Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:36 pm
Sen. Bernie Sanders took down Mitt Romney for arrogantly daring to lecture the 47 percent about things that he knows absolutely nothing about.
Here is the video:
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Ed Schultz asked Sanders if Romney’s characterization was accurate. Sen. Sanders answered,
Well no, it’s not accurate, and here it is coming from a guy born to a millionaire family, who went to elite schools, who believes that the middle class starts at two hundred thousand dollars, who doesn’t reveal his tax returns because he took so many loopholes, and what really galls me is that we got millions of people in this country who come from families like my own. Working class families, people who have worked hard their entire lives, who work fifty sixty hours a week. Now they’re on Medicare, now they’re on Social Security, and they’re being lectured by this millionaire guy that they have got to take personal responsibility and care for their lives, being lectured by him.
And to me Ed, this speaks to an extraordinary arrogance by Romney and his if I may use the term ruling class friends who apparently think that the working people of this country who are struggling to support their families today, some of whom will be on Medicare and Social Security are somehow inferior human beings who need guidance, who aren’t smart enough to take personal responsibility for their lives and care for their lives. What does this tell us about his attitude towards the vast majority of the people? We’re not smart enough? We don’t have enough dignity to want to work? People in this country work harder than the people in any other industrialized country on earth. They don’t need to be lectured by millionaires and billionaires about the work ethic they fill.
Sen. Sanders said that Romney is representing a philosophy that people are too dumb and have to be taught to work, and that if you are rich and powerful you have a right to rule, you get it all. If you are in the middle, working class, or low income we’re going to teach you a lesson.
Bernie Sanders delivered an absolute take down of the philosophy behind Romney’s statements that people are middle class or poor because they are lazy and undeserving. Romney’s philosophy is straight out of the Gilded Age. Romney believes that the government should be owned by, and work for the wealthy. The difference between Romney and other recent Republicans who shared his beliefs is that he is prepared to use the federal government as a weapon against the middle class and the poor.
Sen. Sanders was correct; it is the height of arrogance for Romney to sit atop his mountain of overseas wealth and look down upon people who have to work for a living and lecture them about how they need to be more responsible for their lives. The single parent who has to work two jobs, or the family of four that has to work three or four jobs just to get by has to take more responsibility just to survive than Romney ever has had to.
Mitt Romney has never had a moment of financial insecurity in his entire life, yet he feels qualified to judge the values and work ethic of people who work hard every day of their lives. Mitt Romney is out to punish financial hardship, and Bernie Sanders called him out on it.
Bernie Sanders isn’t just Vermont’s senator. He is also speaking for the majority of Americans who work hard everyday, have firsthand knowledge of financial hardship, and are counting on Social Security and Medicare to be there for them.
Mitt Romney wants to be president of the 1%, while Bernie Sanders has got the backs of the forty seven. Romney may have the cash, but Sanders has the numbers. And it is starting to look like the numbers just may beat the dollars on Election Day.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
