White Middle Class Blues, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

September 29, 2012 Martha Thomases 7 Comments

Last week, I didn’t write about Mitt Romney.  Others had started, and I was sure that Michael Davis would leap upon the topic and eat my rhetorical lunch (i.e. get all the good laughs).

This week, I can no longer summon such restraint.  It’s too important.  And I have two week’s worth of bottled-up spite.

Having said that, I don’t want to talk about how personally loathsome the Republican candidates may or may not be.  Stories like this make tempting, low-hanging fruit for partisans like me, but they don’t really speak to the issues that are at stake.

Actually, I suspect that Mitt Romney is a nice guy.  I think he cares about people, and that, like his father, he went into politics to make the world a better place.  It’s his perspective of the world that troubles me.  He doesn’t seem to know how Americans live.  Even worse, he doesn’t seem to know what he doesn’t know.

For example, when he said that 47% of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes, that may be true (although the tax code is complicated enough that I’m willing to bet that most of those 47% don’t realize he’s talking about them).  They pay state taxes, local taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and other taxes, and I’m willing to bet that most pay a higher total percentage than Mr. Romney’s professed average 14%.  But let’s give him his interpretation of the number for the purpose of this discussion.

And let’s not nit-pick when he said he “couldn’t worry about them.”  In context, I inferred that he meant he couldn’t worry about picking up their votes.  As if.

It’s when he said this that he enraged me.  He said that those 47% felt “like victims” and were “dependent” on government.

And he said they felt “entitled” to food, shelter and health care.

I didn’t know that this last was a controversial perspective.  It was agreed to on a planet-wide basis in 1948, when The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed.  Specifically:

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection

Because Romney doesn’t seem (to me) to know any people who aren’t his social and economic peers, he doesn’t understand how the safety net works, and that it’s not a permanent condition for the vast majority of people who use it.  In fact, as in the case cited in the link, it’s a good investment for our communities, providing not just a repayment in future taxes, but also important goods, services, and quality of life.

And, as someone who has said, “No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less,” Romney clearly doesn’t know the facts about how people live, since the median household income in this country is $51,000.

He accepts his privilege with so little questioning.

I, too, have lived a life of privilege.  For one, I was born to parents who valued books and education.  For another, my father earned a lot of money as I was growing up, and invested it in ways that accrued to my benefit.  Because of him, I never had to take out student loans, nor did my son.  Because i had a financial cushion, I could take chances, try to start a business, be a writer and an activist.  I was successful at times, less successful at others, and I hope I’ve improved the world with my choices.  I know I had opportunities to take chances that are not available to those whose parents live paycheck to paycheck.

People who live paycheck to paycheck also make the world a better place, often much more than I do.  Teachers, police, fire fighters, editors, garbage collectors, security staff, bartenders, waitstaff, nurses, accountants, theater ushers – make your own list, because I will never be able to include everybody.  You wouldn’t know it from listening to the modern day Republican party.  On Labor Day, which honors American unions, GOP House leader Eric Kantor tweeted

“Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.”

That is tone deaf.

People who have done the math understand that we’ve all received a helping hand from the government in one form or another, not just Romney’s 47%.  Instead of arguing over who gets more, we should have the grace to say, “Thank you” and seek out ways to pass it on.

 

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, wishes to thank Howie for this.