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I was thinking about this on Thursday when the kerfuffle over Romney's "very poor" comment hit the news. A lot of people say Romney cannot understand what life is like for the rest of us. I think that's true, even though I think Romney's a nice person, and I like him personally.
But why is this? It can't be just because of his wealth, because FDR and Kennedy were both very wealthy but genuinely empathized with regular people. I think this article explains it very well. Granted it's just a theory, but I think he has a point.
Quote:
Why the difference? Here's a theory – and, be warned, it's highly speculative. We know, from history books, that illness had a profound effect on Roosevelt’s worldview: His battle with polio helped him to understand real adversity and what it takes to overcome it. Among the influences that may have affected John Kennedy was his service in World War II – not just the brush with death after the destruction of his torpedo boat, but also the experience of serving alongside young men from diverse, less privileged backgrounds. As Mickey Kaus points out in The End of Equality, Kennedy's crew included a high school drop-out, a machinist, and a commercial fisherman, as well as another Ivy Leaguer.*
My knowledge of Romney's life is not comprehensive, but I recall no similar experiences in his childhood or life as a young adult. At Cranbrook, the exclusive private school in Detroit’s northern suburbs, Romney was a prankster and a goof. He was smart and, with age and hard work, became the success story we know today. But life-threatening challenges never presented themselves and, with the possible exception of his Mormon mission in Europe, Romney spent very little time outside his relatively affluent circles.
Again, I think that deep down, Romney's a good person, but simply clueless about what it's like to try to get by in America. Anyway, read and discuss. I'd like to know your thoughts.
I am a middle class registered Independent and not by any means a Mitt Romney supporter. That being said, I feel that the media totally and deliberately took what Romney said out of context.
I have worked full time and been a tax payer for more than 3 decades. I have never been on (nor qualified for) welfare or received any form of public assistance. Twenty-one of those years I was a single parent, raised a child alone with no child support and was deemed ineligible for any form of public assistance. My day consisted of getting up at 5:00 am, getting my son fed and dressed, dropping him off at daycare, commuting 3 hours a day, working 8 hours a day, picking him up from daycare, going home, feeding and bathing him and getting prepared for the next day. I was also a home owner and thus had all of the responsibilities of yard work, etc.
I applied for WIC but was told I "made too much money" to qualify. There were children in my son's daycare whose "mothers" were 2nd and 3rd generation WIC/welfare/foodstamp recipients. Yet, according to the government who continually sucks up my tax dollars annually, I was not worthy of even a tiny bit of assistance.
The moral of the story: While there are some in our country that cannot help themselves and thus need help, there are millions of lazy, generational parasites. I have witnessed first hand far too many healthy, lazy, generational, parasites both citizens and illegal aliens in this country with the you owe me and my hoards of children because breeding is my occupation mentality sucking we the taxpaying middle class dry. Those of us who are forced to finance their worthless, parasitic existences have no safety net. Personally, I am sick of it.
Both my parents lived thru the Great Depression and there were no social safety nets around other than family,churches and the Salvation Army. My father at 11 years of age had 3 part time jobs before THE DEPRESSION hit in 1929.My mothers side of the family worked at the steel mill and had a farm too she said that farm was their saving safety net fresh eggs, milk, meats, vegees. Mitts comment was a misquote that the media are all over in their Obiased re-election feeding frenzy on Repubs. Hell at least FDR made them work for it....Kennedy said its not what your country can do for you but what can you do for your country....big difference in real leadership.
Last edited by Dumbdowndemocrats; 02-04-2012 at 09:37 AM..
Both my parents lived thru the Great Depression and there were no social safety nets around other than family,churches and the Salvation Army. My father at 11 years of age had 3 part time jobs before THE DEPRESSION hit in 1929.My mothers side of the family worked at the steel mill and had a farm too she said that farm was their saving safety net fresh eggs, milk, meats, vegees. Mitts comment was a misquote that the media are all over in their Obiased re-election feeding frenzy on Repubs. Hell at least FDR made them work for it....Kennedy said its not what your country can do for you but what can you do for your country....big difference in real leadership.
I am so in agreement with all that you stated. Unfortunately, I believe that all of them (on both sides of the political aisles) are nothing more than perpetually pandering politicians who will say and do anything for votes.
Neither side cares about those of us who carry the load, they just say what they need to say to get elected in order to carry out the corporate masters' wishes.
I think Romney's comments that the poor having safety nets was overly simplistic and wrong. I also don't understand why he doesn't care about them because of the safety nets but then is for removing many of those safety nets. Republicans across the country are doing what they can to raise taxes on the poor, reduce welfare, reduce unemployment, drug test welfare recipients, among many other initiatives. I don't know where Romney stands on all that I just mentioned but it's easy to say there's a safety net as you're taking a knife to the rope keeping it up.
Why the difference? Here's a theory – and, be warned, it's highly speculative. We know, from history books, that illness had a profound effect on Roosevelt’s worldview: His battle with polio helped him to understand real adversity and what it takes to overcome it. Among the influences that may have affected John Kennedy was his service in World War II – not just the brush with death after the destruction of his torpedo boat, but also the experience of serving alongside young men from diverse, less privileged backgrounds. As Mickey Kaus points out in The End of Equality, Kennedy's crew included a high school drop-out, a machinist, and a commercial fisherman, as well as another Ivy Leaguer.*
My knowledge of Romney's life is not comprehensive, but I recall no similar experiences in his childhood or life as a young adult. At Cranbrook, the exclusive private school in Detroit’s northern suburbs, Romney was a prankster and a goof. He was smart and, with age and hard work, became the success story we know today. But life-threatening challenges never presented themselves and, with the possible exception of his Mormon mission in Europe, Romney spent very little time outside his relatively affluent circles.
There could be something to this.
FDR suffered from polio, and JFK had a lot of pain from his war injury.
A guy like Romney has had a charmed life. Born into the lap of luxury and never having any real hardship has no doubt shaped his perceptions.
FDR suffered from polio, and JFK had a lot of pain from his war injury.
A guy like Romney has had a charmed life. Born into the lap of luxury and never having any real hardship has no doubt shaped his perceptions.
That is exactly what puts many people off from Romney. He seems too much like a packaged politician without any real humanity or core to him. He seems like the kind of person you could develop on a computer program and infuse with artificial intelligence. I'm sure the Japanese could manufacture a robot that would be so similar to Romney, you couldn't tell the difference.
That is exactly what puts many people off from Romney. He seems too much like a packaged politician without any real humanity or core to him. He seems like the kind of person you could develop on a computer program and infuse with artificial intelligence. I'm sure the Japanese could manufacture a robot that would be so similar to Romney, you couldn't tell the difference.
Interesting...
Romney as an artifact of Japanimation.
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Couldn't agree more. Highly rated.
