Mitt Romney Does Care About the Poor...Kind of

Mitt Romney stuck his foot in it again today stating in an interview that he was concerned about Americans. He stated he was not concerned about the poor as there was a safety net in place. In fairness to him he also went on to say that he was not concerned about the poor as they had a safety net in place and if there were holes in that he would fix them. He stated that he was not concerned about the rich as they had been doing well...he stated he would be focusing on the middle class.

This was in my opinion not a mistake. I believe Romney said just what he meant to and I believe that he is hoping to lure Barack Obama to run commercials stating this sound bite. Why? Poor people are not going to vote for Mitt Romney. This is not a voting block that he is working to get. So what is the purpose. Romney knows that it is easy to drive a wedge between the middle class and the poor. Perhaps it is because America is an aspirational society and middle class folks admire rich folks and therefore want to think like them. It is hard to understand. Still for most lower middle class working folks in America feelings of ill will toward the poor are rampant. Perhaps it is because they work hard for not huge economic profit. Because of this and the close proximity economically they feel a special ill will they feel are being lazy and getting a free ride.

Thomas Frank wrote What's the Matter with Kansas and addressed how, somehow, the Republican party has been able to convince large blocks of people to vote against their own economic interests and vote Republican. Romney and his advisors surely understand that by making " mistakes" attacking the poor they will gain significant lower middle class votes.

Romney, make no mistake, is playing for Independent votes. This is a purposeful action. Perhaps the greater question we should ask ourselves is why does this work. Why is it that it is easier to get middle class folks to feel anger toward the poor than to feel anger toward the rich who are taking advantage of them.