Never mind

[ljm2002]

8. Mitt Romney is a manipulative bastard...

...who will say anything, anytime in order to get elected.

He really believes that most other people are beneath him, if not beneath contempt.

I agree he should not be called a traitor as that has a specific meaning. He does appear to follow most of the rules; it's just that the rules are rigged for those of his class and he means to not only keep it that way but to cement the class structure in this country. When he thinks of what's "good for America", he really means what's good for the rich white ruling class -- i.e. HIS version of "America".

Furthermore, the language of race war / revolution / etc has been roiling around the political world for many years now mostly on the right, and not just on the fringes. Unless you include Limbaugh and Rove and Ann Coulter and Luntz and Norquist and others, as "fringe", when they have shaped the right and shaped the discourse for decades now. So now when some of us on the progressive side want to call people like Romney out, suddenly it's on us that the political discourse has coarsened? Suddenly it's on us that families are having issues, or that there is a cold / cool / tepid civil war in progress? I'm not buying it.

Now it is true, when fighting an enemy, it is important to not become just like them in the process. There are lines that should not be crossed, rhetorically as well in our actions. But using strong language to describe Romney and his ilk is allowed, and is in fact required, in my book, as long as the language used describes truthfully who and what he is. Which is a self-important, hugely entitled, manipulative, possibly sociopathic, plutocrat bastard.

By the way: political name-calling in American politics has been around from the beginning. Our mistake as progressives and Democrats has been to sit by and avoid the rhetorical battle, while the right seems to coin a new term every day to demonize us ("feminazis" for one example). Well now battle is joined. If we do not fight rhetorically now, we will be forced to fight later, IMO. It's that old "pay now, or pay later" dilemma: if you pay later, you always, without exception, pay more.