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Romney's "47 Percent" Video Gives Americans A Real Choice

Christian Patterson |
September 19, 2012 | 9:38 p.m. PDT

Contributor

In the video, Romney demonstrated his contempt for the poor. (Steve Rhodes, Creative Commons)
In the video, Romney demonstrated his contempt for the poor. (Steve Rhodes, Creative Commons)
When Paul Ryan was announced as Mitt Romney’s running mate, political pundits across the country claimed that the contrast between the Democratic and Republican tickets had finally been made clear.

Congressman Ryan was supposed to define the Romney campaign as a straight talking, budget cutting, deficit-tackling machine. A machine that would juxtapose itself with an Obama-Biden ticket that wanted to maintain the role government currently plays in our society.

Everyone was excited by this notion. Democrats saw blood in the water because they would get to tie Romney to Ryan’s draconian cuts in aid to the poor. Republicans were happy because they gained a young, charismatic voice to talk about the looming entitlement crisis. Even the media was happy, because they could finally stop covering stories about petty squabbling and ad hom attacks between the campaigns.

A funny thing happened, though. The differences between the two tickets, which Ryan’s selection brought to the forefront, seemed to vanish as suddenly as they appeared. First, Romney sought to distance himself from some of the more drastic spending cuts proposed in Ryan’s controversial budget plan. Then, Romney and Ryan seemed to morph into Democrats (at least in rhetoric), replacing their language of “cutting” and reforming” Medicare with the sanitized and focus-group tested “preserve” and protect”. Romney even stopped bashing the President’s healthcare plan and started talking about how proud he was of similar reforms he carried out in Massachusetts. Suddenly, the campaigns that were destined to give America a real choice in policy direction didn’t seem so different after all.

That was before “the video” was released. If you’re wondering what video I’m referring to, then I suggest you pick up a newspaper, TV remote, laptop, cell phone, or any other modern amenity that you’ve somehow managed to avoid in the past 48 hours. For those of who aren’t yet privy to Mitt Romney’s latest gaffe, “the video” is a recorded clip of Romney speaking at a fundraiser for high-profile donors. Taken in May, it shows Romney telling wealthy backers that half the country is made up of lazy government dependent slackers who would rather mooch off of the rich than take personal responsibility for their lives. Romney claims that his message of “lower taxes” and “free enterprise” doesn’t resonate with this “47 percent,” because they pay no taxes and feel like the wealthy owe them a handout.

While the members of the Romney campaign are obviously kicking themselves for letting this video circulate, the majority of Americans should be happy that they did. We finally have a definitive method of differentiating the two candidates. We no longer have to try to decipher the Orwellian double-speak surrounding the Romney-Ryan budget plan. We can stop wading through Romney’s record as a governor for some indication of where he stands on issues. We’ve been liberated from the sleepless nights tossing and turning over whether a Romney presidency will give us the moderate North Eastern politician who fought for universal healthcare, or the “severe conservative” who battled with Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum and Newt Gringrich to appeal to the most far-right fringes of his party.

“The video” shows Americans what Mitt Romney really believes, and in doing so gives us a real choice. We’ve always known that Romney opposed most entitlement programs and wanted to eliminate much of the social safety net. What we had not seen, before Sunday, was his deep-seated contempt for the poor.

This contrasts sharply with the legacy that President Obama has carved out for himelf over the past four years. He’s cast himself as a populist, and he’s backed up that talk. The stimulus bill was geared toward getting Americans back to work through shovel-ready projects, while shoring up programs like the Supplementary Nutritional Assistance program (food Stamps) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (welfare). The Affordable Care Act sought to make health insurance affordable for millions of uninsured citizens of our nation. Even financial reform was populist, in that it attempted to permanently relieve the public of the burden of paying to bail out large banks.

Obama’s policies reflect a worldview that seeks to temper the worst excesses of the market, and extend a helping hand to the disadvantaged - a policy that is based on the idea that millions of struggling Americans are hard working and dedicated, and sometimes just need someone to give them a break. Romney, on the other hand, has shown us that he believes the exact opposite to be true.

We’re in the midst of difficult economic times. Millions are out of work. Incomes are not rising, and families that have never needed government support are depending on it to put food on the table. Come November, we’re going to have to make a choice about who will lead us through this difficult environment. Mitt Romney might have just made that decision a whole lot easier.

 

Reach Contributor Christian Patterson here; follow him here.



 

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