Romney Divided Nation into Makers and Moochers

If you're a conservative and you've lost David Brooks, you've lost. Thank you David Brooks, who takes Romney to task. I must say, I truly felt personally insulted today by Romney. I pay taxes and I'm personally responsible and I don't "mooch" from anyone. I'm obviously an Obama supporter, which according to Romney makes me a lazy moocher. But I also don't begrudge anyone who needs food stamps, or a hand up, especially after the fake economy burst. In fact, I'm glad my tax dollars supported those who were in desperate straits.

David Brooks:

But these are not the sensible arguments that Mitt Romney made at a fund-raiser earlier this year. Romney, who criticizes President Obama for dividing the nation, divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the moochers. Forty-seven percent of the country, he said, are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”

This comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?

It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America.

.....

The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor.

Read it all at NYT. It's really, really good. Very satisfying. I wish all republicans could be as enlightened.