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<div class="ad"> </div></div><div id="campaignstops"><div align="left"><span class="timestamp published" title="2012-09-19T20:14:19+00:00">September 19, 2012, <span>8:14 pm</span></span><h3 class="entry-title">I Know Why The Caged Bird Shrieks</h3>
<address class="byline author vcard">By <a href="http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/author/charles-m-blow/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by CHARLES M. BLOW">CHARLES M. BLOW</a></address><div class="entry-content">
<p>"When people show you who they are believe them; the first time."</p><p>That comes from the inimitable Maya Angelou (via the equally inimitable Oprah). And I agree.</p><p>So I'm inclined to take Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/full-transcript-mitt-romney-secret-video#mouse">at his word</a> when he disparages nearly half the country to a roomful of wealthy donors on <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/watch-full-secret-video-private-romney-fundraiser">a secretly recorded tape</a>.</p>
<p>As I'm sure you know by now, Romney said that the 47 percent of Americans who pay no income taxes are people who are</p><blockquote><p>dependent
upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the
government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they
are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.</p></blockquote><p>He also said:</p><blockquote><p>My
job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that
they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.</p></blockquote><p>There
is no amount of backtracking and truth bending that can make this
right. It's just wrong. It's not just the patently false implication
that half the country is parasitic. It's not just the bleak view that
they wallow in victimization. It is also his utter dismissal of this
group: "my job is not to worry about those people."</p><p>Those people?
Those miserable peasants scrounging around the castle entrance? Those
lay-abouts with mouths open for a spoonful of rich folks' bounty? Those
fate-forsaken unwashed with dirty hands outstretched for help unearned?
Those ingrates who bring in a pittance but reap a premium?</p><p>Only a man who has never looked up from the pit of poverty could look down his nose with such scorn.</p><p>At the event Romney also said:</p><blockquote><p>
By
the way, both my dad and Ann's dad did quite well in their life, but
when they came to the end of their lives, and, and passed along
inheritances to Ann and to me, we both decided to give it all away. So, I
had inherited nothing. Everything that Ann and I have we earned the
old-fashioned way, and that's by hard work.</p></blockquote><p>Can this
man truly be so blind as to believe that being the son of an auto
executive and governor played no role in his development and access to
opportunity? Can he truly believe that having a family with the means to
send him to a prestigious boarding school and then on to some of the
best colleges in the country had nothing to do with them and everything
to do with him? Can he truly be willfully ignorant enough to not
acknowledge the huddled masses at the bottom of the hill just because he
started his climb half way up?</p><p>Now the Romney campaign is in full
damage control mode, feverishly trying to convince Americans that they
didn't hear what they heard, that there was some confusion. Romney first
said that his comments were "not elegantly stated," then he tried to
pivot to an argument against <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/index.html#/v/1847787266001/romney-redistribution-does-not-get-people-back-to-work/?playlist_id=86929">the redistribution of wealth</a>,
saying he believed in an America where "government steps in to help
those in need." He continued, "we're a compassionate people."</p><p>Those
in need? Would those be the ones "who believe that they are victims,"
the ones who it's not your job to "worry about," the ones who you'll
never be able to persuade to "take personal responsibility and care for
their lives"?</p><p>Romney's feeble explanations reek of insincerity and desperation.</p><p>And I think I know why: he's terrified.</p><p>Romney
is trapped by a desperate desire for legitimacy. He is a square - in
more ways than one - trying to squeeze himself into the conservative
circle of trust.</p><p>In so doing, he says all the right things the
wrong way. His facts are off. His timing is off. His pitch is off. He's
just off. Try as he may, he just doesn't fit in. But he's now so lost in
his thirst for high office that he has also lost himself. Co-opted
convictions will always betray you.</p><p>Romney, whose economic plan is
titled "Believe in America," demonstrated with brutal efficiency that
he doesn't in fact believe in America.</p><p>I <a href="http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/focus-people/">once wrote</a> the following:</p><blockquote><p>I
have no personal gripe with Romney. I don't believe him to be an evil
man. Quite the opposite: he appears to be a loving husband and father.
Besides, evil requires conviction, which Romney lacks. But he is a
dangerous man. Unprincipled ambition always is. Infinite malleability is
its own vice because it's infinitely corruptible by others of ignoble
intentions.</p></blockquote><p>But Romney's taped comments open the door to doubt. I'm no longer confident in the basic goodness of his constitution.</p><p>One
doesn't have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence
of empathy and understanding are sufficient. In fact, a man convinced
of his virtue even in the midst of his vice is the worst kind of man.</p><p>Mitt Romney keeps showing America who he is. When will we start to believe him?<br clear="all"></p></div></div></div><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br>
<a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br><br>