The former governor of Massachusetts had quite a few strikes against him coming into the republican nomination. He's still not loved by his party, more like barely tolerated. Odd choice for a national contender for the presidency, flip-flopper, Yankee, Mormon, "moderate" and that is just the objections made by the rank and file authoritarians. The more information that leaks out about Mitt's financial and class identity, the more independents flee in terror. Romney, presidential candidate, is a member of the 1%.
In earlier days when Thorstein Veblen's ideas were still in the public consciousness, we would understand that Romney is part of and an ideal representative of the leisure class. In every society beyond the hunter/gatherer stage there is an elite segment that produces nothing, that provides nothing, and exists only as part of a self-designated indispensible class that feeds on productive sectors of the society. Priests and warlords constituted this class in ancient societies, nobles were the parasites in the Middle Ages, and speculators make up much of the predatory class in modern times. Mitt Romney made his pile not by building things of value for the most part as head of bain capital, but by cannibalizing productive enterprises built by others. The leisure class served a function in past times, priests were a catalyst holding a nation together, nobles protected the workers from hostile neighbors. What do the vulture capitalists do in the modern US? Is there any function to manipulating currencies, taking over companies, betting on commodity prices, or peddling insider information?
No, the predatory leisure class exists because certain parasites are able to take control of economic levers through ruthless ambition, deceit, and nepotism. They then siphon off as much wealth as they can get away with and compete with each other over who has the most. Power is seductive, if left unchecked these parasites will simply kill their host. Without countervailing forces any elite will degenerate into a leisure class, even in (or perhaps especially in) communist countries like the Soviet Union.
In a way, Americans are lucky that the authoritarians put up this joke of a man romney to run for president. He simply oozes the "I'm not one of you" vibe and even if the felony he committed by lying about bain capital, his engine of destruction, does not result in a perp walk, the defensiveness and equivocation about it that his campaign has demonstrated this week should seal his fate.
It is amazing as well that the president's team has latched onto this line of attack. If they keep it up and the "outsourcing" offensive finds traction (as it should), I will be happy to eat my words about liberal politeness and spineless Democrats. Watching the republicans squirm over stuff they used to brag about makes me think there might be hope for the republic yet. Of course they feel no real shame about all the crimes against Americans committed by the conservatives, but are simply not used to being on the defensive about anything. And the shredding of America's middle class rightly makes the electorate at large angry. Finally, we are getting some bit of truth as to who was really behind the plunder (hint, it wasn't all government's fault).
Then there is romney's debacle while speaking to the NAACP. But wait, didn't romney shore up his base by "standing up to 'them'" and chastising African-Americans for wanting more "free stuff?" Well, yes and no, obviously there are a great number of racists in the gop that needed a little pep talk but the suburban republicans do not want to side with an openly racist party. More than a few of them will find their nominee's speech unsettling enough to stay home, or even switch sides. To say nothing of African-American voters. After lying about when he left bain, and possibly exposing himself to felony charges, even the suggestion that he flew in black supporters is not going to shore up his public integrity.
All in all, it was a bad week for mitt. It should be exciting for those of us who want to keep this man far from the White House and if the president's team can keep it up that might come to pass. But the ruthless, shameless authoritarians are not going to just roll over. The election is still almost four months away, expect awful things to come.
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