The Atlantic: Mitt Romney's 'Them' Problem

[highplainsdem]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/mitt-romneys-them-problem/262890/

Mitt Romney's campaign on Wednesday released an ad featuring the candidate speaking straight to the camera, all by himself:

It's not the most polished video in the world. But you can see the thinking behind it. The candidate will directly address the voters, making a spare, authentic, heart-to-heart appeal that he cares about how "too many Americans" are suffering.

And then he says it.

"President Obama and I both care about poor and middle-class families. The difference is my policies will make things better for them."

Them.

-snip-

The problem with Romney's campaign is not just a secret video, or media- and PAC-hyped candidate gaffes. It's an approach to talking to and about people in a way that is othering, rather than empathetic -- so much so that in direct appeal to middle-class voters, Romney doesn't think to say (or, rather, no one on his campaign thinks to have him say), "The difference is my policies will make things better for you."

-snip-

[renate]

1. actually, I still think the real problem is that he's caught on tape saying the opposite

I think the concept of living paycheck to paycheck really only presented itself to him in the past week or so.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. What's a National Esoteric Conversation

An oxy-mormon

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. That, right there, is the real heart of the matter.

Mittens doesn't think of us - the vast majority of ordinary people - as having anything in particular to do with him, except as a means to getting him elected. We aren't even on his radar otherwise. We are "them" when he's campaigning and nonexistent when he isn't. As alien and essentially irrelevant beings we can only ever be "them" to him.

It's become abundantly obvious that he really and truly does not care. When he said "It's not my job to worry about those people" he meant it. He doesn't think it's his job to worry about, care about, or do anything for, anybody other than the very rich. And that's such a foreign concept to him that he doesn't even know how to hide the fact that he doesn't care.

[Waiting For Everyman]

4. He doesn't see himself as one of us, which makes HIM 'the other'.

He cares so much... says the poster-boy of outsourcing.

Maybe he means that he'll let up for a while on his own outsourcing. Big of him.

By all that's right, that jackass should be in jail for doing this to all of us, not running for President! For him to even dare to run for this office is the height of arrogance.

[NightOwwl]

5. ...my policies will make things better for "them."

Oh please, please, please media pick up on this. This plus the 47% plus the ER = health care should convince just about everyone this dude doesn't give a damn about anyone but the top 1%, oh, excuse me, the job-creators (god i hate that phrase.)

[brazil]

6. Actually...

...I have to wonder about the whole "them" thing in the context of his religion. I lived in Utah for the majority of my life. I'm not Mormon, but I learned a lot about it by growing up and living there.

I'm going to save myself a bit of effort and plagiarize Wikipedia instead:

In Mormonism, life on earth is just a short part of an eternal existence. Mormons believe that, in the beginning, all people existed as spirits or "intelligences," independent of God. In this state, God came among the intelligences and offered a plan whereby they could progress and "have a privilege to advance like himself." The spirits were free to accept or reject this plan, and a third of them, led by Satan rejected it. The rest accepted the plan, coming to earth and receiving bodies with an understanding that they would experience sin and suffering.

...Mormons believe that one purpose of earthly life is to learn to choose good over evil—godly over worldly. In this process, people inevitably make mistakes, becoming unworthy to return to the presence of God.

Saving ordinances...include: Baptism by immersion after the age of accountability (normally age 8); Confirmation and reception of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, performed by laying hands on the head of a newly baptized member; ordination to the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods for males; an Endowment (including washing and anointing) received in temples; and Marriage (or sealing) to a spouse. Mormons renew their baptismal covenants through weekly participation in the Lord's supper (commonly called Sacrament).

So never mind that Romney's written off the 47%... anyone who hasn't been through the whole Mormon process is written off. We won't pass the test, so who cares what happens to us in this lifetime anyway?

He's written off 99% of the US already, never mind the rest of the planet. We are truly "them" to him.

Remember his roots. His ancestors were so strongly tied to the teachings of early church leaders that they fled to Mexico rather than change their practices. And we're not talking about distant ancestors, this is only a couple of generations back in his case. When they came back to the US, they never got properly assimilated. His family has been isolated from mainstream America for... well, since forever.

Other Mormons are much more moderate, look at Harry Reid for example. But Mitt? The "severe" conservative? He's severe, all right...

[SmileyRose]

7. Said that same thing during the primaries.

It's not a matter of semantics that Willard uses "them" and "they" and President Obama uses "we" and "us". It's the way they each view themselves in the relation to the rest of the world.

Romney has always been privileged. He can afford to look down his nose at the rest of us. President Obama has been in the trenches just like the rest of us and it's part of what makes him so qualified to do what he's been asked to do.

[nichomachus]

8. Money quote from the article

Presidential elections are decided in the first-person plural and the second person. Anyone operating in the third person is in trouble.