RANGER AGAINST WAR: Simple Folk <

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Simple Folk


What do the simple folk do

To help them escape when they're blue?

The shepherd who is ailing,

the milkmaid who is glum?

--What Do Simple Folk Do?
,

Camelot (19767)

_________________


Predictably, everyone prone to hop on the sound byte did, but sound bytes fail to tell the actual story. The actual story is, most contenders for the job of U.S. president are totally out of touch with the common man. We seem to like having our collective heads whipped around by the spinmeisters and being outraged by gaffes, and since we don't demand better, we do not get it.

Romney is certainly not the first candidate to show his disconnection with the voters. Al Gore fumbled when asked for the price of a gallon of milk; George Bush did not know the price of a gallon of gas. Simple, real people know these things, and they know by pennies how much each increases by the week.


But now it's Romney's turn in the barrel.


He said,
"I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it." Insensitive statement, to be sure, but it was the follow on which should have merited the outrage. Continued Romney, "I'm concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling and I'll continue to take that message across the nation."

Now that
is a load of baloney, but who has addressed it? This implies and marginalizes a small band of perpetually straggling groundlings -- the 5%? But the rest are worthwhile ... the "heart of America", the 90-95%?

The truth is, 15% of Americans live in poverty (Poverty Rate Rises in America). The rate is higher for children: 22% of all children, or over 1 in 5, live in poverty. But that's not the whole story, either.

Almost half of all Americans live at or near the poverty line (Close to Half of All Americans Live Near Poverty). These are people who are a couple of paychecks or one serious medical event away from destitution. With 49 million Americans lacking medical insurance, the potential for catastrophe is near. Their head is above water, but barely. These are the people who have fallen OUT of the middle class, and are hanging near its bottom margin by a tenuous thread.

Even if you go with a rosier Census Department study in December '11, close to 100 million people, or a third of the U.S. population, live at or near the poverty line. Math is not my forte, but 33 - 50% of us are very poor. Does that mean that Romney does not care about almost half of the country?

Romney's statement may turn out to be one of the more honest utterings of the campaign. He could not possibly feel our pain, or he would not have made such an absurd statement.

He was patently pandering the other ones he "doesn't care about" ("I'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine"), because he is in the rich's pocket.

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Blackhawk said...

news flash!!!!!! Mitt Romney, Donald Trump said in a surprise endorsement from Las Vegas this afternoon, would make a “tough” and “smart” president who wouldn’t “allow bad things to continue to happen to this country we all love.”

Howdy Dooty getting endorsed by Bozo the clown ! Can anybody tell me how much sillier this political farce can get ? What's next ? Howdy Dooty getting endorsed in the roaring glitter and glare of WWF ring by Randy 'Macho Man' Savage ? Taking it to the common folk Mitt....yea

I bet the Secret Service Agents were wearing bags over their heads during that gig. The real horror is that the rest of the world is actually watching and thinking to themselves 300 million Americans must be sniffing BZ gas

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 2:27:00 AM GMT-5  
Blogger rangeragainstwar said...

BH,
this was not my entry, but i'd like to reply.
wow- i used to watch clarabell the clown,buffalo bob and howdy EVERY saturday morning.
was it all that long ago?
the difference betw. Mitt and our childhood tv stars is that they knew that they were clowns.
my disconnect w. Mitt is when in 08 he said that his son working on his political campaign was EQUIVALENT TO MILITARY SERVICE.
i still chew on that concept/comment.
let me know if you ever come to Fl.
jim

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:11:00 AM GMT-5  
Anonymous Blackhawk said...

Ranger,
The neo-consertive clowns provide more entertainment than the 50's kid shows we all watched.

Mitt's photoshopped smile makes me want to projectile vomit (along with the fact he was Governor of my AO for eight years). Hell, I never heard of him until a few months ago when this circus started.

Listen Ranger RE: the disconnect, back in the 50's Buffalo Bob told you that Howdy Dooty was joining the Marine's you would have laughed right ? Don't mean nothing

Thanks for the Florida invite always appreciated but don't expect me to show up on station until 'Howdy' gets elected and I feel "safe and strong". Everyone in America needs to know 'Howdy' has wooden balls.....

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 11:18:00 AM GMT-5  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Unfortunately Mr.Obama, who like much more than his republican counterparts, is also working smoke and mirrors when it comes to the plight of the poor.

Do not be fooled by his admin.'s release of improved employment figures (243,000 jobs created/unemployment rate at 8.3%).

The truth is that while those jobs were created, 1,752,000 left the work force and the % of the total working poplation that do not have jobs climbed to 36.7%; an record high.

Unemployment % is easy to raise when so many in the denominator are simply giving up.

Also, the figure does not speak to the quality of the employment, e.g. does it represent a salary comensurate with experience and skill. I'd guess in many cases you have skilled labor and masters degrees flipping burgers or getting their feet soaked at a car wash - with no health care bene.s or others that they used to receive.

avedis

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 1:37:00 PM GMT-5  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

typo. "who *I* like much more.....

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 1:38:00 PM GMT-5  
Anonymous Blackhawk said...

'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'"
Mark Twain 1885

Do a layered Photoshop mask of all the clowns under the 'big top' and the image of a wooden tooth Howdy Doody appears. Not rocket science

BH out

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 2:21:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger rangeragainstwar said...

BH.
I'D BE HAPPY TO HAVE 2 WOODEN BALLS.
MINE IS LONELY.
jim

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 6:39:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger Underground Carpenter said...

Hi Lisa,

"... people who are a couple of paychecks or one serious medical event away from destitution.

This pretty much describes the majority of tradesmen that I work with, boom times or not. Several of my carpenter buds lost their houses and marriages within 6 months of the end of their giddy $100+k boom years.

Dave

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 7:53:00 AM GMT-5  

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