Romney’s Dangerous Impertinence

September 20, 2012 by Maureen Andrade

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney made fifty minutes of impertinent comments in May, and someone with a Smart Phone caught him. Luckily something in that room could be described as “smart.” The red-faced shame Romney should be sporting in the wake of this humiliating blunder isn’t apparent, as he has doubled down on his classist remarks this week.

This latest episode in the implosion of Romney’s campaign begs the question: how dangerous is it to be impertinent?

When Romney went to London for the Olympics this summer, he was insulting of the hosts. His tour of Israel was a mess, after he dissed the Palestinians. So his remarks about the poorer 47% of Americans really weren’t a surprise. Romney is good at being insensitive and buffoonish. If he were a contestant on "America’s Got Talent," his act would be making fun of the judges. It’s his bag.

But what could happen if a dude like this took the reins of the mightiest nation on earth? What would foreign relations look like if our president went on one over-seas trip after another, embarrassing the hosts? How bad could it be, right?

Oh, yes, that’s right…George Bush Jr. bad. Epic, endless, pointless wars bad. Ineffectual domestic policies bad. Recall folks, we just got done with this show, and it left us pelting the screen with rotten tomatoes. We mustn’t forget.

At this point, Romney has shown himself to be a joke of a candidate in a very serious race. When someone tells me he supports Romney, I think to myself, well then you’re racist. Only fear of a black president could encourage someone to support a candidate as clearly incompetent and incomprehensible as Romney….there’s just no other explanation.

Romney is a dangerous candidate because what comes out of his mouth is impertinent crap. He’s shown not one iota of leadership quality. He’s a candidate of entitlement and privilege in a country where 99% have none. Not only does he not represent the people, he doesn’t have a damned clue what other people need.

Voting is a solitary moment when we each must face ourselves, our ethics, and our hearts. This is a profoundly private moment. My heart wants to believe more than 50% of us will cast our vote for the man who has shown up for us, again and again, for four years, and proven his dedication, intellect, and discernment. The other candidate is an old rich man from a dying regime, who inherently doesn’t respect the work the rest of us do to keep going.

Impertinence is dangerous…insensitivity can be deadly. Politics is serious business. November 6, let’s remind Romney of the power of words...as they are windows into our beliefs.