The Most Damning Line in the Secret Romney Video

<a href="http://www.zumapress.com">Harry E. Walker/Mct</a>/ZUMAPress

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In the week since I made public the secret video of Mitt Romney at a private Boca Raton fundraiser denigrating almost half of America as moochers and victims, I’ve been repeatedly asked what I consider the most damaging—or damning—portion of Romney’s remarks. I’ve noted that the great thing about this story is that people can watch the video for themselves—7 million people went to this site or YouTube in the first days of the video’s release and did that—and reach their own conclusions.

Yet one sentence did stand out to me. When Romney was in mid-rant about the 47 percent—simplistically and erroneously conflating three subsets of Americans: those who voted for Barack Obama, those who receive some form of government assistance, and those who pay no federal income taxes—he said:

I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Here was Romney sharing his view that Americans who don’t make enough money to pay income taxes and his fellow citizens who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, or other government programs are lesser people than he and the millionaires before him. These people, Romney was saying, are not adults; they do not, and will not, fend for themselves or do what they must to feed, clothe, shelter, educate, and care for themselves and their family members. It was an arrogant insult spoken with true detachment. This was 100-percent 1-percent.

My view of this one line was reinforced this morning. I walked into a store to buy some cleaning products. The 40-something woman at the counter rang up the purchases and kept looking at me. Once I had paid, she said in a low voice, “I really don’t want to bother you, but…”

Go ahead, I said.

But I know who you are, and I just want to say that Mitt Romney doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Not at all. I am college-educated, but look where I’m working now. I can’t find a better job now. And, and….

She paused and lowered her voice more:

I’m on food stamps. I didn’t have a choice. I’m making about $12,000 a year now. And I need them. I work hard. And I’m looking for other work. But just because I’m on food stamps doesn’t mean I’m not taking care of myself. Doesn’t he know that? Doesn’t he get it?

Apparently not. Many people on food stamps, Medicaid, and the like do strive to provide for themselves and their families. The working poor…work. They may even park cars at fancy fundraisers for minimum wage. Romney all-too glibly characterized anyone receiving any public assistance as a parasitic freeloader, and he revealed an us-versus-them attitude that was tremendously ungracious, mean-spirited, and predicated on ignorance of the real world.

“Thank you, thank you,” the woman said. “You showed us what he really thinks of us, what he thinks of me.”

Mitt Romney built that. 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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