Kay hit on one of the reasons that Romney’s remarks are so damning: that they took place at the home of a playboy vulture capitalist who has helped destroy the American middle-class. Jon Chait hits on another, that unlike Obama’s infamous “bitterly clinging” remarks, Romney’s were born of contempt, not empathy:
Obama was aspiring to become president of all of America, even that part most hostile to him, in the belief that what they shared mattered more than what divided them. Romney genuinely seems to conceive of the lowest-earning half of the population as implacably hostile parasites.
The revelations in this video come to me as a genuine shock. I have never hated Romney. I presumed his ideological makeover since he set out to run for president was largely phony, even if he was now committed to carry through with it, and to whatever extent he’d come to believe his own lines, he was oblivious or naïve about the damage he would inflict upon the poor, sick, and vulnerable. It seems unavoidable now to conclude that Romney’s embrace of Paul Ryanism is born of actual contempt for the looters and moochers, a class war on behalf of his own class.
Romney protests that his comments were “off the cuff”, but that 47% figure didn’t come off the top of his head. The “lucky ducky” mythology runs deep among the Galtian overlords.
Don’t put your heart on your sleeve when your remarks are off the cuffPost + Comments (93)