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Thursday, April 19, 2012

And just what do these people think a Mitt Romney regime will do for them?
Posted by Jill | 5:31 AM
Sorry about no posting this week. I've been working like a fiend and I'm totally spent at the end of the day. And yes, the parade of daily fresh horrors has been kind of overwhelming. How do you write about what the right-wing vision of this country is without losing one's sanity, anyway?

I had started two posts earlier this week -- one about the Mets, the other about the Mommy Wars. But the Mets have reverted to Mets form, and the Mommy Wars are already a spent force (or so we can hope). You snooze, you lose, as they say.

But I have been paying attention, and one of the things I've been paying attention to is what Mitt Romney has been saying. It's hard to imagine that after eight years of watching the mean-spirited scion of a political family whose sense of entitlement has him thinking he hit a triple when he was born on third base, this country would be willing to endure another, greedier one with an even greater sense of entitlement and a wife who's already measuring the drapes in the East Room.

Does this guy have anything to say about what this country under Mitt Romney would look like? I'll admit that I've had only so much time to pay attention this week, but from what I've heard, Romney wants to cut HUD and the Department of education, or maybe he doesn't. He's been saying for a year that President Obama has made the recession worse, then said he didin't. He's said he'd get rid of Planned Parenthood, or maybe he wouldn't. He spouts what he thinks the base wants to hear, and then his people backtrack. His aides can't say whether he supports the Lilly Ledbetter equal pay act.

What we DO know is that he's an adherent to the Ayn Rand fantasies of Eddie Munster Paul Ryan, whose draconian plans for the economy would probably consign millions of elderly and children to an early death and dramatically change this country to provide even MORE benefit to guys like Mitt Romney -- guys who fancy themselves to be real-life Francisco D'Anconias who get to fuck real-life Dagny Taggarts (except that these guys couldn't handle a real-life Dagny Taggart, choosing instead docile helpmeets who will give them many, many heirs). I wonder how many Americans have actually thought about what a Romney/Ryan Randian utopia would look like.

It doesn't seem to matter, though, because in this nation of American Idiots, people smell a New York Prime strip steak grilling in the kitchen and their mouths are watering. But it's not quite ready yet and they're hungry. They currently have in front of them a plate of calves' liver and plate with a pile of dogshit. They've already tasted the calves' liver and they don't like the taste enough to let it ease their hunger. And they refuse to wait for the steak. So they've decided that since they didn't like the taste of the calves' liver, the dogshit MUST be an improvement ( NYT link):

A rising number of Americans see improvement in the economy, but a persistent wariness about their own financial circumstances is allowing Mitt Romney to persuade voters that he could improve their economic prospects more than President Obama, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Even as the nation rebounds from the recession, its lingering effects are reflected in the adversities facing families. Nearly two-thirds of people are concerned about paying for their housing, the poll found, and one in five people with mortgages say they are underwater.

Four in 10 parents say they have had to alter expectations for the type of college they can afford for their children. And more than one-third of respondents said high gas prices had created serious financial hardships.

The general election match between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney is opening with evidence that economic conditions are providing ammunition for both candidates. For Mr. Obama, there is a gradually growing perception that the general outlook is turning brighter, and for Mr. Romney, there are those individuals who still do not feel substantial improvement in their own lives.

The poll found that the two men are locked in a tight race, with each gathering 46 percent of the support. Nearly an equal number of voters say they are as confident in Mr. Romney’s ability to make the right decisions on the economy and to be commander in chief as express confidence in Mr. Obama.

As many voters thought they would do better under Mr. Romney as under Mr. Obama, but slightly more said they would do worse if the president was re-elected.

I'd love to know on what basis people are saying that they'd do better under Mitt Romney. Do they think that the guys with whom Mitt pals around -- the NASCAR team owners and the horsey set and owners of NFL teams and other guys with more money than they can spend in 100 lifetimes -- are somehow going to magically create jobs when Mitt Romney lowers their taxes yet again? Do they think that the thirty major corporations who pay no taxes, some of whom get REFUNDS BACK from the government every year, are going to magically "create jobs" out of the goodness of their hearts if their taxes are cut just a little bit more? Is this the corollary of the Just Work Hard Enough doctrine -- that if you Just Give Rich Guys enough, they'll share?

Think about the elementary school bully you knew. Picture you're in a kindergarten class with him. Now envision a cake -- a big, rich, gooey chocolate cake. With lots of butter cream flowers on it. There's plenty of cake for everyone in the class. But this bully has pulled a knife on the teacher once already, and the administration has done nothing about this kid. (Let's forget for a moment that there are schools where six-year-olds who act up are led out in handcuffs.) The teacher cuts half the cake -- the half with ALL the butter cream roses on it, and gives it to the bully. Do you honestly believe that a bully of this magnitude is going to be content with half the cake when he sees that the othr kids get even a sliver of cake? Hardly. He's going to beat the crap out of those other kids just to get the rest. Even if he vomits it all up afterwards, He. Is. Going. To. Get. All. The. Cake. Because it's his due. Because he bestrides the world like a colossus.

That bully is Mitt Romney's compatriots in the one percent. And dammit, they are going to get all that cake.

So just what do these people think Mitt Romney is going to do to make his friends decide they really do have enough cake? Do they really think the dogshit will taste better? One person quoted in in the above-excerpted article seems to think so:

“I want to give the business guy a chance,” said Craig Lemoine, 47, a Republican from Las Vegas who drives a U.P.S. truck. “No one wants to put the C.E.O. in there. Everyone thinks he’ll just make the rich people richer and the poor people poorer. “But how do you know if you don’t give him a chance?”


Lucy, Charlie Brown, football, etc.

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3 Comments:
Blogger Patricia said...
So depressing and so true. I have actually heard real people talk like this. I also hear them blaming Obama for the taxes they pay, which partially they are right,however they have no clue that the Bush tax cuts have caused so much financial damage. Evangelical ignorance is also going to sink this country.
4/19/12, 7:11 PM  
Blogger Bob said...
It's an indication of deep American dissatisfaction with Barack Obama that Romney does so well in the polls, despite the fact that hardly anyone actually likes or trusts him.
4/19/12, 11:22 PM  
Blogger Pangolin said...
Honestly, people still want the big-rock-candy-mountain and don't mind stepping on their fellow citizens to do it. The Republican excuse for not delivering has been based upon racism since the Nixon administration and backed up by Christian no-nothingism.

People want fantasies. They want magic. They don't want anyone to tell them they have to share and that most of them will never, ever, be rich enough to pall around with Hollywood stars.

Which means they're willing to vote for proven liars.
4/26/12, 4:14 AM  
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