The mystery: does Mitt Romney actually believe his endless absurdities, in which case he’s a fool, or does he know better but calculates that in the current political environment the absurdities serve his ambitions, in which case he’s merely an unprincipled liar? Since I keep reading about how, underneath it all, he’s really quite smart, I’ve been inclined to go along with the unprincipled liar theory. That was actually sort of comforting, since it would probably be less chilling to have an unprincipled liar as president than one who sincerely believes his stupidities.
However, even this small comforting thought may be denied us, for maybe Romney is both a liar and a fool. Monday, in his groveling political tour of Israel, Romney gave a speech claiming that the fact that Israelis have a much higher per capita income than the Palestinians–about twice as much, he said, but actually over ten times as much–proved that Israel had a superior “culture.”
This was too much even for the New York Times, which in both its news story and editorial pointed out that Romney had somehow ignored the Israeli occupation and its ongoing border closures and trade as well as other economic sanctions of the Palestinians. The news story quoted from a CIA assessment–no less–that in the West Bank “Israeli closure policies continue to disrupt labor and trade flows, industrial capacity, and basic commerce,” and that matters were even worse in Gaza, where Israeli economic warfare has, (in the CIA’s words), “resulted in high unemployment, elevated poverty rates, and the near collapse of the private sector that had relied on export markets.” Aside from Romney’s mind-boggling cultural explanation, the Times editorial observed that Romney had demonstrated “troubling ignorance” in “vastly understating” the Israeli-Palestinian income disparities.
In a normal political environment this should have been a Gerald Ford, possibly election-changing, moment. As will be recalled, in a debate with Jimmy Carter during the 1976 presidential campaign, Ford said “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.” Naturally, the Democrats gleefully jumped all over this, and many analysts believe that it tipped the electoral scales towards Carter.
My first thought was that the Romney “gaffe” demonstrated not merely that he was a shamelessly pandering liar but also a fool, because only a fool would fail to realize that his preposterous argument would hold him up to catastrophic ridicule, just as was the case with Ford.
But hold on! Maybe he’s not so dumb after all! Maybe he has cleverly and realistically calculated that he can get away with saying anything at all, so long as it is “pro-Israeli,” because Obama and the Democrats will not dare to point out the truth.
Such is the state of affairs in 2012 America. We have met the real fools, and they are us.
This post first appeared on Jerome Slater’s site two days ago.
Damn, Mr Slater, that about sums it up on Mitt, and we, the American public. No doubt in my mind Mitt thinks John Q Public is a moron. He has virtually said so in another context, that is, when he responded to a question while on the stump regarding his wealth, the 1%, and the great disparity in income, and widening income gap. He responded that some people were just smarter than others.
David Bromwich has a very good summary of who Romney’s speech was aimed at, and it wasn’t US voters:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bromwich/romney-netanyahu-israel_b_1727802.html
Romney, with his eagerness to pander to Republican billionaire donors most of whom are also Israeli firsters, is played for the fool he is by these oligarch manipulators. He is more than happy to outsource US policy, and US lives, to a paranoid, scheming huckster who, laughably, poses as a representative of ‘all Jews’, through his demagogic position in israel. What is near seditious is his handing over US policy decisions to the little tyrant, whilst not even in office. This has handed Yahoo another stick to beat Obama with, which he has wasted no time in doing so, as he tries to ramp up the pressure to take military action with more loose and misleading talk. Romney is happy to collude with the extremists in israel to create an arms race between the parties who compete to outdo each other in kowtowing to the unelected, unrepresentative, mendacious Israel lobby and whatever wars they want the US to fight for them. Bromwich nails the absurdity, and the ugly truth, of these disgraces to the American people. Romney’s stupidity, allied with his cynical calculated play for money, and thus votes, at the expense of America should consign him to the rubbish heap of history. Unfortunately, with the poverty of real debate in the US, and its corporate media hacks, most Americans have little idea of the depth of the political surrender to Israel. However, those who overreach themselves, can get their fingers burnt. Here’s hoping.
“Romney’s ‘culture’ comment ought to be an election-changing moment”
It ought to be but it won’t.
Look around…..the US has devolved from one nation for all into a political system of ‘competing tyrannies’ of minorities and ethnics.
US government by the desires of various ethnic niches of voters and donors has produced a toxic ‘hodgepodge’ of domestic and foreign policy that is destroying the country and is not sustainable in the long term.
Hold onto your hats cause sooner or later even the majority is going to go tribal.
I have asked many times here if anyone knew of any instance in history like the US has now where it’s government and FP is controlled by foreign loyalist for the benefit of a foreign nation. Well no one has ever given me a example of this happening before in history and I’ve never been able to find one.
Evidently Professor Bromwich, who I am sure has done his history homework, has never been able to find a comparable example either.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bromwich/romney-netanyahu-israel_b_1727802.html
Romney, Netanyahu, and George Washington’s Warning
Professor David Bromwich – Yale
‘’Nothing like this has ever happened before in American politics. But then, there has never been anything in history remotely like the present relationship between the United States and Israel.’’
At the King David Hotel, Romney addressed campaign donors from America who had traveled thousands of miles to another country to affirm their loyalty. But loyalty to what and whom? Are the United States and Israel the same country? This was one of the weirdest exhibitions of transnational financial muscle in recorded history. It probably has no precedent. Will it have a sequel? Let us try a thought experiment. Imagine the American reaction to an American presidential candidate who calls a meeting of wealthy Italian-Americans in Vatican City in order to declare their unconditional fidelity to the Pope. The United States was once the country of protestant nonconformity.
What is happening to us?’’
George Washington thought that being Americans should be enough for us. In his great Farewell Address, he also gave some reasons why attachment to a foreign power, no matter how sentimental the affection, could only impair American liberty and independence and serve to draw the country into unnecessary wars. “Nothing,” said Washington,
is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. . . .Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. . . .The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim.”
>>>>>>
What indeed is happening to us. I am convinced that this Israeli fetish in the US will come to an end. Whether it comes to an end with a whimpering strangulation or the biggest FUBAR event we have ever seen I don’t know. I tend to lean toward there being some FUBAR event simply because the nature of the zionist and Israel.
Since there is nothing in history exactly comparable to go by all we can guess on is the rise and fall and Waterloos of similar aggressors and movements.
How ironic Newt Gingrich killed any chance he had when, for a huge payola, he said Palestinians were an invented people and now Mitt Romney….who said Palestine has no clout in American politics?