Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forum"The Intellectual Roots of Romney’s 47 Percent Rage"
The Intellectual Roots of Romneys 47 Percent RageBy Jonathan Chait at NY Magazine
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/intellectual-roots-of-romneys-percent-rage.html
"SNIP..........................................
Mitt Romneys leaked diatribe at a fund-raiser about non-income-tax-paying moochers has spawned a lot of interesting analysis about the spread of this fallacious and paranoid view on the right. The missing piece of the puzzle is, how did an apparently sober person like Romney himself come to believe it? Annie Lowrey and Michael Cooper report in the New York Times that Romney was channeling a popular book:
Mr. Romneys thinking on the matter has been shaped in part by Arthur C. Brooks, the president of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Brooks said that he had discussed his new book, The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise, with Mr. Romney, who was particularly interested in whether redistribution would lead to a disengaged electorate with the government paying for programs benefiting more people with dollars coming from fewer of them.
This is a fairly disturbing revelation. I reviewed Brooks previous book, which is a pastiche of illogic, paranoia, and a series of flat-out falsehoods. It's possible his more recent book is of higher quality, though I doubt it. In any case, the general theme of it is that American politics is a battle between virtuous makers against parasitic takers, with the latter executing an insidious and possibly irreversible plot to undermine capitalism. Its pure crankery but a crankery that has overtaken large chunks of the Republican party.
..........................................SNIP"
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
3 replies, 1450 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (1)
ReplyReply to this post
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
"The Intellectual Roots of Romney’s 47 Percent Rage" (Original Post)
applegrove
Sep 2012
OP
Seems the rich are paying to support the people who then impose myths on them.
applegrove
Sep 2012
#2
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)1. Those large chunks of the Republican party
are willfully ignorant.
applegrove
(118,600 posts)2. Seems the rich are paying to support the people who then impose myths on them.
So they give more money. Like some sort of strange
false-reality/cash mutually reinforcement cycle.
regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)3. Chiat may cite Albert Brooks...
...but the ideas espoused by him, including the makers/takers dichotomy, come straight from (who else?) Ayn Rand.
I don't think it's possible to overstate the degree to which the Republican Party has simply become Objectivism in action.