Someone who lives on Social Security and does not pay income taxes might suddenly realize Rommney's contempt includes them.

No. "Keep your guvmint hands off my Medicare." It's ingrained.

No. "Keep your guvmint hands off my Medicare." It's ingrained.

That's the base. Not every Romney supporter is base. I know one woman who is genuinely anti-racist, but very right-wing economically. She is currently a Romney supporter. I'll be very curious to see if this changes her mind. If it does that will be a straw in the wind.

Oh, ita. I hope sleep helps and that everything goes smoothly for you tomorrow.

I'm not undecided, and I didn't, actually, know that he really believed that almost half the country, simply by dint of voting for Obama, were parasitic leeches. I knew his political/economic views were wildly opposed to Obama's, and destructive and scary from where I stand, but that's politics and policies. I didn't actually think he was so contemptuous of half of the people he wants to govern.

That he thought it of a lot of people? No. That he thought it of 47% of the population, yeah, I'm shocked.

I didn't think he was quite so stupid as to say it so openly.

And this.

I am surprised.

Which implies that either the effort is so massive the gain is out of your reach, or rather, it's actually pretty damned good here, so never mind until that theoretical election where my peeps lose. And even then...most people would rather stay and try fix it.

Objectively, the US has life going pretty well (we don't die of starvation, get sent to camps, murdered, raped or have no options) for many compared to a lot of places. And the places that seem "better" aren't exactly inviting everyone else in. Some really terrible things happen here and wanting to make them better is something I see as a good thing.

I suspect that it's pretty good here until "the election" that makes people reflexively want to abandon ship but even still, it's better than most of the places you could easily get into. We're the safety college. Some of it sucks, but they won't kick you out so you stay.

Well more people don't believe they have said the things they are quoted as saying. Here it is on tape and will be played in commercials and go viral on the internet.

Oh, it's misinterpreted and taken out of context. I am believing more and more that the truth isn't exactly a defense any longer.

No. "Keep your guvmint hands off my Medicare." It's ingrained.

This is not the entitlement you are looking for...

I feel like people just refuse to look at reality. They probably think the same of me.

Ah, here it is. The Republican Party during Obama's Presidency: [link]

The difference is that Reagan's dog whistle of welfare queens was racist. It's easy to turn this into an attack on the working class red staters and hold up a mirror to them. "Yo, Mitt Monocle McTaxcheater is talking about YOU."

I think the notion that there are those people on food stamps (because they're lazy), which is totally different from my family being on food stamps (because Obama is bad for the economy), is too ingrained for this to have much traction.

It's the same line of thinking that allows pro-life women to justify their own abortions - yes, I'm having this procedure done, but I'm not like those sluts who want to let everyone do it.

I think the notion that there are those people on food stamps (because they're lazy), which is totally different from my family being on food stamps (because Obama is bad for the economy), is too ingrained for this to have much traction.

I know we say don't read the comments, but the vitriol I have seen in articles about Mitt Romney's statement- not directed toward Mitt, but toward this mythical people who are living off our hardwork and buying chips and soda with their EBT benefits cards. The person I know in 'real life' who feels like this really does have a hard life and refuses to take any help, and I think she channels her anger from that into the anger against these mythical people.

What is sort of weird (although anecdata) is that when my mother worked as a case worker/benefit examiner for medicaid for seniors, she had a lot more problems with wealthy people gaming the system and hiding assets so that they did not lose their inheritance by paying for their aging parents to be put in a nursing home.

Oh, and I just read a note from a "conservative" who explained the 12 cookies joke (A CEO, a Tea Party Member and a Union Worker are sitting at a table with 12 cookies. The CEO takes 11, and says to the Tea Party Member-- "Watch out, that Union Guy wants to take your cookie!") this way-- The CEO only takes 11 cookies because he produced the cookies, and therefore should have most of the cookies.

when my mother worked as a case worker/benefit examiner for medicaid for seniors, she had a lot more problems with wealthy people gaming the system and hiding assets so that they did not lose their inheritance by paying for their aging parents to be put in a nursing home.

Yeah, my granddad, while not really wealthy, did a bit of this. When Grandma's dementia got so bad that she had to go to a home, granddad put his land (MI Upper Peninsula woods) into my dad's name so Granddad wouldn't have to sell it to pay for Grandma's care. Dad got to pay all the property taxes, but Granddad kept on selling the timber and keeping the money. Which, theoretically, Dad could have stopped with legal action, but it was his father. So that never happened.

I'm assuming this map of people who don't pay income tax, by state, is true: [link]