Mitt Romney wants you to know he is entitled to his half a billion, and if you think there is a problem with the current concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny, tiny minority of sociopaths, well to fucking Russia with you:
Let me tell you something. America is a great nation, because we’re a united nation. And those who are trying to divide the nation, as you’re trying to do here, and as our president is doing, are hurting this country seriously. The right course for America is not to try to divide America, and try and divid us between one and another. it’s to come together as a nation.
And if you’ve got a better model — if you think China’s better, or Russia’s better, or Cuba’s better, or North Korea’s better — I’m glad to hear all about it.
But you know what? America’s right, and you’re wrong.
No one is suggesting we turn this into the former communist Russia, as Mitt is implying. All people are suggesting is that we stop lowering taxes for the very few and ending the 30 year reign of terror waged on the middle class by Mitt and his cohort. What’s even funnier is that even though Mitt is raking in millions at a tax rate lower than you, me, and virtually everyone in the country, he fails to realize that America he wants and has been working for more closely resembles the current Russian oligarchy, with a fantabulous concentration of wealth in the hands of a few people and corporations. According to wikipedia, the ratio of wealth of the top 10% to the bottom 10% and the top 20% and bottom 20% in the US and Russia negligible- (15.9 and 8.4% respectively for the US, and 12.7 and 7.6% for Russia). We are the third most unequal industrialized nation after… wait for it… Mexico and Russia.
So Mitt, you trust fund asshole, there is no reason for the bottom 99% to go to Russia, because as far as income disparity goes, they’re already there. Instead of lashing out at people who are rightfully pissed, he and his campaign should spend more time honing their message for the general electorate- for example, explaining how sheltering massive wealth in the Grand Caymans is the patriotic thing to do. Or how you think receiving millions a year from Bain and investment dividends makes you “unemployed.”
Dickhead.
Calouste
Romney wants to turn this country into Russia. Either the current version or the Tsarist one. He certainly doesn’t want to turn it into what he actually meant, the Soviet Union.
Mark S.
That’s class warfare, Cole.
The Dangerman
Oooh ooooh…
/Horshack
Let the Bush taxcuts expire.
Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it, Mitthead…
Brachiator
What’s Mitt complaining about? From the stuff leaking out about his pile of money, I get the feeling that he would be right at home in Russia, land of oligarchs.
ETA: Has Mitt said how many jobs he has created with his money? Isn’t that what the American oligarchs keep promising?
Quicksand
+1, Like, thumbs up, whatever the kids are doing these days
ericblair
@Brachiator:
They might be a little too “hands-on” for his taste. Like getting shot at and bombed by your competitors. Good luck going to the cops: they’re probably the ones shooting at you, or getting paid to be extremely deaf. Or you could get locked up and sent to Siberia if you piss off the Oligarch Numero Uno. Seems like when you’re done squashing the proles you turn on your 1% buddies. Like you were a bunch of sociopaths or something. Whodathunkit.
gaz
Shrill “bottom 99%” is shrill.
– MSM
Maude
Mitt doesn’t make sense. This sounds like the 90’s version of family values.
General Stuck
I’d like to have a c note for every time my father told me I’d be happier in mother Russia. And this was mostly in the Soviet era, when I would make that point of correction. He’d say, you know what I mean. And I did. Ancient retort for country club republicans when you ask them why they are so fucking stingy. Usually, it doesn’t make much difference, if we weren’t drowning in the wake of 3 decades of greed and concentration of wealth with the Mitt Romneys of the world. There are more deft ways to handle such questions, but Mitt is like a metrosexual Heather putting all the little peoples in their place, and everyone but him and his are little peoples.
Bill
Mitt’s just cribbing from Animal House.
Otter: The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules or took a few liberties with our female party guests — we did. But you can’t hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few sick, perverted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg … isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do what you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!
Ruckus
Dickhead.
Indeed. And at the very least.
kay
I know the base will love it, but I don’t think Presidential candidates can go after ordinary people.
Obama couldn’t start haranguing Joe the Plumber. He had to act as if Joe the Plumber was asking a good faith question, although (of course) he wasn’t.
Mittens isn’t accustomed to being challenged.
Jesus Christ. Personal? Attack your opponents, Mitt. Don’t attack someone on a rope line, you dummy.
John PM
How does Mitt not get punched on a daily basis while campaigning?
Btw, after following the Republican candidates (real and pretenders) for months (feels like decades), I have to conclude that Mitt is indeed the AntiChrist, not because he is Norman, but because he now stands against everything that Jesus stood for.
cathyx
Now that is quite an argument. Well done. I’m clapping for that one. I hope he uses it in the debate tonight.
General Stuck
LOL, Sounds like Ed Schultz has gotten back on the MUP, after falling off for a good cry.
Hawes
Too bad your argument is based on facts and logic. I mean, by that standard, it’s devastating.
But when facts and logic determine anything in American politics, I will eat my dog.
shortstop
That’s the John Cole I love.
slag
I hear Mitt wants lower taxes and fewer regulations. Wouldn’t he be better off in Somalia?
Someone should tell him that America is right and he is wrong.
Cacti
I’m beginning to doubt Romney’s “inevitability”. He’s way too easily ruffled by anyone disagreeing with him.
Too many years in upper management.
pragmatism
Either Galt’s Gulch or the USSR. There are no other options apparently.
shortstop
He talks exactly like someone who never made it past the primaries and never had to communicate with people beyond the base. How did this guy ever get elected governor of MA?
James in NJ
Shouldn’t the quote be “But you know what? America and the Cayman Islands are right, and you’re wrong.”
You know, for accuracy’s sake.
IrishGirl
a perfect example of intellectual evisceration. I am not worthy, Mr. Cole.
boatboy_srq
Two thoughts.
1) Like Calouste said, Romney does indeed seem to be taking us to Russia: Russia circa 1905, that is.
2) So, with the current unemployment filing figures, we’re down to one vacancy per three applicants instead of the one to four ratio we got from Shrub. Exactly where does Romney expect all that surplus labor to go?
butler
Did anyone else feel that this was staged, or at least well rehearsed? Romney is a charisma-deprived robot who trips over his own tongue on a daily basis, and then suddenly he happens to produce this little speech “off the cuff” with a camera perfectly positioned to catch it?
Chris
May I assume that you and your party’s going to ditch Sarah Palin and everyone else who’s been doing some variation of the “real America vs unreal America” game? The one that says you love Americans, unless they’re from the Northeast or California, or from any urban environment, or people who immigrated at the wrong time or from the wrong country, or people who have a religion you don’t like, or people who’re in unions, or people who’re too poor to pay taxes, because all these people don’t fit your picture-perfect image of what “American” means?
If you don’t agree with Mitt Romney, you don’t agree with America, if you don’t agree with America, you must agree with China/Russia/Cuba/North Korea, and therefore you’re wrong because America (trademarked by Mitt Romney) is always right.
Fucking Christ, how old are these people?
Citizen_X
Well, speaking of dividing Americans, Romney is absolutely right. Remember when, in the middle of a recession, the Occupy Wall Street people said their number one priority was “making sure Obama was a one-term President”–and took it as far as trashing our country’s credit rating?
What? Oh.
I am informed that was not the OWS people. Well, whoever it was, I’m sure Romney would never have anything to do with them!
Ruckus
@Chris:
Fucking Christ, how old are these people?
Maturely, morally or in just how much fucking humanity they possess?
OK it’s a trick question, in all 3 cases the answer is 12. At best.
Chris
@pragmatism:
LOL @ Galt’s Gulch. Ever since I read about Ayn Rand’s concept of a canyon safehaven for all the Captains Of Industry in America, I’ve been picturing just what a disaster that would be – for them. Imagine that many sociopathic, narcissistic, “me me me” assholes all competing for the resources on the same couple square miles. That gulch would be a graveyard by nightfall.
Nerd moment, related to this: there’s a backstory to the Sith that I read in one of the Star Wars prequel books, that explains that they were people who thought the Force should be used for personal gain rather than service, broke away from the Jedi and tried to take over the galaxy. Only, with that many huge egos in the same Sith Order, they pretty much exterminated each other before they ever got to the “conquer the galaxy” stage, leaving the Jedi with nothing to do but mop up.
I know it’s fantasy, and I know it’s the prequels, but it’s still the best example I’ve ever read of “Objectivism As It Would Actually Turn Out If Anyone Was Dumb Enough To Try It.”
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’ve started writing several times and deleted each one because I can’t adequately express my disgust. All I can really say is that Mitt is a despicable, insufferable piece of shit.
IOW, he’s the perfect representative for the excesses and hypocrisy that is the Republican party of today; the same party that has been dividing our nation for decades, all for personal gain and feeding their benefactors so they can stay in power. I really hope he wins in SC, the Republicans deserve this piece of shit because he perfectly represents what the Republican party is all about.
The division, dismantling and destruction of America.
Rome Again
That’s right Mitt. Keep acting like a privileged asshole who can’t understand why people who make less than $1,000 a day should be allowed within earshot of you so you don’t have to pollute your ears with their inane arguments that state you are a Cayman-taxhaven invested freeloader. I hope you never stop!
I’m sure Mitt can shave off a few hundred thousand potential votes all by himself.
Chris
@Ruckus:
I remember being 12. I was a dick and kind of a moron, but I submit that even then I’d have been more qualified to run the country than Mittens. (And I don’t think I’m qualified now).
Chris
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Preach it Odie!
You forgot “looting.”
Rome Again
Not me, Odie. I want the race-baiting bloviator with the bloated Tiffany’s account and the homewrecker for a wife. :P I know the contrast between the 99% and Romney’s wallet looks really good, but I think the Gingrinch has all of that and more, wrapped up into one big stromboli of fail.
Benjamin Franklin
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Your words create a picture……
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JNlxgs6qm2M/SpsC1arfUDI/AAAAAAAACqk/VH_c43I-jiM/s1600-h/racemixingiscomunism.jpg
Kola Noscopy
Righteous rant, Cole. Now I will be equally impressed when and if the Obama campaign makes this same argument, this forcefully, to the American public during the campaign.
Sick to death of Dems pulling punches with vague allusions to unnamed adversaries.
kay
Butler, I thought it was a canned answer, so I agree with you.
But that makes it worse.
Romney has to engage with people. He can’t run for President without at least feigning interest in what they say.
“Let me tell you something”?
That’s a crazy thing for a candidate to say.
We’re not his employees.
I don’t think he gets the basic premise of this thing.
Linnaeus
@Chris:
I think Bioshock is an even better example.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Chris:
Oops, duly noted. :)
Please append “looting” to my last line. “Plundering” also works.
@Rome Again:
Noot would be a disaster but Romney is the FACE of what is wrong with our financial systems. IMO if the nooz shoves his insufferable mug in the face of every person they can between now and election day the Repubs will be slaughtered this fall.
Noot running would also lead to a severe beating this fall but IMO Romney running will lead to utter devastation on the right. Romney has so much wrong with him that makes him toxic in a wide variety of ways convinces me that he would be the best nominee to depress support and turnout on the right.
Go Romney! :p
@Benjamin Franklin:
Pure hate and cruelty in that picture, just the thing that warms the heart of a true conservative. Mitt should use that in his campaign literature, his support would skyrocket.
About 27%.
Mark S.
@Cacti:
He sure is. Any politician worth a shit would have immediately started bullshitting about how great their jobs program will be for everybody. Maybe start off with “I know times are tough and people are getting frustrated, and that’s why I’m running and here’s what I’m going to do.”
And this is always treated as a plus. As if getting your ass kissed and being told how great your stupid ideas are is some great prerequisite to being POTUS.
Ruckus
@Chris:
Hell I’ll argue that I’m way more qualified to be president than dog on car.(OK I just corrected a typo there. Had typed dong on car. Almost left it, after all he is a pretty large dick.) After all since shrub the bar is so low as to qualifications and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t possibly do as bad he “managed” to. But I do have an aversion to neckties…
Chris
@Linnaeus:
I never play videogames, so don’t know it, but I just skimmed through the Wikipedia article and –
Sounds really cool, actually. Because the concept of utopian ideas gone wrong when applied to real life is a pretty popular one, but the utopian ideas being deconstructed are usually statist, socialist, or otherwise authority-driven. By the sound of it, this one deconstructs capitalism/libertarianism, which kind of goes against the grain.
Delia
@Chris:
Actually, Louis XIV said it most succinctly: L’état, c’est moi. I suppose Mitt remembers enough French to translate that.
Chris
@Linnaeus:
In moderation for the S word. Reposting:
I never play videogames, so don’t know Bioshock, but I just skimmed through the Wikipedia article and –
Sounds really cool, actually. Because the concept of utopian ideas gone wrong when applied to real life is a pretty popular one, but the utopian ideas being deconstructed are usually statist, soshulist, or otherwise authority-driven. By the sound of it, this one deconstructs capitalism/libertarianism, which kind of goes against the grain.
Rome Again
@Mark S.:
I guess there’s too much trouble in River City.
Rome Again
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I think what you lose on the right in a Romney bid can possibly be made up for in the middle. Independents might look at him and think “he’s okay, a bit eccentric, but not dangerous”. I want someone that emboldens the right so much that it scares hell out of everyone else. I don’t expect Newt could win (can any of these bozos?) but, he’s very dangerous and I think we need that right now. Besides, while the right hates Romney, all of his crony friends think he would be great presidential material. This is not so for Newt. He knows a lot of people who are willing to say that he shouldn’t be trusted with power and will fight to prevent it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Rome Again:
I have to respectfully disagree with you. :) While Noot has baggage that will kill him, especially among women, I think Romney negatives have so many facets that are distributed among many ‘groups’ out there that they would make a jeweler drool.
Either would be ‘entertaining’ but more of the base on the right would approve of Noot, even if he loses, than they would Romney. If Romney wins the primary, no matter what happens in the general many among the base feel that would be the end of conservative representation in the Republican party. This will absolutely kill the Repubs in the Bible Belt, for very obvious reasons. Win or lose this fall, they WANT Noot because for all of his problems (maybe because of them), he is one of them. Romney isn’t and his nomination would kill Repubs in the south.
I’m all for that and if that’s what scares them then I hope they get their worst nightmare this fall.
James Gary
@Chris:
Sounds really cool, actually…this one deconstructs capitalism/libertarianism, which kind of goes against the grain.
The premise of the game is genius. The game itself is, unfortunately, sort of boring: mostly hand-to-hand combat with former “Andy Ryan” (near-anagram for You Know Who) followers who’ve turned themselves into juiced-up mutants in their quest for superiority.
Linnaeus
@Chris:
It is pretty cool. I’m not a big gamer myself, and Bioshock’s gameplay is, as James Gary notes in #50, pretty much a first-person shooter, which is not what I usually play when I do play. But the premise, the backstory, and the pretty detailed atmosphere make it better than most of its kind. The city has torn itself apart because of the profound flaws in the ideology upon which the city’s society was founded.
Ming
I so wish that O and the Dems would propose that we go to Reagan-era tax rates. Just exactly that, repeated ad nauseum. No one could call it class warfare, or socia*ism, or dividing the country, or too much like europe/USSR. Reagan, Reagan, Reagan. red white and blue Reagan, the god Republicans hold dear. Reagan-era tax rates.
My Truth Hurts
I don’t get how some of these assholes can say that Obama is dividing the country or waging “class warfare”. Those are some huge lies. I WISH he was doing that but he’s not. He’s the most milquetoast, back bending, compromising chief executive possible. Consensus, god bless him, is his primary goal and in saner times that would be a virtue and something I could get behind.
I am not happy with Obama but fuck me I have actual things I can point to as why. They ain’t got nothing but bullshit.
Chris
@James Gary:
@Linnaeus:
Shame they never got books or movies or TV shows out of it… much more up my alley. As it is, though, it remains a great premise.
@My Truth Hurts:
The reality thing may in fact be the biggest dividing line between right and left.
It’s easy to understand why workers were angry at capitalist societies, why black people were angry at segregation, etc… and it’s also easy (relatively speaking) to address: take care of the things they’re complaining about, make their lives better, and the threat of revolution/race war/whatever is defused.
It’s not so easy to understand why someone’s angry that the Jews control society, or the other similar fantasies that power right wing populism. And it’s damn near impossible to address or defuse them. How do you address a concern that’s not real, except by telling them that it’s not real, for which they’ll simply blame you for being part of the conspiracy and become even more paranoid?
WereBear (itouch)
Although it’s three in the morning and you might never see this unless you are also sick and restless, I have to congratulate you for so succintly expressing the core impossibility for pleasing, appeasing, or otherwise defusing a wingnut.
They have to be neutralized. Because they will never smarten up, or shut up.
Jebediah
@WereBear (itouch):
Well, Chris may be asleep, but I have an OT question for you. In some days-ago thread you had mentioned coconut oil for older dogs’ brains. Is there any particular dosage? Thanks –
ETA: Regarding this:
They have to be neutralized. Because they will never smarten up, or shut up.
Yes, absolutely! (And now I’m sorta back on topic…)
nevsky42
Russia has a flat tax AFAIK (at least they instituted one during the “shock therapy” of the 90s). Romney should be championing the country as a model to follow, by his idiot logic…
Lojasmo
@Jebediah:
We give our cats half a teaspoon each (roughly). I would think a teaspoon for a little dog, and a tablespoon for a big dog. A little more or less won’t hurt. Coconut oil is not an exact science. ;)
MarkJ
I loved how he followed this up with the whole “I won’t appologize for being successful.” That campaign commercial writes itself: it’s easy to win a 100 yard dash if you get to start 90 yards ahead of everyone else.
someofparts
Why look overseas? Why not just turn us back into what our own economy was in 1960? Or even better, 1960 with smart upgrades. Pretend that we kept the jobs, kept school affordable, kept the banks regulated and then added the internet and affordable single payer health care. Even better, pretend that a few million Vietnamese are still alive and we built trade relations over there instead of an epic graveyard.
Dema
Isn’t it funny how conservatives always mention Russia, China or Cuba as if they were the only alternatives to predatory capitalism? How come they never mention successful socialist/mixed economies, such as Denmark, Sweden, and even now, Germany?
Chris
@WereBear (itouch):
Thanks. And yeah, unfortunately and very uncomfortably, I’m forced to agree. History, e.g. the Civil War in America and World War Two in Europe, suggests there’s no solution to that kind of insanity other than beating it to death with the bluntest weapons available. It’s not a happy thought.
Redleg
Romney is the king of sophistry and straw-men.
Nancy Irving
Next time R-Money starts in on “Russia, Cuba” etc., PLEASE let someone in the crowd shout, “CAYMAN ISLANDS!”
It would be like Kerry and the flipflops.