So my friend John C.Wright does not understand why "the video" created so much scandal

[fpb]

Let's see if we can help him a bit. We have a very rich man (although Romney's wealth can be exaggerated; he is not as rich, for instance, as Berlusconi, or as the average Russian or Arab crook, or indeed as his host during the fund-raiser where "the video" was shot). We have him sitting along with very many other very rich men, who have paid a small fortune to be there - none of us plebs welcome. We have him telling these people that he "does not care" - his words - for anyone who, for whatever reason, cannot afford to pay Federal income tax - such people are all spongers (all, the sick, the underpaid, the disabled, the old, the members of the military... all spongers) who depend on the State and therefore will vote with their wallet. Such people, of course, have no values to appeal to, no ambition, and no life except for the money (such enormous amounts, to be sure!) they get from the State; they make no contribution, pay no other tax, do no service - they are, one and all, thieves and scroungers. But still, even though he does not care for them, he wants to be President over them, and for this purpose he wants his fellow very rich people to give him lots of lovely lovely lolly to spend on purchasing the presidency. (His, evidently, was enough to purchase the Republican nomination against better men, but he still needs more.)

At which point I, as a person who would not be paying Federal income tax in the United States of America, beg to inform Mr.Romney that he has blown every last chance not only of my ever voting for him for so much as dog catcher, but even of not crossing the street if I see the bastard coming.

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

There are other reasons for me to detest Mitt Happens, of course; first and foremost that, thanks to a monstrous campaign of personal destruction and to the lies of party trash such as Ann Coulter, he has got by deception the votes of many opponents of abortion even though he is an abortion supporter. He is ambitious, dishonest and shallow, with no visible idea or value to follow. But "the video" was degradation. If you think there is any great ethical difference between this man and Obama, you are fooling yourselves.

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

one of the best responses I've seen as to why his statements were so odious.
This election for me is just depressing. I've got a friend who has pretty much given up and won't vote. She explained it to me by saying "It's like being starving and going to the fridge and finding I have spoiled chicken and spoiled pork. Either one I choose is going to make me sick."

Me I'm just gonna vote third party in the hopes of keeping our struggling third parties on the table -_-

[fpb.livejournal.com]

My candidate was Santorum, whom of course you would not have voted for for a number of reasons. But I think we will agree that he was a more honest and principled man than Mitt Happens, and that he would not have treated poorer Americans as scroungers. Here, however, is a reaction from a Republican lawmaker you're going to love (even though you'd disagree with her on most things): http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2012/09/the-real-welfare-queens-the-overbearing-election-buying-congress-owning-almighty-money-men/

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

After my recent post about my struggle to even get to a starting point on understand the issues of the current election, another friend posts a link to an old article from The Atlantic about the deliberate obfuscation of politics by the American media. It certainly explained a lot to me.

Unfortunately, I never really got a handle on understanding Rick Santorum. At the time, I had a rabid Santorum-hater as a Facebook friend (someone who has since un-friended for completely unrelated reasons) and I got a daily does of bile and slurs (such as the Dan Savage "definition"). I also had a vocal Santorum supporter friended on FB, but I was consistently disappointed in trying to get real answers from him - he seemed more interested in campaign slogans.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Santorum was in the crossfire because of being Catholic pretty much across the board, and not just, like Paul Ryan, with a bizarre compromise between Ayn Rand and the Church. This means that he was utterly hated by the gay lobby and all their supporters (and what the silly gays don't understand is that they are being used as a tool by a much larger coalition that would just as soon hand them to the mullahs if they saw an advantage in that) and equally loathed by the so-called "fiscal conservatives" as a "statist". In point of fact he was what once would have been a pretty straight Christian Democrat in Europe, conservative on moral values, suspicious of big business, eager to help the disadvantaged, and a touch patronizing. The fact that he was so consistent, and across such a large range of enmities, and still came within an inch of the nomination shows that he fought a better campaign than people gave him credit for.

[almario javier (from livejournal.com)]

Sir, you do know that Hamilton is a Democrat. A conservative Democrat, but a Democrat.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was stupid and I owe her my apologies. However,my admiration for her is pretty nearly boundless, and when I told her she should run for President, I meant it.

[affablestranger.livejournal.com]

The Mitt Romney, well, everything and the current crop of things calling themselves 'conservatives' these days really turn my stomach. I consider myself a conservative, especially when I compare my views to the views of so many others I know and many others I read/listen to, and the utter lack of compassion, understanding, and even humanity of so many these days often does floor me. Fear does such things to people, to otherwise decent people, and fear is what I believe has been generally driving things for some years now. And I don't quite understand why beyond thinking it's being peddled in vast quantities by people who desire the power it brings them, which is itself the most nauseating and angering of all.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

The word "conservative" carries very little true substance anymore. Two days ago, I realized an acquaintance and I who both self-identify as "conservative" have opposite views on just about everything. However, we each have a handful of views which place us in the conservative camp these days - just not the same ones!

[deiseach.livejournal.com]

I am astounded that any political candidate should make such a statement, if he did indeed say what he is supposed to have said in the manner he is supposed to have said it (I haven't watched the video).

Even if 47% of the American populace are on some form of government dole or payment (and where does that figure come from?), it surely must include: pensioners, who have paid in during their working lives contributions from social security and taxes, and people now unemployed due to no fault of their own but the rotten state of the global economy.

If Mr. Romney had used this as a springboard to attack President Obama's economic policies or handling of the current crisis, then it would have worked: you could make a very stirring speech about the hard-working citizens who now find themselves jobless, with no opportunity to find work despite their best efforts because companies are not hiring because they have no confidence in the market as it stands, and how this administration has made a hash of things.

But saying that under half the population (your potential voters, remember!) are leeches and parasites - do you want to lose by a landslide?

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

The 47% is a number taken out of context. It's true that about 46.4% of Americans pay no income tax. However, about 67% of that 46.4% do pay other forms of taxes: payroll taxes, property tax, state and/or municipal taxes ... so in reality, there's only 16% don't pay regular taxes and even they are probably paying sales tax and gas tax (and probably "sin" taxes in form of the extra taxes on cigarettes), unless, of course, they are living completely "off the grid", growing their own vegetables, hunting their own game and ducking the local "revenuers." Those kinds of people, of course, are not sponging off the government and probably hate Obama as much as they hate Romney and any other politician. As for the ordinary citizens among the 16%, yes, a fair number of them probably are pensioners. Looking at the Social Security Administrations numbers, it looks the number of people over the age of 65 who receive Old Age insurance from the SSA is about 11% of the American population. This number does not include early retirees, young survivors, or folks who receive disability assistance from Social Security. I personally know know a few young retirees who receive SSA checks AND pay income tax.

Therefore, to assume that people who pay no income tax are "on the dole" is ridiculous. After all, I've been one of them. The very first time I filed my taxes (when I was 17) I paid exactly ONE dollar in income tax. However, for the bulk of my adult life I did not pay income tax. A combination of deductions, exemptions, programs meant to help students and the self-employed, etc. (plus a few years working, but living right at the poverty line) meant most years I didn't have to. But I did pay those other taxes and wasn't on welfare.

[deiseach.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the clarification, but it's probably instructive that that was the error I made - and I imagine most people will make the same error, i.e. almost half the population are welfare spongers (as similar election campaigning in Britain and Ireland liked to call them).

And of course, amongst those not paying income tax are wealthy individuals and corporations taking advantage of the perfectly legal provisions for tax avoidance (apparently a different thing to tax evasion, which is illegal, the distinction having been brought to public notice by a recent case involving an English comedian who was outed as a tax avoider due to one of these schemes).

My father was in receipt both of a contributory (that is, he had paid social insurance contributions from his income during his working life) national pension and an occupational pension from his job. Social insurance payments were not, at the time, taxable, but they do count as income for reckoning tax. So he paid income tax out of his job pension for both his job pension and state pension. It's absurd to intimate that all people in receipt of state payments don't pay income tax, and that's why I can't understand how a politician made such an error that lets his opponent off the hook for any blame (doesn't have to be real blame, in campaigns it's all about what you can make stick) plus insulted so many voters.

[deiseach.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Just saw this bit by Damian Thompson of "The Daily Telegraph" on the topic of the speech:

"A do-it-yourself hatchet job

How often do Hollywood films or American TV series portray Republicans sympathetically? Sure, the studios aren’t keen on paying tax and they’d go nuts if a male star jeopardised profits by “coming out”. But their private greed doesn’t stand in the way of their glorification of Democrats – eg, Martin Sheen’s nauseating President Bartlet in The West Wing – or the demonisation of the Right.

Just this week I flipped channels and stumbled across a classic hatchet job: a film depicting an implausibly handsome politician in his 60s, going grey at the temples in the way that screen villains do, sneering to millionaires that half the electorate were lazy wasters. That may be the way Tinseltown thinks of Republicans, but can you seriously imagine the GOP picking such a man as its candidate?"

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Extra special: Republicans like Reagan, Bush I, and Gingrich helped expand many of the deductions. So it's "we'll cut your taxes, then blame you for not paying taxes."

People not paying net income tax includes a lot of students. Also, children, depending on just how sloppy the source of the alleged 47% was. (Citizens? Adults? Tax-filers?)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, we know that. But what is offensive and stupid is the notion that people vote with their wallets.

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that Mitt's father was once on benefits.

Also, I've seen a cartoon doing the rounds where God gets the presidency and then insists on things like "feed the hungry" and "heal the sick"... Such ridiculous notions.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Drive the merchants from the temple. But remember that God has a nasty habit of imposing standards YOU might not agree with.

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

(Full Disclosure - I'm voting Jill Stein this year, and I gave her campaign money in the past.)
One good thing from this tape - vote buyers and sellers were getting sloppy. At least now they'll pretend to be embarrased about it (for a while) and "phrase things more elegantly" - maybe with a British accent?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

The candidates this year are so inadequate that if there was any sense there ought to be a surge of third-party voting. (Staying at home is not enough, it only encourages them.)