(Also Posted To Levittown Patch)
Dear Mr. Romney,
You obviously don’t know me — and I doubt sincerely this missive will ever reach your eyes — but I still felt the need to express some feelings I have over something you said a few days ago.
First, a little about me: I’m a Democrat, though I have been known to vote for other party candidates if I felt they were better qualified. I do occasionally agree with something a conservative says, but overall I stick to party lines. I do so primarily because the majority of your fellow GOP members and I don’t see eye-to-eye regarding the rights of women and LGBT individuals. It’s safe to say that you’re not going to change my mind on those issues any sooner than I will you, so we’ll just agree to disagree — as it is, that’s not the reason I’m writing.
Friday morning, as my boys wolfed down their breakfast, argued about Pokemon characters and wished it was already Saturday (well, one of them was hoping it was), I read an article where you essentially said that poor and middle class people are just jealous of the rich.
“You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class warfare,” you said to Matt Lauer on a segment of ‘The Today Show.’ You went on to chide President Obama for using the whole ’99% vs. 1%’ as part of his campaign, further fueling what you denounced as ‘class warfare.’ “That’s inconsistent with ‘One Nation Under God.’ You added in for good measure.
You know what? I’m going to agree with you…to a point.
I mean, let’s be realistic: who wouldn’t want to be rich and never have a care in the world? I know I certainly wouldn’t mind waking up to step out onto the deck of my giant, private yacht, anchored in crystal clear Caribbean waters. I’d love to be able to turn to the wife and kids and say “Hey guys, who wants to jump on the jet and hit Disney World this weekend?”
And yes, I readily concede that there are those in this country who feel the ‘system’ owes them. We’re no stranger to stories of Americans getting caught cheating the Welfare system or filing false insurance claims, because they feel they should do little work but reap great rewards. The sad fact is that there’s always going to be people who want something for nothing.
But Mr. Romney, you conveniently gloss over several simple truths in your attempt to make it sound like the majority of us are just a bunch of mean-spirited kids, jealous of the little rich boy on the block with his fancy toys.
No matter how hard you try to ignore it or pretend its not true, Mitt (I can call you Mitt, right?) the wealthy pay less taxes in comparison to the middle/poor. This isn’t just a stereotypical liberal whine: The IRS produces an annual report on the some of the highest income-tax payers. And from that document, anyone can see that those individuals have seen their incomes swell, while the amount of taxes they pay has shrunk thanks to all those loopholes and deductions. On the flip side, the income for average Americans has not changed in the last few decades, though their taxes and the prices they pay for food, goods, etc., continue to skyrocket.
Another bit of rhetoric I have heard on occasion is “Why do you want to punish hard working Americans who struggled to become successful?” Again, I’ll willingly admit that there are many people in this country that started with nothing and fought their way to success and fortune. Believe it or not, we don’t begrudge them. They are the fortunate individuals that had an idea or invention or something and the timing was right to market or sell it. At the same time, they could very easily not have had their moment, and be living in a middle-class neighborhood with the rest of us.
In other words, their success does not make them better than anyone else, nor does it exempt them from being responsible to help keep this country running.
I’d also like to take this time to remind you that studies suggest nearly 40% of the wealthy inherited it. It’s true someone in their family worked their fingers to the bone to get where they are today (again, we applaud their hard work), but their decedents enjoy the benefits of being well-off without any effort or recognizing the value of a hard day’s work.
Envy sir? Maybe that’s the wrong term. Anger and frustration certainly. A seething recognition that it’s tiring to see multi-millionares (both Republican and Democrat) stand on stages and tell average Americans how they ‘understand’ their financial woes. Perhaps its disgust because so very rarely are “We The People” represented in politics by our actual peers. But given the millions of dollars spent by folks in an election campaign, very few of us can ever hope to sit in on a session of congress or the White House — unless of course we’re just visiting.
Maybe it’s the fact that we watched this country teeter on the brink of a complete economic collapse because Financial Institution execs just had to have that extra million dollars in their already inflated bonuses, at the expense of people who saw their homes foreclosed or their retirement accounts dry up and wither away. It could also be disbelief when we see a company go belly-up, leaving the employees without incomes, while the CEO inexplicably walks away with a severance package that could probably sustain a small town or county for years.
Mitt, I think it’s safe to say at this point unless you do something completely irrational, we’ll be seeing you in the Presidential debates alongside President Obama. But I will not be voting for you. Not that I’m a huge Obama fan: though he got my vote in 2008, he has not impressed me as much as I hoped he would. But you have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how deeply out of touch you are with the average American. And that’s why I believe you will not win.
You claim it’s about ‘Class Warfare,’ Mitt? You are correct, sir. Only we didn’t start it.
