Eugene Robinson: Romney's Class Warfare
Mr. Robinson sounds peeved...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/09/21/romneys_class_warfare_115522.html
Romney's Class Warfare
By Eugene Robinson - September 21, 2012
snip//
This analysis is not only grossly offensive but astonishingly ignorant. Romney suggests that nearly half of Americans are layabouts who only leave the house when they need to cash a government check -- or when it's time to vote for President Obama. Greetings, lazy bums, I'm Mitt Romney. Vote for me!
The truth is that Romney is mixing apples, oranges and bananas. The three groups he mentions -- those who support the president, those who receive payments from entitlement programs and those who are not required to pay federal income tax -- are not the same people. Quite a few senior citizens who receive Social Security and Medicare are Republicans. Quite a few working-class voters are not charter members of Team Obama.
But Romney's ignorance is not as shocking as his callousness. Here's what he says next about the 47 percent: "And -- and so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
To all the single parents holding down two minimum-wage jobs to make ends meet, all the seniors who saw their savings dwindle and had to go back to work part time, all the breadwinners who lost their jobs when private-equity firms swooped down to slash and burn -- to all struggling Americans it must come as a surprise to learn how irresponsible they've been. And it must be devastating to learn that, try as he might, Mitt Romney will never be able to show these unfortunates the error of their ways.
snip//
In an elegant dining room where the self-satisfaction was thick enough to cut with a knife, Romney made clear that he sees this election as "us" versus "them" -- wealthy Republicans versus the unwashed hordes, makers versus takers. Romney believes half of America is lazy, dependent and, frankly, not too bright.
Voters will soon have the opportunity to show him we're not as stupid as he thinks.
= new reply since forum marked as read
