Willard “Mitt” Romney is quickly becoming a metaphor for crass scorn and disdain of those less advantaged than himself. He serves as a figure of speech, if nothing else. He is akin to Scrooge. Or, maybe, Scrooge McDuck, selfish and inept.
His scorn for the people he called part of the “47 percent” who pay no taxes went viral. It garnered negative commentary across the political spectrum. Romney’s 47 percent include the working poor, disabled vets, the unemployed, and retirees, along with many working families. Speaking to a gathering of rich political donors, he did not note the presence of many wealthy people among those who pay little-to-no taxes. In fact, since he only has revealed a couple of years of his own tax returns, one has to wonder where he fits.
Many Americans fear that that they, too, could fall into Romney’s scorned demographic. Many fear unemployment could hit them. Most will grow older and retire on little more than Social Security. The broad trickle-down policy that Romney espouses could push many more into the non-tax paying group.
Romney’s plan to win the presidency relies on smiling a lot, disparaging President Obama and saying as little as possible about his own intentions.
Thomas Dewey ran the same campaign – he spoke in platitudes, and offered no real plans. In fact, one of his famous lines is “You know that your future is still ahead of you.” One of the least inspired and foolish lines, from one of the least inspired presidential candidates in our history… until now.
Romney’s says, “Believe in America,” a slogan that completely contradicts his actions. Does he really believe in America? He believes that 47 percent of Americans are freeloaders. He believes that his money is best kept in offshore bank accounts. He believes that corporations are people. But he doesn’t seem to believe, really believe, in America.
He doesn’t believe we’re smart enough to understand his economic plan (if he really has one). He wants to reduce taxes and balance the budget, but he won’t say how. He has never shown how he would make his economic plan serve the American people as a whole.
Reducing taxes for the rich is supposedly going to introduce a golden age; more likely, the economy will sink like lead. The math doesn’t jibe. Without that much-needed revenue, our infrastructure will deteriorate and American industry will grow weaker, as will health care, education and government’s ability to address crises.
Romney’s rants on foreign policy simply reveal his inadequacy. It’s simply not presidential to place blame before all the facts are in as he did just after our ambassador was killed in Libya. It’s simply not presidential to insult one of our greatest allies on the eve of one of their biggest events. It’s simply not presidential to fail to mention our troops abroad in his acceptance speech for his nomination.
Romney has a patrician sense of entitlement. He desires to be president but clearly lacks the understanding of what the role means. He has a distressing shortage of empathy and a complete disinterest in the working class. The Scrooge metaphor works.
