The class warfare themes of the OFA moves the SuperPac Priotities USA to use the now infamous secret Romney video from May as an appeal to the middle class voters to protect their interests and stay the course with POTUS. This is a surprising interpretation to my thinking. The "middle class" is a marketing concept, not an actual group of American who can be found on a list of lists. It seems useful to mention that the idea of the middle class dates from the 18th century as a general tool to make a distinction between the insufferable upper class and the inedible lower class; however the early 20th century definition of the middle class as professionals who possess human capital, that is brain power and educated skills, is most appropriate here in the 21st century. OFA asserts that Mitt Romney is no friend to the middle class: "If Mitt Romney wins, the middle class loses." This conditional threat is a let-down from the build-up of Mitt Romney's sniffy arrogance at the Boca Raton fundraiser that 47% of the population are victims, dependent losers, helpless, irrelevant parasites, proles, etcetera mob. Gee, Mitt, do you think there is another way of speaking about human beings who were not born as a prince of princes like you?
World of Romney.
The only excuse for this sort of rubbish from Romney is that it is an attitude so uniform in elitist America that no one even notices the cruelty in it. Or perhaps they notice and figure Romney is just saying that to pander for cash? Or perhaps the political class all believe it, and when you go to fund-raisers you expect to hear the pol disdain the mob? Or perhaps the American monied sharpies retain a smug distrust of democracy as regarded by our well born and well to do founding fathers? Is the American demos the villain in the World of Romney? Unknown. This is a campaign, not a philosophy class or something credible like the chapter of a novel, "The Way We Live Now & Again." OFA and the Priorities team are pitching the Romney remarks in the most general direction. Who cares about the middle class? Not the middle class. We care about us, who live here, who work in this economy, who own this threatened mortgage (along with the banks to big to fail and the nationalized Mother Mortgage, Fannie Mae). In sum, I am unconvinced that the Obama campaign knows how to exploit the class warfare game other than to lob out these mud balls that Mitt Romney is a pompous and uninteresting rich guy. We are going to vote for Candidate Obama because Prince Romney of the Middle Class is not actually of the middle class ? Because Obama, himself a self-elected prince of the Middle Class, says that he likes the middle class more than Mitt Romney says he likes the middle class? Puzzle?
Coal Country.
A coal miner cheers as Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event at the American Energy Corporation, Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012, in Beallsville, Ohio. Photo: Mary Altaffer / AP
In contrast to the OFA/Priorities generalities, the Romney video on coal country (below) appears focused on exactly the voter that will help the Electoral College count in the states of PA, WVA, OH, KY. Grandpa Miner does not think of himself as "middle class." Grandpa Miner understands exactly who he is, and what he wants, and what matters in an election; and he will choose not because of what Mitt Romney is, an faux upper class twit, but because of what coal country wants.