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When Mother Jones published a video ofcomments by Mitt Romney at a privateupscale fundraising dinner about the 47 percent of the electorate who wouldnever vote for him

who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims,who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who

believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it

and (the payoff)who pay no income taxesNew York Times columnist RossDouthat asked whether these comments were a window into the elusive realRomney and proof that his moderate-seeming faade has always been a sham?

Douthats answer to his own question was Who could possibly know?

Romney has built his career, in business as in politics, on telling peoplewhat they want to hear in order to persuade them to let him manage theiraffairs. This is a man who tried to get to the left of Ted Kennedy in their1994 Senate race and to the right of Rick Perry in 2012. The idea that hewould reveal his true political beliefs to a group of people hes trying to

flatter, cajole and spook into giving him more money may be appealing tohis critics, but it isnt necessarily convincing.

That answer made sense to me. Throughout his long campaign for the Republicanpresidential nomination and for the presidency itself, Romney took so manydifferent positions that they were referred to as etch-a-sketches.

In the first Presidential debate on October 3, 2012, Romney introduced a brandnew sketch in an effort to flatter, cajole and spook potential voters tuned into thedebate into voting for him as a moderate. And Douthat was one of those whowere flattered, cajoled or spooked. As he saw it, Romney might just have becomethe effective leader of the leaderless Republican party by channeling thebases passions in a constructive direction and by reinterpreting the partys

ideology to meet the challenges of the present day.

Thats quite a accomplishment for an etch-a-sketchtransforming Romneyfrom someone whom no one could possibly know what he stood for into a partyleader. But Douthats only question, as we head into the final four weeks of thecampaign, is whether [this new sketch came] a little bit too late.

According to the polls, maybe not. Nate Silvers Five Thirty Eight blog showedObama free-falling from an 87-to-13 favorite to win the election on October 4 to a61-to-39 favorite on October 12. Evidently a lot of the polled electorate did theirown Douthat flip, suddenly willing after an hour and a half debate to trust acandidate whom they had never trusted before.

This election is a rarity in that the core issue that has divided the country since thepassing of the New Deals Social Security Actwhether it is a proper role of thefederal government to provide social insurance (aka entitlements) to its peopleispretty much the explicit core issue of the campaign. In past campaigns theissue has been buried beneath symbolic issues such as whether government is toobig or taxes are too high. And so it might have been this year until Romney choseCongressman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiserhttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiserhttp://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/douthat-our-revolting-elites/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-05/mitt-romney-finds-his-etch-a-sketchhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/opinion/sunday/douthat-it-could-be-his-party.html?ref=rossdouthathttp://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiserhttp://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/douthat-our-revolting-elites/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-05/mitt-romney-finds-his-etch-a-sketchhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/opinion/sunday/douthat-it-could-be-his-party.html?ref=rossdouthathttp://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/

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Ryan is the author of two successive budgets adopted by all Republicans in theHouse of Representatives and supported by all Republican Senators. If Democratshad not blocked them, both budgets would have eviscerated Medicare andMedicaid, enacted in 1965 by the Johnson administration, leaving Social Security(one has reason to suspect) for future dismembering. And both Romney and Ryanhave vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 by the Obama

administration.

A vote for Romney and Ryan in the 2012 election is a vote for theRepublican party and a vote to take down the social insurance programs.

The Republican party in Congress cares solely and exclusively about its richcontributors. These rich contributors care about not having their taxes raised ortheir activities regulated or their being prevented from obtaining monopoly profits.

Theyre rent-seekers, seeking to profit from activities that dont add to theeconomy but do increase their share of it, rather than free-market capitalists.

They thrive not on fair and open competition but on preferential treatment fromCongress and especially the Republican party. Nor are they friends of smallbusinesses, which represent potential competitors.

The Republicans rich contributors may be more interested in privatizing the socialinsurance programs than in taking them apart, since privatizing creates newrent opportunities with all risks borne by the insured or the federal government.But if privatizing is not a viable option, the Republican party in Congress is onrecord (by voting for the Ryan budgets) as favoring the weakening or eliminatingof social insurance to make sure that taxes will never have to be raised on theirrich contributors.

At the opposite end of the Republican base are the newly self-described TeaPartiers, mostly aging white male workers who partake of government benefits(as have 96% of Americans at some point in their life), often without being awareof their source, but dont believe that the government should provide benefits for

those they perceive as not having earned themlike Romneys 47%. Their viewscan be quite stark. Times columnist Nicholas Kristof was recently taken aback byhow many readers of his column about his uninsured, dying former roommateweresavagely unsympathetic.

Speaking personally, I cannot deny the legitimacy of the Tea Partiers lack ofsympathy or political views, although Im of the opposite persuasion and alwayshave been. But like many others I can point out the one-sidedness ofRomneys emphasis on who pays federal income taxes. Counting all taxes,state and local as well as federal, and payroll, sales, gasoline and property taxesalong with income taxes, all Americans pay taxes. And the share paid by thelower 40% or 60% or 99% relative to their income is not much different than whatthe top 1% pays. In 2010, the 1% claimed just over one-fifth of all income and

paid 21% of all taxes, which amounted to 30% of their income. The 99%claimed just under four-fifths of all income and paid 78% of all taxes, whichamounted to 28% of their income. Wheres the beef?

Whatever the disappointments of the Obama administration, this election is aboutpreserving social insurance or getting rid of it, which will depend on whether theRepublicans in Washington have the power to get rid of it or the Democrats havethe power to preserve it. Ignore third parties, outlier views and issues not at issuein the campaign (such as the Afghan War or climate change) until after the

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/3079:goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-culthttp://truth-out.org/opinion/item/3079:goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-culthttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/26/do-96-percent-of-americans-receive-government-benefits/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/opinion/kristof-scotts-story-and-the-election.html?src=me&ref=generalhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/opinion/kristof-scotts-story-and-the-election.html?src=me&ref=generalhttps://sites.google.com/site/99vote/homehttp://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2011.pdfhttp://truth-out.org/opinion/item/3079:goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-culthttp://truth-out.org/opinion/item/3079:goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-culthttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/26/do-96-percent-of-americans-receive-government-benefits/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/opinion/kristof-scotts-story-and-the-election.html?src=me&ref=generalhttps://sites.google.com/site/99vote/homehttp://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2011.pdf

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election next month. This is the 99%s election to win, if only they get out andvote. Im not sure which way theyll choose on social insurance, but Ill trust their

judgment far more than the 1%s.

http://seekingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-99-percent-election.html

http://seekingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-99-percent-election.htmlhttp://seekingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-99-percent-election.html