We Expect More

“(The 47%)...My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives”

Mitt Romney-Republican Presidential candidate 2012


Romney’s genuine distain for half of the country is a disturbing insight into the psyche of a man that aspires to be our president. His comments are deplorable and play to stereotypes that only exist in the minds of the ill-informed or the disingenuous. To state that 47% of our nation’s citizens “…believe that, they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them and….it’s not my job to worry about those people” is a violation of the ideals and expectations we have for candidates for higher office. We appear to have reached a point in our public discourse that a major party candidate is comfortable with comments that are so staggeringly heinous as to shock the senses just as many remain apathetic at best or supportive at worse.
Our expectations for our President are high. A President is the physical representative of the ideals our nation holds dear. We should not disregard Romney’s words as “politics as usual” because this is not usual. This is not about politics. It is about who we are as a country and who we aspire to be. The atypical dig between candidates and political Parties is expected. Our citizens are not fodder for this type of political discourse. We don’t expect or accept a candidate that repudiates half of the population that he seeks to represent. We look to our President to represent all of us. Yes, it is idealistic but it’s an ideal that matters. We must all remember that the “47%” should not be painted with such a broad and ugly brush. The people that Romney is referring to are not anonymous people somewhere you have never been. They are our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and our family. More likely than not, the very person that Romney speaks of with such distain and contempt is very likely YOU.

You can make a difference. You can show people like Romney that words matter. People matter. VOTE on November 6th.