FOCUS | Fear the Poor

FOCUS | Scalia Resigns Post As Scoutmaster

PBS and the Koch Brother Scandal

Reagan's Chickens Home to Roost?

FOCUS | The Mad Science of the National Debt

FOCUS | The Biggest Criminal Enterprise in History

Chait writes: "Romney has taken no steps at all to put a middle-class sheen on his background, and he's allowed Democrats to define him by his wealth and heartlessness."

Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, 07/17/12. (photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Comments

We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.

General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.

Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.

- The RSN Team

+45 # NanFan 2012-08-08 11:58

Insanity! Do people actually believe that Robme cares one hoot about welfare-to-work or welfare period? Not!

He's selling bliss...blissfu l ignorance that people can hold onto as he builds his oppression and takes America to its grave, lemmings falling off a cliff they don't even see.

I'm sick...again.

N.

+22 # portiz 2012-08-08 18:55

I'd like to introduce a new word into the English language:
"Romnificate" (ROM-nif-i-cate]
To say with absolute certainty whatever one thinks the listener wants to hear, regardless of whether the speaker actually believes it to be true.
[See also "Romney", "Pontificate", and "sell one's soul"]

+8 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-09 05:01

could also be republicate as one is the same as.

+6 # NanFan 2012-08-09 11:23

Quoting portiz:

I'd like to introduce a new word into the English language:
"Romnificate" (ROM-nif-i-cate]
To say with absolute certainty whatever one thinks the listener wants to hear, regardless of whether the speaker actually believes it to be true.
[See also "Romney", "Pontificate", and "sell one's soul"]

Or how about Romnifornicate (sorry...that's what it feels like every time he opens his yap and makes a vapid promise he reneges on the next day.

Romnifornicate (Romn-i-fornica te): To screw every American possible while wearing a $10,000 suit, a phoney smile for deflection/prot ection, all the while singing "Gawd...SAVE... the King" and "let [the poor] eat cake." (See also "Romney," "Republican," and "screw anyone to win...and never, ever show anyone tax returns [sorry, Dad!].")

N.

+32 # davidr 2012-08-08 12:01

Romney's message (don't let the poor game the system) still has to be delivered by Romney the messenger (the rich are entitled to game the system). That's a tough parlay.

Romney has to run on the Ryan budget and campaign with the presumptive VP Rob Portman, who budgeted Bush's staggering deficits. He has to disclose more details of his own budget plan, explain why the middle class should pay more taxes so that he and Portman can pay less, continue hiding his tax returns, avoid stumbling in three debates, submit to interviews with a national press corps naturally drawn to revelations of hypocrisy and to scandalous tales of the uber-rich, all the while avoiding gaffes and androidism.

Can he do all that? Don't bet on it. Tough parlay.

+7 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-09 05:04

He has to give the documents and taxes over to the National Committees than he can purvey his tale of saving the USA like he did with Bain or the Olympic Uniforms. I think that is the Scams we as people have to see answered Perhaps than the Sheeple will start thinking

+7 # WestWinds 2012-08-09 06:11

I don't think he can pull it off. Mitt Robme doesn't seem to be very smart. Oh, yes, he's good at cannibalizing companies and letting his money buy his way around things, but this doesn't translate to real muscle in an 8 round fight. Between the magic pants, the dog on the roof, the drugged horse to be palmed off on some unsuspecting mark, the hidden income tax filings, the billions in off-shore accounts and no record of job growth that saved the country, I'd say Robme is in deep voodoo.

+33 # Barbara K 2012-08-08 13:47

This bubblehead thinks he can run on lies and deceit. Well, he can run on them, but he isn't going to win on them. The smart voters will be out this time. We're going to take him down and all the Rs we can in the Congress too, and in the states that need cleaning up (like my state of Michigan). Romneyhood doesn't give a crap about us, he's only interested in making the rich richer and the poor poorer. He has been in an Ivory Tower all his life and has no idea of our everyday struggles or what we go thru. Not that he gives a crap anyway. He has nothing but contempt for people who can't pay $50,000 a plate for his campaign funding. Even had to go begging to foreign countries for money, what an embarrassment! To him it was never about us and it will never be about us.

+10 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-09 05:06

These sleazes win on them all the time now we have two party of rethugs.

I have contempt for people who pay more than a hundred a plate anywhere for any reason other than feeding America, Saving lives.

+8 # TrueAmericanPatriot 2012-08-09 06:11

Quoting Barbara K:

This bubblehead thinks he can run on lies and deceit. Well, he can run on them, but he isn't going to win on them. The smart voters will be out this time. We're going to take him down and all the Rs we can in the Congress too, and in the states that need cleaning up (like my state of Michigan). Romneyhood doesn't give a crap about us, he's only interested in making the rich richer and the poor poorer. He has been in an Ivory Tower all his life and has no idea of our everyday struggles or what we go thru. Not that he gives a crap anyway. He has nothing but contempt for people who can't pay $50,000 a plate for his campaign funding. Even had to go begging to foreign countries for money, what an embarrassment! To him it was never about us and it will never be about us.

As always, Barbara K., you nailed it! The only thing I'll add is "VOTERS BEWARE;DO NOT STAY HOME!! Darth Cheney stated in a televised interview his views on Romney: "THAT'S THE KINDA MAN I WANT IN THE WHITE HOUSE." Get the vote out in RECORD NUMBERS!!! Lets fire the RED ELEPHANTS, BLUE DOGS, TEABAGGERS, & TEATHUGLICANS!! And remember, NEVER VOTE REPUBLICAN!!! HASTA LA VISTA, MITTENS!!!

+30 # fredboy 2012-08-08 13:51

"Romney has taken no steps at all to put a middle-class sheen on his background, and he's allowed Democrats to define him by his wealth and heartlessness. He seems to have fallen into the trap of believing that the sentiments about wealth that prevail among movement conservatives reflect the beliefs of Americans as a whole..."
He does not see this as a trap. He knows most of the jug-headed GOP voters worship wealth. And that GOP voters at every income level will vote for him no matter how he is depicted.
I hope some of you will recognize what I learned in Tennessee: the GOP, now married to fanatical, glazed-eyed religion, has become a cult. There is no thinking, only allegiance. They see the party as God.

+7 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-09 05:08

Proving that people have no concept of Faith at all. There is no God in Politics, entity unto itself is the Creator needing no lies, killers.

Any church who teaches Politics is not a Church at all.

+5 # WestWinds 2012-08-09 06:24

Exactly! When churches get involved with politics they stop teaching the Ten Commandments, heck, they stop living the Ten Commandments. The job of the churches is aid to the sick and the disadvantaged poor, to teach the high road in all things and to aspire to your higher self. These days, the churches get an F- for all of THEIR personal responsibility which they have not assumed. They aren't serving God; they're SELLING God!

+3 # WestWinds 2012-08-09 06:19

Romnoids would rather have the worst austerity going but their man in office than to make the effort to step outside the bobble-headed pundits and make a real change for the better. Why do they think so many billions of private wealth dollars are spent on those bobble-headed pundits in the first place? Why can't they see a snow-job when they can't even afford to turn on the lights or the furnace at home?

+25 # humanmancalvin 2012-08-08 13:54

Romney spreads more manure than any government subsidized wealthy farm corporation. President Obama & his team have been landing body shots & it is so nice to see the Democrats with their gloves off. No doubt this BS line of attack will sustain itself. The Dems will open up a new can of worms or simply continue to hit Romney about his hidden taxes. The tax issue alone should be enough to insure that the true on the fence sitters will not vote for him in November.
Keep on punchin' Blue Team, America cannot afford a Bush on steroids.

+26 # reiverpacific 2012-08-08 14:41

The title of this piece might be more aptly "Fear becoming one of the "New Poor"!
I'm gettin' there -how 'bout you folks?
Slavery looms.

+5 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-09 05:10

Slavery is alive and well in America and overseas Corporations owned or leased by

I hope Europeans see it before it is too late. We all need to fight back....perhaps that is what the people should have been doing in these other Countries, banding with the People to over throw Governments that betray.

+3 # WestWinds 2012-08-09 06:27

I think the other countries are in their swinging. It's just that our Reich-wing media makes sure we don't hear about anything else going on in the world so they can control what we think. This has to end, also. We need to get rid of all of these clowns and get in people who will open up horizons for working people, not try to herd us into a stockyard pen and abuse us like cattle and chattel.

+20 # maddave 2012-08-08 14:59

Years ago when the U S Navy actually had blimps and pilots to fly them, the heaver-than-air pilots referred to the blimp pilots as "Lighter 'n air and thicker 'n shit."

I believe that Romney is a blimp pilot.

+28 # wfalco 2012-08-08 15:17

What is most troubling is that the ultra-rich such as Romney typically have no interest in welfare programs such as SNAP, TANF, and SSI.
The lack of interest may not be from lack of empathy but because there lives are so far removed from such issues.
Just imagine a group of wealthy multi-millionai re(or billionaire)blu e bloods waxing philosophic over matters of welfare enhancement or social injustice. It doesn't happen because the realities of poverty in America are completely invisible to these "Masters of the Universe." These men will certainly vigorously support their Republican politician "bag men."
That is their universe and ultimate reality. People do not matter. Money matters-and they will go to any length to maintain the status quo of corporate America.A corporate America that has created a neo-Fascist state.

+6 # brux 2012-08-08 23:38

What if what we think is corporate America is just a microscopic minority elite that has the fastest most power weapon any army possibly can ????

... THAT IS MONEY in a global world that allows money to be targeted more accurately than a smart bomb, whoever or whatever controls or gates the financial system has access to applying a gentle prod to the equivalent of a nuclear blast .

Whoever controls the most money can literally rule the world, ....... FORGET THE CORPORATIONS, corporations are just the cover for this money being able to operate, do you think for a minute that this kind of money cannot run circles around any kind of law or regulations.

I think the only solution is one most people will have trouble digesting, but it is in making sure not one person has too much wealth or power, and then deciding on what that limit should be and how it should be enforced.

That would ideally mean a one time reset tax on wealth, as well as a maximum wage income tax that increases in rate until at very high tax rates at earnings of 10 million or more nearing 70% or even higher. No more untaxed gambling with other people's money - PERIOD, and if a transaction gets to big we all get a share of it in the tax to government.

+4 # WestWinds 2012-08-09 06:48

This is a nice thought, but who are you going to get to enforce it? We had all of these safety precautions in place. The Second New Deal of FDR made sure the loop holes weren't there that would host the corruption. But each individual person who is participating in the take-down of America is doing his or her part to ensure the worst results; Boehner, McConnell, the Blue Dogs, the "Moderates", the "Centrists", the glassy-eyed God freaks, etc. The shocking thing is that the Right has given an open-season blessing on bad behavior, and how many men and women are willing to go through that door and pass through the gates of Hell to fluff up their egos? Until we find a way to curb the impulse to vicious behavior, the road ahead is going to be one long struggle. But one way to curb much of this is a Constitutional Amendment banning corporate personhood. This will get the money out of it and many, many people will drop by the wayside once the profit motive has been removed (especially from K Street).

+1 # brux 2012-08-09 13:23

Kind of my point, there is no way to enforce it unless we can have another French Revolution, and how long did that last? We are stuck with a life form that is evolving right on top of us and using us for its arms, legs and food - and we cannot do anything about it any more than cows can stage a revolt against the farmers.

+3 # WestWinds 2012-08-09 06:36

Don't kid yourself. They keep an eagle eye on us at all times. We are their trapped slaves and they don't want any slaves going off the reservation and getting anything. You don't keep a dog's attention by feeding him, and this is how they think. They can't cream off profits without us; it is imperative that they own us for cheap labor and their profit; their wealth is built on our sweat and any of our assets we have accrued. They are aware of our suffering ... but they are sick and selfish enough to relish it. Their motto is, "better you than me." Back over the last two hundred years, people were kept in place by their own ignorance. Knowledge is power. This is why they are trying so hard to get a complete stranglehold on the all medias, the education system and the internet. It is The Great American Experiment: hothouse grown ignorance and thus a limitless supply of cheap physical labor all wrapped up in perpetual servitude.

+10 # RICHARDKANEpa 2012-08-08 15:25

Romney will say anything to appear to the one issue voters, and I think are calculated to encourage everyone else to stay home.

Obama keeps compromising which plays into Romney's desire to get non-fanatics to save home. The game is poker and the results will be death to most of us.

+10 # cordleycoit 2012-08-08 16:20

What both candidates might well discover is that the poor don't give a fig for them. They are both hot house plants raised by the people who own the world. They were raised to rule and the poor look at them though hungry eyes.
How can one like Obama his buddies in the hedge funds stole our retirement starved us late in life should we show pity? And that Romney, how can any real person vote for someone so useless his biggest adventure is waiting for the servants to dress him. No one wins this election they just step up to the throne.

+16 # brux 2012-08-08 16:26

Does any of this facade in the media mean anything, these days the subliminal messages seem to be about establishing the doubt in Democrats that there are not more Democrats than Republicans.

Honestly, look at this country and the people in it, if there was a real vote the Republicans would be out in 10 minutes, so maybe it is the media that frames not just this phony-baloney debate, but programs our very perceptions of the world at the level that we cannot see directly ourselves.

In other words, what is out there manipulating us via the media to make it easier to accept or to shrug off the loss of democracy because we believe wrongly that there are a lot of Republicans. Mostly there are just a few that we hear, loud, illogical, no way to grapple with in a logical argument - that is the brainwasher's first level of defense.

And then an artificial noise and occasional violence to keep Americans in line and not questioning, just as the horse stands at the hitching post with the reins.

A big part of elite minority rule has always been making people feel small, weak and insignificant and the tools to do that today are almost limitless.

+3 # WestWinds 2012-08-09 06:57

If the Republican'ts were truly that firmly entrenched, there would be no need for elections. The Rethuglican't lie; it's what they do best to cover their short fall. Beyond this, it's a horse race. They get to sell TV spots for ads, magazines, books, radio time, etc. If everyone knows the score there is no need to watch or read anything and they don't get to SELL YOU SOMETHING. But I say, better the horse race than dead silence. At least with the horse race, you can collect all of the particulars about what's going on in any given arena.

+12 # Saberoff 2012-08-08 16:40

Truth be told, it doesn't matter how they paint themselves, or that they paint themselves at all! Consider Ron Johnson’s run, against Feingold. Seventy-five percent of the time he just… didn't answer (couldn’t, of course; too stupid). Now we have yet another Mystery: Eric Hovde viying for our other Senate seat: Herb Kohl's. Same crap! Like Johnson and Romney, Hovde's vulgarly rich! and that's all Republican/cons ervatives need to know.

"Better to remain quiet, and thought an idiot, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt!" Who said that?

+1 # WestWinds 2012-08-09 07:00

Who said that?

Some lawyer.

+10 # bobby t. 2012-08-08 16:58

how big is the social federal welfare budget? how big is the corporate welfare budget? what percent do you think? last time i looked the social welfare budget it was one tenth of one percent, and the money for corporate welfare? some say eighty percent. i believe that is close enough for government work.
also i don't think the prez would do stuff like that. it is stupid. there must be crapola here taken out of context. lies, lies. lies. as always. and always, very entertaining.

+5 # Regina 2012-08-08 21:25

.Aha! MITT must be short for M-ar-I-e Antoine-TT-e. What else could have blocked him from the realities that confront the overwhelming majority of the American people, about which he is overwhelmingly ignorant and immune?

+4 # KittatinyHawk 2012-08-09 05:15

Not ignorant of it...he like who he represents wants poor, they need slaves. Fools are too dumb to see it esp those not white.

+8 # Lolanne 2012-08-09 05:58

Robot Romney is just that: a robot. The one thing we can count on about him is that every time he opens his mouth, he says whatever he's been told to say. We forget at our peril that it doesn't matter how shallow, idiotic, insubstantial the robot is; he may be as dumb as dirt (with apologies to dirt), but his handlers are not. They know what they are about and we MUST stay alert, fight back against the lies and insinuations and misrepresentati ons, and above all else, get out the Dem vote! Plus we must keep an eagle eye on the election process. Whatever dirty tricks the repukes can pull, they will -- count on it!

+1 # dkonstruction 2012-08-10 14:07

i wish Romney (and Obama) did fear the poor...only when the ruling class fears us are they willing to make big meaningful progressive reforms....this was true of the new deal in the 1930s, the civil rights movement in the 1950s etc. but they will only fear the 1% if we are organized into a genuine mass movement

Refresh comments list
RSS feed for comments to this post

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.

Name:	*
Username:	*
E-mail:	*
Password:	*
Confirm password:	*
Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.