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The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

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The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

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Column: Rough minutes for Mitt Romney

Column%3A+Rough+minutes+for+Mitt+Romney
Øystein Grønvold

I think it’s safe to say that things are not looking up for Mitt Romney, if the press has been any indication. In fact let me be blunt about this: he has really been humiliating himself lately.

Last week, a video was released by news publication Mother Jones that filmed Romney at a campaign fundraiser held in Florida on Sept. 17.

In the video, he said that he would veer his campaign away from swaying voters who are all but guaranteed to vote for Obama. He claims these people are included in the 47 percent of US citizens who do not make enough money to pay federal income taxes.

Essentially, he implies that Obama supporters are freeloading parasites that refuse to “…take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

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The most charitable thing I could say about this quote is that it is in dire need of context. Who are these so called “47 percent” exactly? Do they include City College and UCSB students who are forced to take out student loans so they can pursue a higher education which they might otherwise be denied? Or do they include everyone below the socio-economic status of middle-income households, which according to Romney includes those who make under $250,000 a year?

Let’s put aside for a moment the fact that the United States is facing the worst levels of income inequality in decades. Let’s put aside even Romney’s unmitigated gall in a separate fundraiser last May when he asserted that he “inherited nothing” in his life despite his upper-class background. What I find unique about the recent video remarks is he chose to say them on the anniversary of one of the largest nation-wide populist movements in recent history.

Last year I worked for the UCSB Bottom Line covering events and protests organized by the Santa Barbara and Isla Vista chapters of Occupy Wall Street. Let me make one thing clear: occupiers are not bums or moochers. They’re were people who took a brave stance against corporate greed in spite of censorship and state oppression, including the arrest of eight occupiers in front of Santa Barbara City Hall last Oct. I can only imagine what they must be thinking in response to Romney’s marginalization of the ideals they fought for.

Romney’s contempt for working-class Americans can only amount to political seppuku. Frankly, I can’t say I’m altogether surprised by what’s happened. After all, this is the sort of ignorant hate-mongering that I’ve come to expect from the G.O.P. That said, I honestly don’t know what it is about Romney that I find most revolting: his outspoken disdain for America’s vulnerable and underprivileged, his blatant classism, his willful denial of his considerable white-male privilege, or his staggering tactlessness.

Congratulations Romney. You’ve successfully managed to alienate almost every voter in the United States and embarrass everyone else. For your sake, I hope no one’s been paying attention.

 

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