"'Gifts': The Legitimacy of Self-interested Voting" by Dante Atkins at the Daily Kos

'Gifts': The Legitimacy of Self-interested Voting

by Dante Atkins at the Daily Kos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/18/1162106/--Gifts-The-legitimacy-of-self-interested-voting

"SNIP.............................................


But let's take these obvious greater social and economic goods out of the equation. By referring to these policies as "gifts," Romney is not only seeking to deligitimize the worth of the policies themselves; he is also attempting to devalue the young voters, women and minorities who voted for Barack Obama because of exactly these policy considerations:


“In each case, they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” Mr. Romney said, contrasting Mr. Obama’s strategy to his own of “talking about big issues for the whole country: military strategy, foreign policy, a strong economy, creating jobs and so forth.”

In other words, Romney is saying he lost because too many mooching constituencies—like women, Latinos and the youth—were too willing to fall victim to the cunning bribery of Barack Obama, rather than take a more moral perspective on what was good for the country as a whole. Anyone who is looking for the final grand irony of the 2012 presidential campaign need look no further: The nominee who selected as his running mate Paul Ryan, devotee of the objectivist philosophy dedicated completely to self-interest, is now complaining that too many people voted for their own self-interest as opposed to for the good of society as a whole.

But the most hypocritical aspect of Romney's assertions about the American electorate is that it completely ignores the obvious self-interests of his own base. Romney isn't so naive as to believe that the CEOs, NASCAR owners, casino magnates and banking industry types who funded his campaign and allied Super PACs were acting in the country's best interest. He knows that these donors spent their billions because they wanted a continuation or expansion of the Bush tax cuts for the rich, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and a reduction in the capital gains tax. They were not donating out of the goodness of their own hearts. They expected a return on their investment, and they didn't get it. Meanwhile, the entire strategy of the Romney campaign was dedicated to driving up turnout and racial resentment among white, working-class voters who were susceptible to the racism-tinged narrative that their hard-earned tax dollars were being wasted on freeloading minorities, and that Mitt Romney would fix it. Whether this supposed self-interest of these white working-class voters was based on facts or not is immaterial.

.............................................SNIP"