Apparently, I upset some people with the 7-minute intro to my radio show this morning. Wow, really? And I try so hard to be nice, too. I usually start my show with a summation of whatever the other talk-radio hosts have been discussing, then give my take on it. And then we segue into other subjects. I long ago decided this would be my pattern, to let people know that this is not your ordinary South Carolina talk radio. In fact, we are the only self-identified lefty radio show in the entire upstate. So, my choice to begin my shows this way is quite deliberate. I want people to know who they are listening to, right out of the box. Unlike many conservative radio hosts, I don't try to fake people out and lead them to believe I am "objective" (since of course there is no such thing as objectivity, as the post-modernists have correctly counseled us) or "fair and balanced"--since what I try to do is make up for the fact that local media in Greenville County is overwhelmingly conservative.
Today I started my show trashing Ann Romney, which seems to have upset people. It also means they weren't listening. And its that last part that upsets me.
The scandal of the week is about the words of liberal journalist Hilary Rosen (not a Democratic party operative, although you certainly wouldn't know that from all the conservative media coverage) stating the obvious, that Ann Romney, who owns a couple of Cadillacs and is married to extremely-wealthy presidential candidate Mitt Romney (a proud member of the fabled 1%), has never worked a day in her life, which of course, is absolutely true.
This true statement is considered a scandal. Why? Because the Rethuglicans have successfully spun her comments as "mommy wars" comments, implying that Rosen impugns the beleaguered stay-at-home mamas (which note, I have also been, as I was careful to mention on the air). MOMS DO TOO WORK, comes the chorus. Well, duh, of course we do. But a woman worth "$290-odd million" (in her husband's amusing estimate) is not a "stay-at-home-mom"--she is the mistress of the plantation. As F. Scott Fitzgerald so memorably said, the very rich are different from you and me. And a woman who "raised five boys" certainly DOES work hard... but a woman with maids, nannies, secretaries and yard workers, DOES NOT.
In fact, what DOES she do?
THIS is what Rosen was saying... and if she wasn't, it is what *I* am saying.
Ann Romney is a rich woman who has done nothing but hire nannies, and that is not tantamount to raising five boys, or even five houseplants. Sorry, but it just isn't. Are we to believe she is Shirley Jones in THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, hauling five kids around in her used-schoolbus? Right. She has drivers, she has car-elevators, she has EMPLOYEES. And no, that is not "working"--in fact, the very idea is a JOKE.
My question is: why would regular folks want to identify with such a person? My consigliere pointed out to me that people in trailer parks will vote for Mitt Romney... and he is 100% correct, although the logic here totally escapes me. Have we working-class people been so brainwashed to hate ourselves and believe ourselves inferior, that we automatically think anyone rich must be superior, must have the answers, MUST be smarter than we are? (This concept always reminds me of a line from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF: "When you're rich, they think you really know!")
Do we believe such a thing about a rich person who inherited everything and did nothing himself to deserve it? WHERE do we get this bias for the rich? WHY is it bad to point out that Romney has not raised her children herself?
Let me make it clear: nothing pisses me off more than "I built this house" or "my dad built this company" or "FDR built the Lincoln Tunnel" etc. Workers built your house, workers built your father's company, and workers built the Lincoln Tunnel. The erasure of workers, the fact that people died building the railroads and the Panama Canal and the bridges, is something I keep front and center in my consciousness, because those people were me and my family. Likewise, I always correct people when they name some rich slave-owner as the man who BUILT one of the countless beautiful homes of the South. NO, SLAVES BUILT THAT HOUSE. FOR FREE, TOO.
Likewise, I am annoyed when Ann Romney or another rich woman comes forth to claim she raised 5 boys, or 5 houseplants, or whatever she is claiming to have done. NO, NANNIES RAISED YOUR CHILDREN FOR YOU. MAIDS WASHED THEIR CLOTHES. DRIVERS PICKED THEM UP FROM SCHOOL. To say otherwise is to actively erase these workers, and I won't do it. I will certainly give credit where it is due, and it is not due to Ann Romney, but it IS due to the women she erases with her lying statements of having "worked" at home. Bullshit. Rich women with nannies have hired employees to raise their kids, period. If they don't like me saying that and daring to recognize the actual workers who have done the actual work, then they shouldn't LIE about it. What do you suppose Ann's nannies are thinking, the women who actually stayed up late with the feverish, puking babies while Ann cozily slept in? Let's hear from THEM. And by the way, did she pay Social Security taxes on all of her domestic workers? What is their immigration status; is it as nefarious as those yard-workers her husband claimed not to know were illegals? And why didn't he know that? Because he doesn't even HIRE his own yard workers, he hires out other people to do his hiring.
And where is the mainstream media, and why aren't they asking these questions? Because rich people are sacrosanct in America. Their choices are not to be questioned. They can do anything and everything they please, with no repercussions. To point out that they are liars (and lazy people who have never worked) is considered RUDE.
Well, let me continue to be rude, since someone has to do it, and as we see, the regular media is too busy chastising Rosen for saying the obvious, and fawning all over the 1%. Hey, if the 1% does it, it MUST be okay. How dare we suggest otherwise.
And then we wonder where they get the power to erase us and walk all over us and steal $800 million in bail-out money from us? We have given them the power, in our fear and reticence to question them. We genuflect at their lifestyles, we tell ourselves it is our failing that we are not more like them.
I do not WANT to be like them. They are morally bankrupt, lazy, parasitic rich people living off the HARD WORK of the rest of us. Ann included. If that message bothers you, you are not ready for class war, even though it has already been declared on us when they took our money to bail out the rich. And be advised: they intend to take more of your money and give it directly to the rich. Romney is warning you, daily, that he intends to do this. If you vote for him to pick your pocket to give another tax break to him and his staggeringly-affluent friends, you are a fool. If you think it's PERMISSIBLE for a man who keeps huge amounts in a Swiss bank to run this country, you deserve everything you get. I just wish you wouldn't take down the rest of the country with you.
And his wife? A tool. His "consultant on women's economic issues"--a woman who has never worked a day in her life.
This is the truth, and Rosen should not be shamed or vilified for reminding us. I only wish we could be reminded of their fraudulent statements more often.