“I don't think the common person is getting it….Nobody
understands why Obama is hurting them.
We've got the message, but my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails
ladies -- everybody who's got the right
to vote -- they don't understand what's going on. I just think if you're lower
income -- one, you're not as educated, two, they don't understand how it works,
they don't understand how the systems work, they don't understand the
impact."
This quote obviously
says a lot about the woman in question. But it also says an awful lot about the
type of people that the Romney campaign is mining for support and who they hope
will help sweep him to victory come November. So let’s take the quote apart and
see exactly what it says about Romney’s support network.
1: “I don't think the common person is getting it.”
The use of the word common says a lot on
its own. Common is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as meaning – among
many other things – “without special rank
or position,” something that this woman clearly considers herself to have.
It’s also telling that
other than her child in college, the “common people” she mentions include her
baby sitter and nail lady – or manicurist – people who provide her with a
service. She is clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel for non-millionaires
that she knows. I’m surprised that guy who cleans her pool doesn’t get a
mention.
Of course this isn’t
really surprising as she was on her way to Romney’s Hamptons’ Fundraiser. The
price of admission to some of his recent events has been between $25,000 and
$75,000. This is clearly not an event for “common” people.
2: “I just think if you're lower income -- one, you're not as
educated”
The fact that in her mind your level of
income equals your level of education is a sign that this woman is completely
disconnected from regular life and not exactly firing on all cylinders. It is
quite possible to be a well-educated person from a good background and not earn
enough money to require a wheelbarrow to take it home.
Yale for an example – that’s an Ivy League University
by the way – undoubtedly offers one of the best educations in the United States . If you graduate from there you are going to
be extremely well educated. But if you graduate with, say, a degree in creative
writing, or journalism, or music do you think you’re going to be earning six
figures right off the bat? Of course you’re not.
Furthermore, someone
attending somewhere other than a highly prestigious college is also capable of
getting an exemplary education yet won’t be snapped up by a Fortune 500
company. Even if someone does not attend college, that does not stop them
reading books and watching television and educating themselves to some degree.
Linking the level of your income to the level of your education is ridiculous.
Of course there is a connection between the two, but only a very loose one.
3: “They don't understand the impact."
This is – to my mind – her most
ridiculous statement. She implies that the man on the street neither
understands why Obama is a bad president who is hurting Americans, nor why
Romney would do a much better job. This is of course complete bull. Unless of
course the man on the street gets his information from Fox News.
He knows that Obama has attempted to rebuild the
economy, helped the motor business start operating at a profit again, increased
jobs, provided funding to renewable energy projects, secured equal pay for
women, overhauled the healthcare system, is hoping to extend tax cuts to everyone,
especially middle and low income families, and most importantly has overseen
the death of Osama Bin Laden, despite cuts made to the military. All this in
the face of opposition from a hostile Republican Congress.
He also knows that if Romney were to become
President he would scrap Obamacare, cut Medicare, cut Social Security, cut
Welfare and access to higher education, work to limit a woman’s access to
contraception and abortions, balloon the size of the military’s budget and
reintroduce the Bush tax cuts which would raise the amount of tax paid by the
middle classes while slashing the amount paid by the top one percent.
If the man on the street chooses to vote for Romney
over Obama, it’s not because he doesn’t understand the impact. He understands it
very well as it is more likely to affect him than the woman who gave this
quote. He understands the impact and honestly believes Romney is a better
choice than Obama.
People on a low income are not stupid. They know what is
going on.
Dissecting this quote we can see that the Romney
campaign has one main mission once the convention in Tampa
has passed in August. He needs to get on the road and meet with normal people.
Hobnobbing with the Hamptons’ set is fine as a fundraising strategy, but if he
thinks it’s a decent way of ensuring his election, then he is sorely mistaken.
Romney and the Romney campaign are regularly painted
as being out of touch with the needs of everyday Americans. Based on this
quote, and the locations of his recent parties, this is a claim that seems very
hard to deny.
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