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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThurston Howell Romney By DAVID BROOKS
Yes, I realize David Brooks is part of the political culture that has made the craven and depraved philosophy of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan mainstream. So we really know that they are in trouble when one of its creators is distancing himself from remarks that expose this ideology for what it truly is - unabashed selfishness. Still it is an article well worth reading in fullhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/opinion/brooks-thurston-howell-romney.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB
Thurston Howell Romney By DAVID BROOKS
Romney, who criticizes President Obama for dividing the nation, divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the moochers. Forty-seven percent of the country, he said, are people who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.
This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesnt know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?
The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor.
,,,
The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over toward a much more hyperindividualistic and atomistic social view from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. Theres no way the country will trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesnt have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own.
..
Sure, there are some government programs that cultivate patterns of dependency in some people. Id put federal disability payments and unemployment insurance in this category. But, as a description of America today, Romneys comment is a country-club fantasy. Its what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about Romney.
full full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/opinion/brooks-thurston-howell-romney.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB
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Thurston Howell Romney By DAVID BROOKS (Original Post)
Douglas Carpenter
Sep 2012
OP
napkinz
(17,199 posts)1. Romney / Thurston
Berlum
(7,044 posts)2. "'You people' - you smelly American proles -- just don't get it." - Willard (R-1%)
PA Democrat
(13,225 posts)3. Nice video of Thurston Howell decrying "democracy"
wendylaroux
(2,925 posts)4. It's the "Champaign Campaign"