I'm about to quote something pretty deplorable, but not in order to deplore it. It is from the inimitable Michelle Malkin. (And when I say inimitable, I mean it literally. I confess: whenever I wanted a character in Patriots to say something truly over the top, I put a small portion of a Michelle Malkin transcript in his/her mouth. I could not - would not have dared - to invent anything near so vituperative.)
Here’s the quote that has liberal finger-waggers and Republican wet-finger-in-the-wind windbags in meltdown mode:
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” Romney explained to an audience member who asked how the candidate was going to change the “we’ll take care of you” mentality of Obama voters. “All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. And they will vote for this president no matter what.”
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This portion of voters consists of “people who pay no income tax,” Romney explained. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
He’s talking, of course, about the Peggy the Moochers and Henrietta Hugheses of the world: savior-based Obama supporters for whom the cult of personality trumps all else. He’s talking about the Sandra Flukes and Julias of the world: Nanny State grievance-mongers who have been spoon-fed identity politics and victim Olympics from preschool through grad school and beyond. And he’s talking about the encrusted entitlement clientele who range from the Section 8 housing mob in Atlanta who caused a near-riot to the irresponsible, debt-ridden homeowners who mortgaged themselves into oblivion and want their bailout now, now, now.
The question is not to deplore, but to understand. Where do emotions like these come from? How is it that so many who seem to be such golden winners of life's lottery manage to generate so much hatred, fear, and contempt for those who have fared less well? It would make an ugly kind of sense if such rage were expressed by those who had less against those who had more. But who stands at the highest window in the building to drop slop onto the heads of the unfortunates standing 10 or 12 stories below?
