SALON

Wednesday, Aug 1, 2012 5:46 PM UTC

Romney clarifies: By “culture” he meant “everything else”

When Romney said Palestinians had the wrong culture, he just meant they don't love freedom enough

By

Topics: Mitt Romney, Politics, 2012 Elections, Israel, Palestine,

Romney clarifies: By (Credit: AP/Dan Balilty)

While visiting Israel a few days ago, Mitt Romney offended Palestinians and other humans by saying that Israelis are rich and Palestinians are poor because of the differences between their “cultures,” which seemed to imply that he believes that Palestinians are just sort of naturally inclined to live under military occupation. (This didn’t seem to bug that many Israelis, even though it does suggest that he believes they are … innately good with money, let’s say.) This was Romney’s interpretation of an argument put forth by a historian named David Landes, who wrote a book called “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations.” In Mitt’s reading, this book explained the very large difference in GDP per capita between Israel and the lands managed by the Palestinian Authority: “Culture makes all the difference,” Romney said twice, for emphasis.

Romney basically got the book completely wrong. (As Jonathan Chait says, completely missing the point of good books is a habit of Romney’s. I think that’s just the way the corporate executive class reads nonfiction, actually.) For Romney, it simply reinforced his natural belief that material success is a reflection of moral superiority. Countries are rich because they have more virtuous cultures! (Romney made essentially the same point, with the same misreading, in his book about not ever apologizing for anything.) Landes, more sensibly, argues that institutions, including governments, shape culture, along with the sort of material, geographical and resource-based factors that Jared Diamond explores in “Guns, Germs and Steel.”

Romney is now defending himself with a blog post at The Corner (yep), in which he basically makes an entirely different argument while pretending to defend his original statement. Now it turns out that by “culture” he meant “freedom.” He has gone from a cultural determinist to someone who acknowledges that political and material factors shape culture, in other words, though he doesn’t really acknowledge the difference.

The Founding Fathers wrote that we are endowed by our Creator with the freedom to pursue happiness. In the America they designed, we would have economic freedom, just as we would have political and religious freedom. Here, we would not be limited by the circumstance of birth nor directed by the supposedly informed hand of government. We would be free to pursue happiness as we wish. Economic freedom is the only force that has consistently succeeded in lifting people out of poverty. It is the only principle that has ever created sustained prosperity. It is why our economy rose to rival those of the world’s leading powers — and has long since surpassed them all.

The linkage between freedom and economic development has a universal applicability. One only has to look at the contrast between East and West Germany, and between North and South Korea for the starkest demonstrations of the meaning of freedom and the absence of freedom.

This is the opposite of the case he made before, that Israel thrives while Palestine suffers because Israel has a more virtuous “culture.” Now it’s politics, governance and rule of law that make the difference, because the only “cultural” differences between the Germanys and the Koreas were and are those determined by force and by political systems.

Even this new version of his culture argument, in which the embrace of “individual freedoms and the rule of law” creates the culture that enables economic success, is wildly insulting to Palestinians (not remotely surprising for an American politician), as it still suggests that Palestinians just don’t value freedom enough to get it for themselves. I’ve no doubt Marty Peretz believes exactly that but it’s not quite the truth of the situation. Romney’s big finish:

I have just returned from a trip abroad. I visited three lands — Israel, Poland, and Great Britain — which are defined by their respective struggles for freedom. I met with some of the greatest heroes of those struggles. I am always glad to return to American soil. On this occasion, I am only strengthened in my conviction that the pursuit of happiness is not an American right alone. Israelis, Palestinians, Poles, Russians, Iranians, Americans, all human beings deserve to enjoy the blessings of a culture of freedom and opportunity.

Yes, Palestinians certainly do deserve to enjoy such a culture, and if Romney follows that bold claim to its logical conclusion he’ll end up with a pretty radical foreign policy for a Republican. (And what is Britain even doing on this list? No offense to the former British Empire but in many places across the globe — including Israel! — the people define themselves in part by remembering their struggle to be free from Great Britain.)

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 43 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
168 points169 points | comment
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
157 points158 points | 84 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
148 points149 points | 98 comments
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
143 points144 points | 13 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
78 points79 points | 21 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations