Thursday, January 12, 2012

Mitt Romney Knows Envy Better than Anyone

Mitt Romney just recently insulted most of America (including most Republican voters) with his diatribe about "envy" and "class warfare". It's poof that Mitt Romney (as well as most of the Republican presidential candidates) has no idea what most Americans stand for, what they work so hard to achieve, and how they struggle to get ahead. Most American workers have pride and honest work ethics, and just hope to at least provide for their themselves and their families they way their parents provided for them.

Mitt Romney seems to think that we all have nothing better to do than to just sit around on our lazy asses doing nothing and bashing the rich for having more than the rest of us. I would call that "tunnel vision". Is that who we want for a president?

Just like many in congress and the top 1%, if you earn less than $1 million a year, you're not even on Mitt Romney's radar screen. Unless they're running for office, you won't accidentally bump into them at Wal-Mart or McDonalds. They live in a completely different and isolated world than the rest of us do...they are "them" and we are "us". That's not class warfare, that's just a fact.

Most of us aspire to some measure of success in our lives, while at the same time, playing by the rules, not breaking the laws, working hard to learn, educate, and better ourselves - - to be competitive and innovative. Accusing others of "envy" who hope or aspire to achieve Mitt Romney's success by calling them names, and then insulting them if they don't succeed, is just plain un-American.

Criticizing the "masses" because they expect fairness and justice when it comes to wages, tax liabilities, political representation, and the government's promise to honor contracts (such as Medicare and Social Security) when they become too old or sick to be "productive" in our society, is not only out-of-touch with American values, but is a slap in the face to everyone who also aspires to become wealthy and successful the old fashion way...through hard work.

I don't envy Mitt Romney for having a net worth of over $259 million, but I resent the way he made his fortune by being a corporate raider and putting thousands of Americans out of work. (No Mitt, greed is NOT good.)

I don't envy Apple's CEO Tim Cook just because he received close to $400 million in stock options last year. But I resented Steve Jobs for paying slave wages to Chinese workers instead of paying "living wages" to Americans.

I don't envy Bill Gates for being the richest man in the world, but I resent him for the same reason I resented Steve Jobs. But I do admire Bill Gates and his wife for their work with their foundation.

I don't envy David or Charles Koch for inheriting their father's vast wealth, but I resent the way they have corrupted the political process, and I resent their radical ideology.

I don't envy the casino mogul Sheldon Adelson for getting rich with gambling, but I resent that he abhors labor unions, and for his $5 million donation to an opportunist like Newt Gingrich.

I don't envy any member of the Walton family for having a combined wealth of the bottom 30% of the country, but I resent the way they exploited their Wal-Mart employees with low wages and lack of benefits.

I don't envy Rupert Murdoch for his billions, but I resent the way his media organization has operated, and the miss-information and propaganda he propagates through Fox News.

I don't envy Forrest Mars for his $14 billion, I helped make his family rich...I ate his candy bars all my life.

I don't envy Pierre Omidyar or Jeffrey Skoll for their mega-wealth, but I resent when eBay outsources jobs overseas.

I don't envy Donald Trump for inheriting money and for his investments in casinos (or for all his federal bankruptcies), I just resent him as a person (because I resent all pathological narcissists).

I don't envy or resent Steve Wynn because he provided me with a good job for many years before he sold his casinos to MGM.

I don't think anyone envies or resents Oprah Winfrey. And I don't envy any celebrity, movie star, athlete, or musician if they become rich and famous. That's part of the American Dream.

I don't envy anyone on the Forbes 400 - - nor any of the bankers, the hedge fund mangers, the CEOs, the politicians, the oil barons, or the war profiteers.

I don't envy the millionaires in congress, but I resent the way they vote on issues like oil subsidies, while the Republicans want to force the de-funding of Medicare and Social Security for regular working folks.

I don't envy corporations, they're not real people and can't be envied. But I can still resent their unbridled and insatiable quest for profits at the expense to real people, no matter who or what they hurt in the process, all in the name of "free enterprise".

I don't "envy" anyone, and all my life I never have. But I would resent them all if they paid a lower tax rate than I did. I would resent them if they used their wealth to buy elections, muting my voice in the process. I would resent them if they were greedy and sold out America for profits, such as sending jobs to China.

And I would resent them if they accused me of waging a class war, when if in fact, it were they who have been waging a class war (like Mitt Romney).

I would resent them all if they were intentionally trying to destroy the middle-class, because 5, 10, 20, or 50 billion dollars just wasn't enough to satisfy their creature comforts, just so that they could buy a much bigger and more expensive yacht or mansion than their neighbor's.

I resent them when they complain about their taxes. It sounds so petty, which proves that money can't buy you class. But it's odd that the 1%, such as Mitt Romney keeps bring up the subject of "envy", as though they are personally very familiar with the topic.

Most of us don't envy others (or covet thy neighbor's wife). But we might respect and admire those who make great accomplishments without stepping on others to gain success. We don't envy them, we aspire to be just like them, to emulate them.

But we don't like bullies, back-room deals, back-stabbing, corruption, rigged elections, rigged tax codes, extortion, monopolies, lies, secrecy, greed, or financial excess flaunted in our face with disdain for the masses. We don't admire the airs of condescending superiority. We don't like being disrespected and taken advantage of. We don't like the unscrupulous dirty dealing done in the fine print at the bottom of credit card bills and other contracts.

We resent just being a "revenue stream" for the top 1%, while you laugh and mock us behind our backs...telling us we're lazy, ignorant, and to take a bath and get a job.

No, we don't envy the "job creators" or those such as Mitt Romney, we resent them. They should all be fired for not doing their job...creating jobs. And I don't mean part-time low-paying jobs, but a job where one parent can stay home with the kids while the other earns a "living wage" (enough to pay for a modest mortgage, car payment, utilities, and food), and hope to have enough left over for some savings and retirement.

No Mister Romney, I certainly don't envy you, and I'm not jealous of you either, or of your huge beach-front mansion (it would be much too large for my personal taste anyway). But I wouldn't mind the comforts, independence, and lack of worry that you enjoy with all your wealth; but most of us wouldn't rob, cheat, and kill to obtain it. And we certainly wouldn't feel compelled to insult those who didn't.

I, nor anybody I know, envies others for their success, but we do resent others that hoard their ill-gotten gains, while deliberately preventing others (who also work hard) from achieving, at the very least, a dignified and basic standard-of-living.

I definitely don't covet your wife Mitt, but I do resent you very much as a human being -- for being so damn fake and pompous. I think your soul is riddled with cancer, and in my humble opinion, that is nothing for anyone to envy.

I suspect that Mitt Romney knows envy better than anyone. People like him might not ever be fully satisfied, even if they were to become the most powerful person in the world...POTUS. People like Mitt might even envy God.

Mitt Romney says, “The president puts his faith in government, we put our faith in the American people.” He attacks “ever-increasing government checks and cradle-to-grave assurances" as our nation's biggest problem.

The government IS the American people. Mitt is referring to Social Security, Medicare, and other social programs and services that the American people want and need. That's what he means when he says "government". "Reform" mean "cuts" and austerity for the working- class, to save billionaires more in taxes.

Yet Mitt wants to be the leader of our "big government" and become a government employee as president.

Mitt says, "I will offer the American ideals of economic freedom". Hey Mitt, do you mean with part-time low-paying jobs?

“President Obama wants to fundamentally transform America,” Romney says. How Mitt? By returning to a "fairer and kinder nation" when we once had a thriving middle-class?

Framing Obama’s goal as an “entitlement society” capitalizes on the sense of grievance among many middle-income voters that government takes their money in taxes to distribute it to others who don’t deserve it. All those poor billionaires!

From the New York Times: A Blurring of the Lines in the Populist vs. Capitalist Debate

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6 comments:

  1. See Mitt Romney starring in the documentary "KING OF BAIN"

    http://www.webcasts.com/kingofbain/

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't envy Warren Buffett...I admire him. He has pledged to match 1 for 1 all voluntary tax contributions made by Republicans in Congress. “And I’ll even go 3 for 1 for Mitch McConnell,” he said.

    http://swampland.time.com/2012/01/11/warren-buffett-to-mitch-mcconnell-put-up-or-shut-up/

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  3. Rev. Al Sharpton - "Please Tell Romney We're Not Envious, We're Fed Up"

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-al-sharpton/romney-speech_b_1200257.html

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  4. Class Conflict Awareness Rose Significantly in 2011 - "The ongoing economic recession also may have magnified class differences as income inequality has risen since at least the 1970s." (Thanks Mitt!)

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/11/pew-survey-class-conflict_n_1200176.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Americans may be ideological free marketers, but operationally they're just folks who believe in a day's pay for a day's work. If you rub their noses in the the true face of modern capitalism, they aren't going to like what they see. That's what you get with Mitt Romney."

    http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/01/americans-may-not-like-capitalism-much-conservatives-think

    ReplyDelete
  6. PAUL KRUGMAN - America Isn’t a Corporation

    "Mr. Romney is the one claiming that his career makes him especially suited for the presidency. Did I mention that the last businessman to live in the White House was a guy named Herbert Hoover? Unless you count former President George W. Bush."

    http://tinyurl.com/7l5qob6

    ReplyDelete