Chap wrote:Near the end, at about 35 minutes, he answers a question about "How're we going to do it [i.e. convince people to vote Republican]?". The answer begins: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. That, that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... [My job] is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
The man who made these remarks did not appear to think a great deal of the people he was talking about, did he? As you can see and hear for yourself, there is no 'saving context' for these remarks. They start where the quote above begins.
What's to misinterpret here?
I have family members who are defending Mitt's 47% comment, and I ask them if they actually listened to what Mitt said, and how offensive it is, and that it might be the turning point that cost him the election. He is saying that nearly half of the American population "believe they are victims" and that they cannot be convinced to "take personal responsibility and care for their lives" and his job is not to worry about them. I hope that he didn't have this attitude as a bishop. What if a widow, whose husbands worked and paid taxes for 50 years, came into his office and needed assistance from the church. Does he really believe that that widow cannot be convinced to take personal responsibility and care for her life? I assume he is talking about welfare queens. The problem is welfare queens do not make up 47% of the population. He lumped all people who don't pay taxes in with the welfare queens, including senior citizens, students, and military personnel serving overseas. If you take those people out, that leaves about 8% who don't pay taxes either because they are poor, or they can deduct enough to have no tax liability. So it turns out only a small percentage of Americans want to sit around and collect a check without taking personal responsibility for their lives.
I agree that Romney probably really doesn't feel this way. As bishop, he deals with this 47% and knows that they aren't a bunch of free loaders. Most of them are probably young married couples ins school struggling to make ends meet. So why would Romney say something like that? It gets to the core of his problem, he isn't genuine. That video is probably not the real Romney, but there he is saying those things. So who is the real Romney? Is he the bishop who sacrifices his time to help the poor and needy in his ward. Or is he the jerk who says 47% of Americans are free loaders who can't be convinced to take responsibility for their lives.