I'm as delighted as the next Democrat that Romney's made what seems to be a very bad mistake in describing 47% of Americans as dependent on government and believing that they're victims. I hope this cooks his goose.
But some people's reactions to what he said have been a revelation to me. Boy, they hate moochers! And they truly believe there's a huge number of moochers among us, people who have "a tendency to repeatedly ask help of others, especially if they are making little effort to help themselves," as the dictionary defines it.
That's what I took away from reading blog posts and comments this mornings. Lots of people feel taken to the cleaners in a very personal way. And it makes them mad as hell.
One blog-commenter detailed the laziness of people in her neighborhood, how some work for awhile, tire of it, go back on government support, and wear designer labels. She extrapolated that this is happening on a huge scale. Therefore, Romney is right.
This reminds me of a co-worker of mine many years ago. Every morning on the way to work, she'd pass a group of people leisurely drinking coffee outside Peet's.
"Why do they get to do that?" she complained. "Why aren't they working?"
I remember being confused. How did she know what they did with their lives? Maybe they worked at home and didn't have set hours. Maybe they had trust funds. Maybe they worked the nightshift. Who knew? It was all I could do to keep up with typing on an IBM Selectric and using multiple colors of correction fluid. The people at Peets----whatever.
I'm still puzzled by why this angered her. Her perception--because she really didn't know--was that people were getting away with something at her expense. And the blog comments I read online today: how do those people know so much about other people's lives? And does it say something about their own?
No comments:
Post a Comment