Trash-talkin’

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

It’s official: there are two separate realities playing out simultaneously in the United States of America, and last night, much like a hairball, one of them coughed up a tepid presidential candidate who tried for sincerity and missed the mark. Have you noticed that Mitt looks pained when he smiles? That his gaze shifts restlessly, like he’s trying to spot the wild-eyed leftist in the crowd hiding a Molotov cocktail in his trench coat (more likely from a liberal, a can of silly string!)? Have you seen him when Ann sings his praises? He watches her lips until she’s done, then when the reporter turns to him for comment, he chimes in, too eagerly, “Yes, it’s true … waah waah waaaah,” in the same buzz-like drone of that Peanuts teacher, saying nothing and meaning less.

Those of us who live in the other universe, peeking in, are reminded with a chill down our spines that Mitt isn’t running for warm-blooded representative of the American republic; he’s applying for the job as Grover Nordquist’s final arbiter: the cold-blooded guy who gets to drown a teetering government in the tub. Mitt’s got skills as a scavenger and he’s going to pull this nation apart, scrap it, send its jobs overseas and hustle the profit over to the Caymans. Oh, it’ll take him awhile, he’ll have to play his cards carefully, but it’s inevitable: it’s what he does, what he knows how to do. Mitt makes money on money. When Anne talks about those early days of ‘struggle,’ she mentions how Mitt had to cash in investments to make ends meet. Yes, Mitt is a plutocrat running as a concerned everyman, an elitist better at crunching numbers in the abstract than dealing with humans and their messy problems, and — to my mind, anyhow — he’s the least likely, most unimpressive presidential candidate of my lifetime.

The talking heads long ago pointed to this current moment as one in which Mitt — a chronically late bloomer, it appears — had to knock it out of the park, reveal his inner fuzzy-wuzzy and chart a course to American restoration and pride. Instead, Tampa’s final evening — the 2012 Republican crescendo, if you will — will be remembered as the night when we realized that Rowdy Yates a.k.a Dirty Harry a.k.a. Clint Eastwood is better off BEHIND the camera these days and probably shouldn’t try for a career in standup anytime soon. The one speech NOT vetted, manipulated and tightly controlled by the Romneyites turned out to be a bumbling, ill-timed pratfall by a Libertarian octogenarian who is hardly the bad-ass he played in the movies. And sadly, anyone brave enough to have watched it all without covering their eyes might have taken the point that the Pub crowd loved it anyway, one more reminder that they’re mostly old, white farts in funny hats themselves.

Even the genuine enthusiasm and boyish demeanor of Marco Rubio, rising Pub star put in place to introduce Mitt as the anointed one, couldn’t fully restore the nation’s attention to a less-interesting topic: the candidate. In all ways, Romney was outclassed by previous speakers. Anne took kudos for shaping Mitt as trustworthy and kind. Condoleezza was hailed as a terrific example of Republican womanhood, probably because she never tries to hide her education under a list of vague talking points; indeed, as she spoke, many of the Pub attendees were seen cocking their heads like dogs hearing an unfamiliar whistle. Then, on the day before the nomination, controversial class warrior and potential VP, Paul Ryan, grabbed the base in his teeth and shook them until they squealed in delight.

Oh, sure, everything Ryan said was lie or innuendo. Radioactive dust rose over Tampa before he was half-way through. Over at Kos the day after, someone started a list of press hits on Ryan’s speech, noting that in the 40 article titles collected thus far, 16 of them used the word “lie.” So stunning was the press response and its scathing tone — including a FOX News commentator, Sally Kohn, who wrote that the speech was “an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies” — that one website listed 15 additional euphemisms for lying used by those who didn’t use the actual word!

Oh, wait — there was ONE thing Paul Ryan said that was true, ferreted out from the long list of untruths reported by news outlets across the political spectrum. Ezra Kline, over at the Washington Post (hardly a liberal bastion!) wrote the defining article on Ryan, to my mind: thoughtful and compassionate, pushing past the phony posturing and political BS to that spot in the American psyche that wants so much to be FAIR that it practically turns itself inside out and back again. I find his commentary both painful and refreshing, an unexpected revelation of the actual state of our union and the choice of conscience each of us is now required to face. Eventually, Klein found one complete accuracy in Ryan’s speech which told, he suggests, whole truth, and upon which he duly reported.

Klein nails the cause of our concerns about Mitt, when he speaks to the lack of policy and detail, the bending of facts and the cavalier attitude about ‘who believes what’ that defines both Romney’s campaign and the GOP attitude about governance. We have no specifics about how Mitt plans to remake America because he refuses to articulate them, which leaves us wondering if he actually has any, or worse, if they’re so Gawd-awful that he dares not reveal them. More than once, his own political team has confirmed that the public is better off not knowing. As Ezra Kline asserts, none of the numbers so far ‘add up,’ especially not the meme that Mitt is — as suggested by Ryan — ‘not the problem, but the solution.’ So far, then, there is absolutely NO assurance that what Mitt brings to the table changes anything for the better. That’s hardly an encouraging prospect, yet such news, along with details of Ryan’s frightening budget, still doesn’t seem to move the numbers in the polls.

What is it about the hard-core radical base that cheers death-by-neglect or incarceration to ne’er-do-wells, starvation and deprivation for the vulnerable who can’t make their own way, and the end to our higher aspirations of commonwealth and brotherly love? Why is flirting with punishment and censure so attractive to them, hoarding their measly piece from the unwashed hordes who – ummm – also only have a measly piece, and probably don’t want theirs. Do they never recognize how they’re being played by their cynical masters? Does it never occur to them that one fine day it will be THEM in their conservative brothers’ crosshairs? Do they not stop for even a moment when they hear Mitt celebrate their willingness to take on two jobs at $9 an hour to replace the really good one they used to have at $22? Do they never question how his quarter of a billion sitting in overseas accounts rolled in on the very demise of that ‘really good one?’ Do they not hear that vacant echo when the Hollow Man speaks?

I almost hate to go after Mitt, he’s so damned easy to slam. I suppose in his universe, he’s admired and courted for his money and … uhhhh … money, and never shall our realities collide, but unfortunately he’s running to head up MY universe as well, so that makes him fair game. He’s surely no heavyweight. Instead of putting forth actual policies — except those recycled from George W. and crew — all we’ve gotten from Romney these long months past, and culminating this week in Florida, is attack on Obama’s record with too much truthiness to attest its viability. The base went nuts for Ryan’s attack on the President, flawed as it was, giving them gleeful reason to close ranks against the liberal hordes. The actual rallying cry of the GOP? Get the black guy! If they don’t say it out loud, they scream it with attitudes and body language, some of which we’ve already covered here at Planet Waves. Think thrown peanuts and chants of USA-USA-USA! And if we accused them of being racist, they’d tell us we’re playing ‘the race card.’

Trashing Obama is the entirety of the Republican message and will continue to be. Taking down this upstart president was their intent, preventing the nation from necessary recovery or growth, denying him a win day after week after year since his election, even tanking our credit rating and hoping we’ll remain amnesiacs at the polls. But aside from what they’ve prevented from happening, what else do they have to appeal to the common citizen? It’s not like they’ve done any heavy lifting to recommend them, they can’t run on their record. With pain, deprivation and austerity for the working class the whole of their agenda, what else can they talk about? What relief have they offered to a frightened, struggling workforce? Not even sympathy.

Running on Obama’s removal from office, Romney’s campaign has painted him as the ‘welfare president’ (racist by implication), going after him with expensive ads targeting white working class voters (with sufficient ID to enter a polling place.) Allegations that Obama dropped work requirements for welfare recipients were proved untrue and widely debunked by newspapers and fact-checkers, but it hasn’t stopped either the ads or even Romney himself from repeating the mantra. Again, does it never occur to the faithful that there wouldn’t BE so many welfare applicants if the trickle-down economics of the prior administration had worked? Do they never wonder if there’s something screwy about the facts and figures when it’s reported that a Romney pollster recently told a political forum that, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.” That’s a level of denial that cannot exist in my reality but persists in theirs.

It’s worse than that, actually. There is a sense of defiance and obstruction across this nation that stuns me, and the examples keep rolling in with the morning headlines. The 37 states that are purging voters, some in defiance of the Department of Justice, are just the tip of the iceberg. The corporate party in Wisconsin, in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona, more, has passed the limits of law or civility. From Jan Brewer shaking her finger in Obama’s face on the tarmac of a Phoenix airport to her obstruction of federal policy in barring her state from issuing basic benefits and services to the young people pursuing eventual citizenship with Obama’s blessing, there is a kind of tantrum of the ruthless going on, and you can’t convince me that it isn’t rooted in racism.

Look for it, it’s hard to miss. It’s a level of disrespect for this president and for those who follow him that some of us ascribe to lack of civility but is much, much darker. There is a grim determination in this energy loop that has overtones of violence. In the last few days, for instance, the Republicans tightened up their 2012 platform by escalating their call for increased gun-rights. With headlines only recently washed in the tears of family members and onlookers in Colorado, Pubs defiantly called for unlimited bullet capacity in clips and endorsed ‘stand your ground’ rights for all gun owners. And Romney’s embrace of UN conspiracy theories and recent ‘joke’ about birth certificates crosses the line in campaign propaganda. Trust me, that was not a joke; that was a political calculation.

Aaah, but I don’t want this to be Mitt-bash. Let’s just say that Mitt’s a high-flying businessman and remember that the last businessman in the White House — he who goes unnamed except by his exasperated brother — put us right at the edge of the cliff, kicking us over as he retired to a Texas suburb. If you want a close up look at how Mitt rolls with the other big boys practicing predatory capitalism, let Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone fill you in. As for me and mine, we refuse to entertain the notion, conjured in the last part of the 20th century, that America is a business, run for profit — and make no mistake, that IS the very question we are answering at this moment and in this generation.

America is not some corporate brand that means to remain on top, no matter the cost to ethics or reputation. If that’s all it is, then Romney’s our man. But if we think America is more — a great social experiment and a template for the nurture and growth of freedom and equality — then it deserves the best possible leadership. Mitt Romney is no superstar, but merely the last man standing from a stable of wingnuts and religious zealots that couldn’t pass the sniff-test in an old-paradigm universe. He may be good enough to be CEO of the banana republic that America is teetering on becoming, but in my reality, he hasn’t got nearly enough heart to be President of these United States in 2012.