Posted by TRB on Friday August 24, 2012 - 10:38 am (14 years ago)
By Columnist, TRB - Words, some of them hateful or just plain wrong are tossed around carelessly like knives during political campaigns. People are hurt, careers are ruined - and the truth suffers. So you have to be careful before you brand someone with a label, a charge that might not be true. You have to look at their history and their actions and reach a conclusion based on facts. You have to back up those facts with documentation. You have to find a pattern of bahavior, sometimes over a lifetime before you reach a conlusion. In fact I did this recently. A friend of mine said she thought Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was a bigot. First I looked up the definition of a bigot. I knew it, but I wanted the definition from a book. I found one - the online Merrian - Webster Dictionary. It goes like this: "A person who is obstinately devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred or intolerance."
That is a narrow definition. People who can not take care of themselves are quite often victims of prejudice. Obviously some of these people can take care of themselves well. But every day can be an uphill battle.
1, The poor are victims of prejudice.
2, The un or under-educated
3. Children
4. The elderly
5. Latinos
6. African Americans
7. Women, especially single unwed mothers
Starting with number one, it is safe to say that the Romney/Ryan (Fantasyland "trickle down") budget would just make the lives of the poor even more miserable. For number two they have offered nothing, which likely means they would soon join the ranks of number one. Number three would see them cutting school breakfast and lunch programs. Child neglect and bigotry. On number four, VP hopeful Paul Ryan brings to the mix a "medicare" program that could rightly be called "Throw Mama From the Train."
Number five is a typically squishy solution to the problem of the "illegal alien." Romney has said many contradictory things about the subject over the years. But in one area, he has been very certain - it would take an awfully long time to solve the problem.
On number six, Romney's background with an openly racist Mormon church when he was 30 years old, and his repeated refusal to talk about it now, tells you all you have to know about Romney and Blacks.
Last week told you a lot about number seven. Romney party believes that women have very lettle or no rights over their reproduction systems - and with Romney himself it seems to depend upon whom the audience is.
So yes, Romney is a bigot. And I didn't even bring up the matter of class. In his world, people like himself rule; the rest of us suffer.
You might remember Bush II talking about "the soft prejudice of low expectations" back when he was trying to sell his bogus "No Child Left Behind" program.
Romney and Ryan's in-your-face bigotry is the hard prejudice of very low expectations.
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