E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Mitt Romney: An Extremist for the Privileged

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/mitt_romney_an_extremist_for_the_privileged_20120229/

Mitt Romney: An Extremist for the Privileged

Posted on Feb 29, 2012

By E.J. Dionne, Jr.


Maybe Rick Santorum is helping Mitt Romney after all: Santorum’s wacky statements about college and snobbery, along with his upset stomach over a 52-year-old John F. Kennedy speech, are distracting attention from Romney’s extremist economic ideas.

Yes, Romney needs Santorum to keep doing his exotic fan dance on social issues because the stage act diverts everyone (especially journalists) from examining the reactionary and regressive ideas Romney is cooking up on substantive questions. If Romneyism is what now passes for “moderation” in the Republican Party, no wonder the authentically moderate Olympia Snowe decided to end her distinguished career in the Senate. There is no room anymore for proposals remotely worthy of the moderate label.

Romney’s plan is simultaneously extreme and very, very boring. It draws on the one and only idea that today’s conservatives offer for solving any and every problem that comes along: Just throw yet more money at rich people.

snip//

We’re witnessing what should be called The Two Cadillacs Fallacy: Romney’s rather authentic moments suggesting he doesn’t understand the lives of average people (such as his comment on his wife’s two Cadillacs) are dismissed as “gaffes,” while Santorum’s views on social issues are denounced as “extreme.” But Romney’s gaffes are more than gaffes: They reflect deeply held and radical views about how wealth and power ought to be distributed in the United States. These should worry us a lot more than Santorum’s dopey “snob” comment or his tasteless denunciation of JFK.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Good article - thanks for posting

It shows it's always worth highlighting every single move or speech Romney makes that aims to benefit the 1%, or shows how he has no clue how a normal American lives. He's still by far the most likely nominee.