Tarantino, Romney, And The Forty-Seven Percent

It's Oscar Week in the Romney household and all over America. So on Sunday, Old Mitt will sit lounging on his lush, fur covered sofa noshing on truffle ganache covered popcorn and watching the Ayn Rand classic, "Atlas Shrugged." Frozen firmly in 1957, the year "Shrugged" was published, Romney is as clueless about the 2013 Oscar nominations as he was about his chances of winning the presidency.

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However, film director, Quentin Tarantino, in his Oscar nominated film, "Django Unchained," may have coincidentally highlighted the one thing Romney thought he had a handle on in 2012...the 47 percent. Romney, during the presidential campaign. said this while speaking at a private fundraiser:

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. ... My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Those words represent Romney's inaugural step into political quicksand.

...all the while, Tarantino was crafting Romney's 19th century alter ego, plantation owner,"Big Daddy" played by actor, Don Johnson. The film clip that started this post ended with Patina saying, "as you please, Big Daddy." I'll bet that line makes Mitt yearn for his "binder full of women."

Unfortunately, this clip ends before the "money line" is uttered. After Big Daddy tells Patina to show Django around the plantation, he cautions her that Django is a free man....not to be treated like a slave. Patina, her face twisted in puzzlement, says, "Do you want me to treat him like white folks?" To which Big Daddy emphatically exclaims, "No, no, no, no...." As Big Daddy struggles to school Patina on the intricacies of handling free Blacks, he ponders aloud, "What's the name of that 'peckerwood boy' that lives down the road......Jimmy...is that his name?" He then turns to Patina wearing a sly grin and triumphantly states, " Oh yeah, treat him like Jimmy."

That's the money line, baby!!! Don't treat him like "white folks," treat him like that "peckerwood boy" Jimmy. That was Big Daddy's way of saying that Jimmy wasn't "white" like him. Oh nooo...Jimmy is lazy, good-for-nothing, hard-drinking, working class, lacking education, possessed of low morals, dependent, dirt under his nails, unworthy or real consideration....you know, the 47 percent.

Tarrantino's fictional depiction simply reminds us that conservative disgust with the 47 percent is nothing new. Wealthy conservative whites have often had disdain for their less fortunate white brothers. Alabama segregationist Governor, George Wallace, while serving as an Alabama judge was chastised by a political nemesis who stated that the law was "made for niggers and white trash, not for me and Adams." To which Wallace readily assented.

Southern white conservatives have raised to a "high art" the political act of condescending to poor whites while harvesting their votes. Northern blue-blooded conservatives in white-collared shirts kick sand in the face of their unionized blue-collared brothers. "Establishment" Republicans look down their noses at "Tea Party" activists, southern evangelicals, Appalachian coal miners, Nascar lovers, and other "good ole boys." Wealthy, conservative Republicans seem to believe that those outside their gated neighborhoods are missing an "individual responsibility" gene.

The fictional character, Big Daddy, would likely have been a southern, conservative, Democrat...the party of Jefferson Davis and John C. Calhoun... the party of the old confederacy. Today, the parties have accomplished an ideological "switcharoo" with Romney's Republicans, the party of Lincoln, ruling the conservative south and drawing it's inspiration from the states' rights icons of Dixie.

Romney's error was to let the conservative cat out of the bag. He boldly proclaimed closely held conservative sentiments and was unlucky enough to be caught on tape. The problem is...many of the 47 percent that Romney so derisively insulted still voted for him!! Now, poor working-class folks of all races in all regions have a decision to make. Will they continue to be condescended to by the Mitt Romney's of the political world and still reward them with their votes?

The Republican Party, in an effort to shed its outdated southern skin, is now "trial ballooning" Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ron Paul, and Paul Ryan...desperately looking for that "Silver Lining Playbook" in this ominous cloud. But, with Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain attacking Susan Rice and Chuck Hagel; Marco Rubio and Ron Paul dismissing President Obama's proposal for immigration reform; the NRA promoting gun-toting school teachers; and Mississippi legislators JUST NOW (two weeks ago) getting around to ratifying the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which outlawed slavery, the Republican Party continues to look more like "Beasts of the Southern Wild" than the party of "Lincoln."

The political ground has shifted. President Obama has charted a course more true to the Declaration of Independence and the values of Abraham Lincoln. The President charts a course toward American solidarity across all political, economic and social divides. We, the people, are now marching forward toward "a more perfect union," not backward toward "Les Misérables"

Until we rendezvous...

Peace!!