Beware of Dems bearing gifts
Romney, Ryan, O'Reilly and other GOP hypocrites are lying about the role of politics in American life
By Joan WalshTopics: Mitt Romney, Politics News
Mitt Romney is one sad sore loser. But in his divisive remarks to donors that became public Wednesday night, he’s not saying anything he didn’t say in his infamous 47 percent video. He and top-tier Republican leaders, from Rush Limbaugh to Bill O’Reilly to Karl Rove and Paul Ryan, believe that President Obama got an unfair advantage by giving “gifts” or “free stuff” to women, African-Americans, Latinos and young people – you know, those people who don’t want to “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” Especially in “urban” areas.
By now everyone knows about Romney’s explanation of why he lost on a conference call to donors. Here’s a snippet:
With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift. Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008…
You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity, I mean, this is huge. Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.
Yes, he called them “illegals.”
Romney and his friends are being intentionally deceptive about the role of politics in people’s lives. We come together to do what we cannot do alone. Throughout American history, that has involved a widening realm of protection and insurance for poor, working- and middle-class Americans – until the GOP convinced a majority of people (particularly whites) that it was all going to minorities, and they began voting Republican.
How can it be wrong to give the “gift” of guaranteed healthcare, if the American people so choose? And we did so choose by reelecting President Obama. Is it really some kind of skeezy gift to change immigration policy? Or reduce student loan debt? Or share the costs of contraception, as well as childbirth, which have traditionally fallen on women but which benefit everybody?
And how can it not likewise be a “gift” to cater to the wealthy for generations, slashing their tax rates as well as larding our tax code with special breaks that only accrue to the top 1 or 2 percent? Those are the gifts the Republicans have been giving to the rich, especially since the Reagan era.
Unfortunately, the white working- and middle-class base of the GOP has amnesia about how many “gifts” it got from government as its forebears climbed out of poverty. O’Reilly’s and my people especially got lots of “gifts.”
After bearing the brunt of Nativist hatred and violence, Irish Catholics did two things: They perfected identity politics, creating a parallel world of schools and ethnic organizations to help one another. And then they grabbed the reins of government in many cities and states, using public dollars to help the poor – many, but not all, Irish Catholics — while also cementing their political power. They and other white ethnics, via the Democratic Party, built a public sector that did two things: expanded necessary public services, from infrastructure to public education, that benefited all Americans, while employing people to do it. Often that involved patronage and cronyism. But the old urban machines helped lift generations out of poverty.
Generations of white people, that is. Once African-Americans got a share of political power, suddenly using government to improve people’s lives while also creating jobs became suspect. Over time, anxious Democrats turned against the idea, too, joining Republicans in decrying “big government.” Barack Obama’s ethereal “hope and change” rhetoric, for the record, struck me in 2008 as a kind of post-New Deal, “good-government” neoliberalism that likewise repudiated that old Democratic legacy.
But as president, Obama rediscovered the power of delivering for his base – and there’s nothing wrong with that. African-Americans, Latinos, women, the young and gay people voted for him – and they got some policies that made their life better. That’s what’s supposed to happen when you win elections.
Romney is a sore loser. But make no mistake: He was ready to deliver gifts to the wealthy donors on that call had he won. Does he think we’re stupid?
Joan Walsh is Salon's editor at large and the author of "What's the Matter With White People: Finding Our Way in the Next America." More Joan Walsh.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Obama to all-male university graduates: Be the best husband to "your boyfriend or partner"
-
Big Soda SNAP-ing up billions off government programs
-
The truth in Kanye's anti-prison rap
-
Tea Party Patriots push nationwide anti-IRS rallies
-
GOP attorney general candidate tried to force women to report miscarriages to police
-
Marijuana opponents' new plan: Kill First Amendment
-
Poll shows Bachmann trailing in 2014 reelection race
-
White House lawyer reportedly knew of IRS findings in April
-
There's hope for progressivism yet
-
McConnell: Obamacare will dominate 2014 midterms
-
Georgian police slow to react to mob violence at gay rights march
-
Xenophobia only benefits the 1 percent
-
Three scandals, Beltway style
-
Meet GOP's fringy new star, E. W. Jackson
-
Peggy Noonan hears a dog whistle
-
Report: Obama to make big speech about drones, Guantanamo
-
Paul Krugman's right: Austerity kills
-
Poll: Obama approval at 53 percent amid IRS, Benghazi controversies
-
Sunday shows round-up: All about the IRS and Benghazi
-
Colin Quinn's "Unconstitutional" history lesson
-
Paul Ryan: "I don't know" if there was a Benghazi cover-up
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
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
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Netflix's April Fools' Day categories
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Slideshow: Nerd Obama
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Jonathan Bernstein
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
-
Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Scott Timberg
-
"Jodorowsky's Dune": The sci-fi classic that never was
Andrew O'Hehir
-
Will you marry me -- once you're done peeing?
Tracy Clark-Flory
-
Temple Grandin on DSM-5: "Sounds like diagnosis by committee"
Temple Grandin and Richard Panek
-
My open relationship went awry
David Farley
-
The man behind Abercrombie & Fitch
Benoit Denizet-Lewis
-
Stop comparing everything to "Girls"!
Daniel D'Addario
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

362 points363 points364 points | 348 comments
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
-
CAPTION CONTEST: What Were JT And Obama Looking At? -
Michele Bachmann Faces Tight Race Months Out -
Elliott Negin: Unreliable Sources 4: How the Media Help the Kochs and ExxonMobil Spread Climate Disinformation - Paromita Shah: Expanding Domestic Violence Deportation Grounds Does No Favors to Survivors
-
Feds Say Trespassing Peace Activists Are A National Security Threat
-
Human Rights Advocates Warn Obama On Day Of Burmese President's Visit -
Ronald Reagan Made A Movie With James Dean This One Time - 7 Juicy Claims From A Romney Campaign Insider's New Book
- The 10 Most Anti-Gay Statements From The Republican Nominee For Lt. Governor Of Virginia
-
Republican Virginia Lt. Governor Nominee: Obama Sees World "From A Muslim Perspective"



Comments
30 Comments