Republicans Call Senior Citizens “Inhuman”
The headline is sarcasm… sort of.
Obama got in “trouble” today for making an off-handed joking reference to Mitt Romney putting Seamus the Dog on the roof of his car in a kennel some 29 years ago.
Here’s Obama’s exact words:
“(Romney) said that new sources of energy, like wind, are ‘imaginary’. Governor Romney then explained his energy policy this way, and I’m quoting here: ‘You can’t drive a car with a windmill on it.’. . . Well I don’t know if he’s actually tried that. . . I know he’s had other things on his car. . .”
Of course, the line drew laughs and Republican outrage. Then, the media spent all day debating whether or not this was a gaffe, whether the outrage is justified, whether or not that kind of ‘teasing’ is okay & pointing out that 68% of Americans disapprove of strapping a dog to the top of your car.
Lost in all this is the substance of the context. For intents and purposes, YOU CAN DRIVE A CAR WITH A WINDMILL ON TOP!!! Not literally, of course, but in case Governor Romney hadn’t heard, there are these great new devices called ELECTRIC cars. You plug them in at night to an electrical outlet that can get it’s juice…FROM WIND!!! So, in that sense you CAN drive a car with a windmill on top, and with climate change becoming an increasingly more apparent and dire reality, we need to get more of these electric cars on the road!
Instead, we’re talking about dog jokes.
Reverend Sharpton had the best take on how, with Ryan entering, the race has turned to a discussion of Medicare. “The race isn’t about Obama, it’s about yo momma.” Awesome.
What I find interesting about how the Ryan budget destroys Medicare as we know it is how it’s supporters try to justify the change to all-important senior vote. They say over and over about how the proposed changes do not effect anyone 55 years or older. How can these seniors be so opposed to turning Medicare into a voucher system? It won’t effect them? It’s only us young whippersnappers who won’t be able to get Medicare!
See, Republicans, American seniors are capable of a very simple human emotion, one of the very things that differentiates human beings from animals. It’s called empathy.
Now, if I were on cable news, I would say: “REPUBLICANS DENY THE VERY HUMANITY OF OLDER AMERICANS”.
Point being, yeah, a senior whose on a fixed income with limited resources will oppose ending Medicare for people twenty years younger than them, maybe even after said senior won’t even be around, because they can imagine what it’s GOING TO BE like for the next generation because they are in that circumstance right now. I would even go as far to say that it’s even easier for a young person to vote in a way that’s against their own interests 20 years from now than it is for a someone twenty years older to vote those interests for someone else who will be in that position in 20 years. They can empathize twenty years down the road.
So, every time you hear a Republican try to appeal to a senior citizen voter by saying that NONE of the proposed changes effect anyone over the age of 55, what that Republican is actually saying is that seniors should just be selfish, heartless and not care about the next generation. Who cares if it’s screwing over your children, it’s not screwing YOU over, right? You shouldn’t have EMPATHY. You shouldn’t be a human being!
I’m wondering if, under a Romney/Ryan regime, the “Grade B” eggs in my fridge would qualify for “personhood”?
LOL……Awesome blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Republicans have used Our policies want affect you line, more than a few times and to good affect.
Makes you wonder about people.
And the obviousness of how stupid and mean spirited something is, if it’s main selling point is it effects someone else not you. that someone else is always thought of as the Others, those lazy no good layabouts that are drains on the system. The Others.
The others those that don’t put their hand over their heart to salute the flag. The Others that would watch a lamb drown.
Hey, I have a windmill on my lawnmower.
Actually its solar powered
Good post. I think you are correct about the humanity of the baby boomers. They were born into a time when the turmoil of the winds of world war and the Great Depression forced you to forego comfort and you pitch in, whether it is a stranger, a neighbor or a family member in bad circumstances. It was, and still is, the right thing to do and those lessons are not lost on the seniors, but the young lions Romney and Ryan are blind to the simplest of human attributes… (as you so eloquently put it)… empathy.
:entertained: