The Regular Son Weighs In

Comments from the Regular Son, age 15 and eight months:

Let me give you some thoughts on Mitt's 47-percenting:

People are naturally inclined to believe statistics. This certainly applies to American politics. Romney's remarks are a) all statistics, and b) all true statistics. I think people, if they're not aware of the gravity of the unsustainable behemoth welfare state, certainly do not like thinking of themselves as part of the unsustainable behemoth welfare state. If there's one thing middle-class Americans don't like, it's a freeloader. And I think people are also very wary of the Occupy wing of the Democratic party, the libs on the Twitterverse and the blogosphere. I think this appeals to the average American's political mind: 90 percent of voters have sworn allegiance to one party or another. I think it appeals to independents, who don't much like the increasing polarization of red-blue America. And I think people view government aid to "the poor" with much more suspicion than they used to in, say, 1965. Now, will this help Romney? Of course not. Why? Because the way the media shapes public opinion is not through logic, facts and reason. It's by creating a tiny little voice in the back of people's heads that says "Mitt Romney hates people on welfare". It's by creating an aura around a candidate that they just can't shake. It's by Saul Alinsky politics--brand, define and demonize. So I see two scenarios. One, this does very little damage and, if anything, draws the focus of the campaign back to the leviathan moocher-state. Two, it brands Romney as the out-of-touch individualist who wants to shred the social safety net to make rope for his yacht. We shall see.