Romney and Race

Last week, on the posting for November 9th's "Around the Bend", I put forth an argument that race seems to play an important part in elections. A part of me was reluctant to write it, since it can be taken to imply that those who vote Republican tend to be racist - an argument that I was not trying to make, and which I reject. That said, race does play a role for far too many people, and all of the criticism that blacks systematically would vote for Obama precisely because he is black are more or less balanced out by those whites who would never vote for Obama because he is not white.

This comes right on the heels of neocon radio commentator Rush Limbaugh using a word, "hispandering", apparently of his own creation, that many find offensive, and even racist.

I really did not want to talk specifically about the election results, and take further digs at the loser of last week's election, Mitt Romney. After all, even though I am not a Democrat, or a supporter of President Obama, I am more inclined towards supporting him, if need be, then Romney and the Republicans. I used to consider myself a Democrat, after all. So, I did not want to risk appearing like a sore winner, or rubbing it in their face, so to speak.

However, Romney is making news headlines again, and he is using the race card. He claimed that Obama won by giving "gifts" to minorities, and that their support, in turn, won him the election. Romney singled out that these gifts were given particularly to the "African-American community, the Hispanic community, and young voters."

Essentially, he spoke about how Obamacare, and claimed that minorities were "being told you're now going to get free health care", and that this was a big part of the reason why Obama had been so successful with them. He also mentioned "with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called DREAM Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group."

"With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift." Romney said.  He then went on to talk about young women, saying "Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women."

Essentially, those are all arguments that he made before election day, although he was not so transparent in the language that he used, as he specifically seemed to separate himself from those minorities. It seemed, frankly, in the same spirit of "them" versus "us".

It was a bit reminiscent of his "47 percent" comment that generated so much controversy.

The truth is that minority voters also will tend to identify much more with a minority President, because he is one of their own. That much, Romney did not mention. Also, let's be quite frank: Romney is hardly even a "typical" white guy. He was, and is, an elitist.

So much was this the case, in fact, that even many whites were hesitant in regards to Romney, as well. Republicans in general seemed to drag their feet in embracing Romney as their candidate. Romney just seemed a little too elite for most people, and there was a fear that he just would not be able to relate to the majority of Americans, and vice versa. He is, after all, the $200 million dollar man, the man of "dressage". He joked that he, too, knew what it was like to be unemployed, making light of the suffering of millions of Americans who are unemployed, and don't have two hundred million to fall back on. Romney's main selling point was that he was a very good businessman, yet that business seemed willing to take profits at all costs, even when American jobs were shipped off to China. That might be sound business practices these days, but it is hardly the sign of someone that most people would trust as their President.

Romney's "us" and "them" attitude seemed to extend beyond just race, although that element seemed to exist, just underneath the surface. his recent comments seemed to solidify that, specifying race as the determining factor, and reinforcing the notion that minority voters are addicted to "handouts". he also referred to "illegals", a term that many believe to be on the verge of racism.

The fact that he seems to be suggesting that Obama specifically helped out minorities in order to win votes (rather than legitimately trying to help them out) suggests a strong measure of cynicism, as well as a lack of understanding, on the part of Romney. By outright mentioning these things, he seems to be hinting at the often popular notion of some kind of vague conspiracy favoring minorities over the white majority.

"The president's campaign focused on giving targeted groups a big gift, so he made a big effort on small things. Those small things, by the way, add up to trillions of dollars", he said.

If anything, rather than reprising himself from accusations of racism, Romney's comments will likely buttress those arguments even further.

One way or the other, Romney's campaign proved polarizing, and it is this, more than anything else, that lost him the election. he can take comfort in blaming everyone else, but ultimately, given Obama's lack of popularity, which remained consistent throughout this Presidential election, Romney really has no one to blame but himself.

That said, Romney's own campaign seemed to be swamped with one gaffe after another. I mentioned some earlier, but he seemed to waffle on many issues, and to be that typical slimy, untrustworthy politician that tells you what you want to hear in order to get elected. Also, his Republican Party seemed to shoot themselves in the foot, and did themselves no favor with one bizarre comment after another concerning rape and abortion.

Personally, I believe that what cost Romney the election was the blame game, something that he, rather ironically, accused Obama of. He still is at it, pointing the finger of blame now on minorities. I think it would behoove the Republicans to take a lesson from that. Time will tell if they actually will learn that lesson, or if history will repeat itself.

Here is a link to an article at Boston.com by Callum Borchers ("Gifts" to minorities, young voters helped President Obama win re-election, Mitt Romney says"):

http://www.boston.com/politicalintelligence/2012/11/14/gifts-minorities-young-voters-helped-president-obama-win-election-mitt-romney-says/oXNAIw3FaHEogvImiCgHvI/story.html

Here is an article by Mauve Reston of the Los Angeles Times ("Romney Attributes Loss to "Gifts" Obama Gave Minorities"):

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-donors-20121115,0,1719033.story

Finally, one last article on by Evan Schwartz of Vibe ("Mitt Romney Blames Election Loss On Minorities"):

http://www.vibe.com/article/mitt-romney-blames-election-loss-minorities