. Massive capitalism allowed free reign will result in an imbalance of wealth, and the following stress between the workers and the owners. I suspect that is theory of the dialectic is equally valid, if we could only educate the less than sterling persons in congress to try it. The late 19th century progressives were an anti-marxism movement, hence the square deal concept. What is needed is a radical change in the MBA mental horizon, that their employees are not only their workers, but their customers. Our wage structure, based on supply and demand does not work. However, I don't see a solution that cannot be considered government imposed. This nation has become too engaged with their rights, and not their responsibilities.

[Major Nikon]

32. Actually you can make it work with what we have

Workers united can flip the supply and demand dynamic. That's what unions are for. When workers can bargain for pay the same way CEOs do, they are far less likely to be screwed by the system. All you need are laws that balance the scales between workers and corporations instead of someone with their foot on one side.

[oldsarge54]

38. But isn't that,

Gasp! Socialism or big government or job killing regulations. Gosh, they'd never stand for it.

[freshwest]

7. Thank you, David Corn!

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Wow. Just wow.

Her story really makes it hit home. I am hoping that more and more start to "get it". Rethugs don't really care about them. Rethugs are first in line to kick them when they are down. That's not America. That is the result of greed and obsession over "individualism" while still being an opportunist by taking what they can from any source, including the government while insulting others for doing it just to survive.

[JHB]

9. No, he doesn't know that. he doesn't think he has to know that...

...and he has approximately 250 million layers of insulation from ever having to know that.

[mountain grammy]

10. At some time in our lives, most of us have lived this woman's life

I know I have. Now I collect social security retirement benefits. Rmoney insulted me.

[Grammy23]

27. Hi Mountain Grammy! I agree with you!

I am retired now and collect social security. My husband get his pension, minus the cost of our health insurance, which pretty much leaves us about 1/3 of the pension since the insurance costs us nearly $900 a month. We're looking forward to late next year when I can go on Medicare and my husband will enroll in Jan. 2014. We will buy a supplemental health insurance to cover what Medicare does not pay for. Even buying those two things, we'll be better off than we are now for health insurance. I do not trust Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan when they say they won't make changes that will affect me or my husband.

I do not think Mitt Romney has a clue in this world how hard some people work and the things they have to do to earn a buck. Before I went back to school and got two college degrees, I worked in a day care center, first as a worker bee, then later as the director of the center. Even though I was responsible for over 100 children, I was barely paid much more than the minimum wage workers who took care of the children.

Then I had a licensed home day care for about 5 years. I had 4-5 kids in my home, some who were babies, but mostly pre-school age children. If Romney thinks taking care of other people's children is not hard work, he is deluded.

My husband worked flipping burgers when he was 16. It was a job he took because his father was dying of cancer and his mother was working as a nurse's aide. He turned over every cent he made to his mother and she gave him gas money to get to school and work. The rest went into the family budget to help with expenses. It literally helped them keep food on the table.

He worked for many years after we married in automotive repair. He was mostly self taught with some training provided by his employers. Eventually, after many years of experience he became a mechanic for a major overnight delivery company. He was well paid for his work, but it was VERY HARD and VERY, VERY STRESSFUL mainly because he had people's lives in his hands with the repairs he made on a daily basis. I won't even go into the details of how stressful his job was for other reasons....but mainly due to pressure to "perform". Move faster, fix things quicker, get the mandatory paperwork in on time, etc.

It really pisses me off when people like Romney or Ryan talk about working hard. Neither of those two men have a clue about really hard work that is sometimes demeaning, demoralizing and underpaid. I'd like to see either of them do some of the jobs that the REAL PEOPLE in this country do every day. NOW THAT would be TV worth watching.

[mountain grammy]

42. Your post took me by surprise, it hit so close to home.

So many of our lives are similar, and we are one medical crisis away from disaster because, right now, we have no health insurance. I will start medicare Nov 1st, but my husband has 3 years to go. We may be able to swing a major medical policy with a $10,000 deductable that pays 80%. What a country! Only country in the world with a single payer system for the oldest and poorest citizens, assuring that system will be overburdened, instead of a universal system that spreads the risks.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

11. He's not mentally disabled, so he does get it. What I think is that he's basically

a right winger, and right wing ideology sees those who are poor as deserving of suffering, torture and being denigrated.

[Moonwalk]

28. No mental deficiency needed; it is sadly easy to "not get it..."

All that's needed it (1) a lack of experience and (2) a belief in myths over facts. Romney hasn't been involved in the personal experience of really struggling or sacrificing anything to survive or even to get what he wanted and he never did charitable work that might have forced him to meet and identify with people experiencing such. So, no life experience that might force him to "get it" even if he wanted to believe otherwise.

Meanwhile, he's been fed myths his life long that put him at the top of the food chain. From Mormon church's teachings (white men run things--and no one is allowed to question them/minorities are inferior and unequal) to the history textbooks he was undoubtedly raised on (Captains of Industry are the heroes) to the republican religion (anyone on food stamps is a welfare queen). Why should he believe the facts over these myths?

These two are all you need not to "get it" even with all brain cells firing.

[Indydem]

12. If she knows who David Corn is...

,,,it's safe to assume that she was already a dem voter. Disappointing that the repukes will never get it.

[bamacrat]

13. To him and his ilk, if you aren't rich you aren't trying.

We would all be rich if no obstacles were put in our way. If we had a free ride to the Ivy League school of our choosing and a list of daddy's rich friends to get jobs with, we would all be rich. If you have to take out loans to pay for your University of ___ school then hope you get a job to live on while repaying said loans, you can be rich it's just not as likely. Really if you take the logic I have presented here, it seems that it isn't hard work that makes you rich but rather the situation you were born into. COMMUNIST!!

[Bluestar]

14. I think he does know

He's just a damn mean person. He's got a chip on his shoulder and takes his anger out on those he views as weak. That is because he is weak.

[Zoeisright]

15. He doesn't know that, he doesn't get it, and more importantly,

He doesn't CARE.

[garthranzz]

16. That is just so powerful

and poignant.

I have so much respect for that woman.

[spiderpig]

17. Me too.

She is worth a Brazillion Mitt Romneys.

I'm walking in her shoes right now.

Mittens is such an unbelievable jerk.

[DevonRex]

18. He has no conscience. He's a sociopath. Nt

[NYC_SKP]

19. K/R and he get's it, they get it, they just don't care. It's like this:

For a couple decades they've managed to so thoroughly screw the middle class that we have to use services just to survive.

Just to survive WHILE WORKING, working alone isn't enough.

Minimum wage with no health coverage isn't enough.

So now they can smear us even as they screw us.

Fuck that shit, the time is going to come when this 1% is going to pay for the years of abuse.

[HopeHoops]

20. Face it. rMoney doesn't GET hard. No WONDER Ann's so uptight.

[calimary]

21. No. He doesn't know that. He doesn't get it. And worse, he doesn't think there's anything to "get."

He thinks he's got this. He's comfortable in his "Captain Cliche" mode - just pulling the slogans out of his ass that he and the rest of us have been inundated with for 30 years.

SCHMUCK.

My hope would be that, karmically, he would someday have the opportunity to see and to walk in the shoes of people who have to live this way. Experience it, for real, up close 'n' personal. See, feel, hear, smell, and taste how it is to have to make do, day in and day out, in that world - so far away from his plush world of privilege and comfort. That he could see, really and truly and as harsh as that reality is, how the other half lives. Or the other 47%.

Excluding, of course, the millionaires in this category who skate by with all their deductions and tax shelters and manage not to have to pay any taxes either. He's already had MORE THAN ENOUGH experience living like that.

[Skidmore]

22. The poblem is that none of us work as hard as thoze

Women in that factory compound dormitory in China he saw.
We aren't begging to be enslaved yet -- his idea of the new American dream.

[dorkulon]

23. This is how rich kids justify their good fortune.

It was the same with GWB, whose Harvard Prof, Yoshi Tsurumi, quoted him as saying that poor people are lazy.

These children of power and wealth certainly haven't earned it, yet they don't want to admit how lucky they are, or that other people have tougher lives than them. It's easier for them to just dismiss the great unwashed masses as lazy, stupid, and inferior, than it is for them to acknowledge just how incredibly lucky they are, and how basically unfair it is that they have so much while other have so little.

Of course, there are many who CAN admit they are lucky, and that life IS essentially unfair. But they become Democrats, like the Kennedys.

[Bigredhunk]

24. If You're Poor, You're A Loser...You Suck...Go Away

That's how they think. They hate anybody who isn't financially successful.

[bluestateguy]

25. Most people on food stamps work

A point that is often lost on people.

[Warpy]

26. No. If you're not pulling down at least six figures a year

men like Mitt Romney think you're bone lazy and that you could benefit from an overseer with a whip.

This is why we need to keep them OUT of our government.

[itssimplestupid]

30. I Work 80 to 100 hours a week

And I am still broke.

Romney, kiss my ass.

http://www.RepublicansAreADisease.com

(and I still have time to write here, and on blogs)

[hue]

31. He doesn't get it because he won't get it and he never will.

[GreenTea]

33. Republicans see you & everyone, except the rich elitist see us as easily replaceable -life is cheap

to the rich and their corporations to them we are simply, peasants, peons, pawns, filthy workers, not worth the time to even think or worry about.

You mean nothing to republicans but as a worker for their profits and a consumer.....too old then they prefer you to just fuck-off & die, slowly, for doctors & hospital corporations to profit!

[JI7]

34. This is one of the Worst Parts for me also and the MEdia is not giving it as much attention

the focus is on the number, a percentage.

usually republicans would say the Dems liberals etc are the ones who don't want people to work and to stay on welfare. they blame it on the system dems want.

or they would attack the phony non existant welfare moms with cadillacs and other luxury items.

but this was Romney who showed his hatred, disgust at people who want to eat and who want other basic needs. to be wealthy and feel resentment at others who have so much less and just want to eat and not go hungry ?

[JI7]

35. if you really worked hard you wouldn't be where you are and making just 12 k a year

that is how romney sees it. he views some trust fund piece of shit that doesn't work and just spends, parties etc as being more of a hard worker than this person. because the trust fund piece of shit has more money.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

36. "Doesn't he know that? Doesn't he get it?"

No.

And here's the big secret.

It is EASY for the rich to make money, so easy they can't understand why everybody isn't doing it. They got to a point where their wealth is making more wealth without them doing anything. When they actually DO something (after the advice of their lawyers) they make more and the more they do, the more they make. To them, a long full day is spending two hours dressing for a board room meeting and then putting up with traffic as seen from the back seat through tinted glass and when they arrive they have to exchange forced pleasantries with "the little people" before they get to their chair and give a single vote and then half listen to other items on the agenda, laugh at a joke or two and then have to pass though the gauntlet of "little people" to go home where they collapse from exhaustion.

Keep in mind that they send their lawyers to the minor meetings too, so they can effectively be five places at once.

That whole "We are away from our families" is because they are on first class flights all over as many of them sit on multiple boards and some of that time is spent schmoozing with each other, often with lots of drinking and hookers at the finest hotels.

On trips to Asia? They are the reason Thailand has underage prostitutes.

[Avalux]

37. He doesn't get it and it's not just because he's filthy rich.

If he had an ounce of empathy, if he truly cared about people, he would TRY to understand, and at least do what he could to help people. He doesn't get it because he's never tried to do so, and he's never done so because he just doesn't give a fuck about our petty little lives.

[Skittles]

39. he and Queen Ann are very insulated

they don't bother trying to find out what is going on in the REAL world - they don't care enough

[Bozita]

40. You people just don't understand her!

[OnionPatch]

41. My mother never worked harder

than when she was a member of the 47%. She worked full time at a factory for minimum wage. To feed us (after our father left) she relied on food stamps and rent subsidies. She came home with burns on her arms from welding and swollen ankles from standing all day. Then she cooked dinner, did the housework and helped us with our homework. She dropped into bed exhausted every night. But even with the help, she struggled to make ends meet.

I fumed with anger when I heard Mitt's "47%" statement, especially the part about people not taking responsibility for themselves. If he had been in front of me when he had said it, I would have slapped him in the face.

As for my mother's status of "moocher" making her dependent on government.....30 years later and none of us has needed that kind of help since. Hopefully we won't in the future.

[Quantess]

43. I thought about this article today.

K & R