Mitt Romney and the Power of Video

Video captures moments you either want to relive or erase. Its power is immense.

We saw evidence of its power in the Rodney King video. Police officers treat everyone the same, right? They don’t discriminate on the basis of race, right? And four of them surely wouldn’t beat a man with batons (after tasing him), leaving him with lacerations, bruising, a facial fracture and a broken ankle, right?

Wrong.

There it was. Evidence of police brutality and racism in grainy black and white footage. That’s what I love about video – its power to expose.

The Mother Jones video of Mitt Romney at a Florida fundraiser did just that. It exposed Mitt Romney for who he really is. And it showed his absolute disdain for 47% of the country. Too harsh? Read part of it for yourself:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what…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…These are people who pay no income tax…And so my job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Who is he talking about? Democrats and Liberals? Trust me, that stereotype is older than dirt.

Think about it. Who doesn’t pay income tax? Disabled veterans. People who work low paying jobs that don’t add up to the minimum amount to be taxed. Middle income Americans who don’t pay taxes because they are able to use child credits and the marriage penalty tax relief. And senior citizens on Social Security whose payouts are too low to be taxed.

So, my parents are senior citizens. They worked 30+ years and paid into the system, only to be called entitled parasites who refuse to take responsibility for their lives?

Since my mom might read this, I won’t tell Mitt Romney to go…himself.

I hope those who are on the fence about Romney watch the video. He really doesn’t care about the financial struggles of Americans. It’s not even the fact that he’s never had to – so he doesn’t know what it’s like. It’s all about him. He wants the power to protect his self-interest and the interest of those like him – which would be to have the lowest taxes possible on the gajillions of dollars they have. As far as insulting almost half of Americans? It wasn’t necessary, so was he just being gratuitously cruel? From what I saw, I wouldn’t be surprised.