It's Not the Money, Mitt; It's Your Willful Ignorance
| Thu Jun 21, 2012 at 12:01 PM PDT |
The rIch are differentSo said F.Scott Fitzgerald. In his famous novel The Great Gatsby which several generations of high school students have been forced to read. he depicts the tragic love for Jay Gatsby, a man with a shady past and low class origins, for Daisy Buchanan, who is beautiful, vivacious, charming and socially prominent. She and her husband made their money the old-fashioned way: they inherited it. She and her husband are vain, shallow, self-absorbed, and uncaring. Someone has always cleaned up their messes for them. Someone will always be on a flow of bathtub gin, pretty people without a care--and they hurt so many others with their carelessness and lack of awareness.
At first glance, Mitt doesn't seem to have much in common with the Buchanans. He's a straight-laced Mormon, who doesn't drink alcohol or even coffee or tea. He finds a Mormon church wherever he goes so he can worship on Sunday. He married young, and it appears he's never even looked at another woman. He's the anti-John Edwards, faithful and supportive of her even during her breast cancer fight and her current battle with MS--many men would have sought comfort in the arms of a healthy woman, but Mitt didn't. He appears to be devoted to his children. And, while his time at Bain can be criticized for lots of reason, there's not even a hint of his doing anything illegal.
In short, he sounds like the perfect presidential candidate: no sex scandals, no dirt in his background, pure as the driven snow.
Looks that way, doesn't he?
But it takes more to make a good president that being without bimbo eruptions or shady dealings--and that's where Mitt proves himself to be a handsome cardboard cutout.
He is so isolated from the reality of everyday Americans that he can't even recognize a donut when he sees one. He thinks his wife having two Cadillacs is proof he believes in America, not getting that most of us struggle to make payments on old clunkers. His wife promises they won't take fancy overseas vacations because they value family above everything, and they have "places"they like to go--like the compound in New Hampshire or the huge mansion they're building on the California shoreline or the palace in Vail. ANd she doesn't seem to realize that the rest of us struggle to pay mortgages on the single home we own that has lsot far too much of its value.
He's the perfect president for the 1%. FOr the other 99%, not so much.
In short, he sounds like the perfect presidential candidate: no sex scandals, no dirt in his background, pure as the driven snow.
Looks that way, doesn't he?
But it takes more to make a good president that being without bimbo eruptions or shady dealings--and that's where Mitt proves himself to be a handsome cardboard cutout.
He is so isolated from the reality of everyday Americans that he can't even recognize a donut when he sees one. He thinks his wife having two Cadillacs is proof he believes in America, not getting that most of us struggle to make payments on old clunkers. His wife promises they won't take fancy overseas vacations because they value family above everything, and they have "places"they like to go--like the compound in New Hampshire or the huge mansion they're building on the California shoreline or the palace in Vail. ANd she doesn't seem to realize that the rest of us struggle to pay mortgages on the single home we own that has lsot far too much of its value.
He's the perfect president for the 1%. FOr the other 99%, not so much.
It isn't the money, Mitt. It isn't the private schools (though that hair-cutting incident at Cranbrook Academy should give people pause; bullying Putin won't go over well) or the Harvard education. It isn't owning all those houses or the two Cadillacs or the car elevator or the dressage horse or the fact that you make 30 times (20 million) in dividends what the average American has said would be the best amount of money to liou didn't learn from them because you didn't see the need--after all they're only workers, and they don't really count in your world..
We've had some damned good presidents who came from privileged backgrounds. Teddy Roosevelt and FDR and Jack Kennedy, had money. But they had thing you seriously lack: an awareness of reality. They realized that when the 99% are suffering, the country suffers--and even in this day of diversification of assets and hedge funds and offshore accounts and global commerce, that suffering eventually affects the rich along with the poor. This recession, like the Great Depression (surely they told you about that in school?), is having a negative effect everywhere in the world, and its even beginning to hurt China. Just making money for your pals won't cut it this time. Grover Norquist and his ass-kissing sycophants are wrong about not raising taxes. Even Reagan knew that there are times when you have to raise taxes and spend money putting the rest of us back to work. And that means, yes, the bulk of the tax hikes should be borne by the people who have suffered the least: the 1%.
That Ryan budget you cleave to so fervently? It's a disaster for everyone but the rich. Ending Medicaid and Medicare? Ditto. You've never worried about taking a sick child to the ER, have you? Your wife never had to worry about not getting treatment for her breast cancer, did she? She just picked the best doctor and the best hospital. When you get old and end up in the hospital with pneumonia as my Dad (50K for 10 days), you won't have to worry about how to pay for it. You'll never worry that you can't pay for good insurance like a friend of mine: the two grand a month they pay for their insurance for a family of four is a third of his salary before taxes.
You're completely unqualified to be president of America. You don't have the vaguest understanding of the effects your philosophical decisions will have on ordinary people.
It's all theoretical for you, happening to faceless, nameless strangers who don't count because they're not of your faith or your ethnic group or your income level.
You could have learned a lot from the Kennedy brothers. Maybe it's because they were only one generation removed from Irish working class folks that they seemed to get what life was like for the rest of us. Because they were Irish and Catholic, it didn't matter that they had the mayor of Boston for their grandfather or that their father had been Ambassador to the Court of Saint James (he'd also made his money from bootlegging which was just Not Done)--they were Irish and Catholic and could never, ever be considered acceptable in the best society, even if Jack was president.
For all their money, the Kennedys didn't forget their roots. You talk about a family member selling paint from the back of his car, but you don't understand that this is how many of us live. It seems to you like a quaint story of a long-gone past--because by the time you were in school, your father was a politician and you attended the fancy private school where you bullied others unmercifully because you knew there'd be no consequences (something else you have in common with the Buchanans in the novel). You can't recognize a donut when you see one and you complained because the cookies at one meet-n-greet were storebought, not homemade, as if most of us have cooks.
Teddy beat the crap out of you when you ran for his Senate seat, and there are reasons for your loss, the same problems you have today. People knew him and liked him and understood that got their problems--and that when they called his office with problems, his staff would make sure the problems went away, if humanly possible. He could go into a working class bar and hoist a beer (yeah, we know you don't drink alcohol, but even Mormons drink Cokes) and gab with the men there. If it was an Irish bar, he could sing rebel songs with the best of them.He was at home in a small church in a Black neighborhood as he was at high Mass at St. Peter's. He cared about potholes and late Social Security checks.He tried to get healthcare passed for decades; in my first job, I attended one of his briefings. He tried so hard because he knew that real people don't have a spare 100K tucked away to pay for cancer treatments--not without a second mortgage on their home. He knew that some people--single Moms making minimum wage, for example--couldn't afford a doctor's visit for a sick child so they brought them to the ER where the law said they had to be treated. He knew that when you shut down a company and sell off the pieces, it may make a ton of money for your investors, but it destroys the lives of the people who worked there. He understood that actions have consequences. You don't.
Obama gets it too. Obama had a mother who had to get food stamps to feed her family. Yes, he attended a good school, but it was on scholarship. He paid for his education at college and law school on scholarships and student loans which he only paid off a few years ago. As a community organizer, he helped people in Chicago get the help they needed, from getting potholes fixed to getting AFDC. He understands what life is like for the Other 99%.
Call it the common touch--Kennedy had it. So does Obama.
And you don't.
Worse, you don't seem to want to understand the problems of the people you'll be reigning--er, representing as president. When someone complains about Citizens United and buying political clout, you tell him "Corporations are people, my friend" in the condescending tone of a professor correcting a particularly dense student. You say it would have been a good thing for the car companies to go bust, ignoring the fact that many, many people would have lost their jobs, and probably never gotten another one. You don't have a clue and you have no interest in getting one.
You'd make a great president for the 1%.
For the rest of us, you'd be a disaster, Mr. Clueless.
We've had some damned good presidents who came from privileged backgrounds. Teddy Roosevelt and FDR and Jack Kennedy, had money. But they had thing you seriously lack: an awareness of reality. They realized that when the 99% are suffering, the country suffers--and even in this day of diversification of assets and hedge funds and offshore accounts and global commerce, that suffering eventually affects the rich along with the poor. This recession, like the Great Depression (surely they told you about that in school?), is having a negative effect everywhere in the world, and its even beginning to hurt China. Just making money for your pals won't cut it this time. Grover Norquist and his ass-kissing sycophants are wrong about not raising taxes. Even Reagan knew that there are times when you have to raise taxes and spend money putting the rest of us back to work. And that means, yes, the bulk of the tax hikes should be borne by the people who have suffered the least: the 1%.
That Ryan budget you cleave to so fervently? It's a disaster for everyone but the rich. Ending Medicaid and Medicare? Ditto. You've never worried about taking a sick child to the ER, have you? Your wife never had to worry about not getting treatment for her breast cancer, did she? She just picked the best doctor and the best hospital. When you get old and end up in the hospital with pneumonia as my Dad (50K for 10 days), you won't have to worry about how to pay for it. You'll never worry that you can't pay for good insurance like a friend of mine: the two grand a month they pay for their insurance for a family of four is a third of his salary before taxes.
You're completely unqualified to be president of America. You don't have the vaguest understanding of the effects your philosophical decisions will have on ordinary people.
It's all theoretical for you, happening to faceless, nameless strangers who don't count because they're not of your faith or your ethnic group or your income level.
You could have learned a lot from the Kennedy brothers. Maybe it's because they were only one generation removed from Irish working class folks that they seemed to get what life was like for the rest of us. Because they were Irish and Catholic, it didn't matter that they had the mayor of Boston for their grandfather or that their father had been Ambassador to the Court of Saint James (he'd also made his money from bootlegging which was just Not Done)--they were Irish and Catholic and could never, ever be considered acceptable in the best society, even if Jack was president.
For all their money, the Kennedys didn't forget their roots. You talk about a family member selling paint from the back of his car, but you don't understand that this is how many of us live. It seems to you like a quaint story of a long-gone past--because by the time you were in school, your father was a politician and you attended the fancy private school where you bullied others unmercifully because you knew there'd be no consequences (something else you have in common with the Buchanans in the novel). You can't recognize a donut when you see one and you complained because the cookies at one meet-n-greet were storebought, not homemade, as if most of us have cooks.
Teddy beat the crap out of you when you ran for his Senate seat, and there are reasons for your loss, the same problems you have today. People knew him and liked him and understood that got their problems--and that when they called his office with problems, his staff would make sure the problems went away, if humanly possible. He could go into a working class bar and hoist a beer (yeah, we know you don't drink alcohol, but even Mormons drink Cokes) and gab with the men there. If it was an Irish bar, he could sing rebel songs with the best of them.He was at home in a small church in a Black neighborhood as he was at high Mass at St. Peter's. He cared about potholes and late Social Security checks.He tried to get healthcare passed for decades; in my first job, I attended one of his briefings. He tried so hard because he knew that real people don't have a spare 100K tucked away to pay for cancer treatments--not without a second mortgage on their home. He knew that some people--single Moms making minimum wage, for example--couldn't afford a doctor's visit for a sick child so they brought them to the ER where the law said they had to be treated. He knew that when you shut down a company and sell off the pieces, it may make a ton of money for your investors, but it destroys the lives of the people who worked there. He understood that actions have consequences. You don't.
Obama gets it too. Obama had a mother who had to get food stamps to feed her family. Yes, he attended a good school, but it was on scholarship. He paid for his education at college and law school on scholarships and student loans which he only paid off a few years ago. As a community organizer, he helped people in Chicago get the help they needed, from getting potholes fixed to getting AFDC. He understands what life is like for the Other 99%.
Call it the common touch--Kennedy had it. So does Obama.
And you don't.
Worse, you don't seem to want to understand the problems of the people you'll be reigning--er, representing as president. When someone complains about Citizens United and buying political clout, you tell him "Corporations are people, my friend" in the condescending tone of a professor correcting a particularly dense student. You say it would have been a good thing for the car companies to go bust, ignoring the fact that many, many people would have lost their jobs, and probably never gotten another one. You don't have a clue and you have no interest in getting one.
You'd make a great president for the 1%.
For the rest of us, you'd be a disaster, Mr. Clueless.
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