Shorter Mitt Romney

If you think we should discuss economic inequality in anywhere but quiet rooms, then go to China — I already sent your job there.

Okay, cheap shot.  But equating any discussion of inequality with Communism as Romney did is no more than crude red-baiting.

Nevertheless, I can’t agree with those who think that the exchange means that “the pressure may be getting to Romney.”  Romney’s response was a perfectly-formed paragraph, almost designed for a South Carolina primary audience.  More to the point, it succinctly distills the contemporary GOP position.  Any discussion of inequality is completely off-limits and must be squashed.  Romney wasn’t snapping at his questioner — he was coolly setting forth the ideology of the conservative elite, which has smoothly carried out its Revolution From Above over the last 30 years.

 

 

 

Author: Jonathan Zasloff

Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic - Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. He grew up and still lives in the San Fernando Valley, about which he remains immensely proud (to the mystification of his friends and colleagues). After graduating from Yale Law School, and while clerking for a federal appeals court judge in Boston, he decided to return to Los Angeles shortly after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, reasoning that he would gladly risk tremors in order to avoid the average New England wind chill temperature of negative 55 degrees. Professor Zasloff has a keen interest in world politics; he holds a PhD in the history of American foreign policy from Harvard and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Much of his recent work concerns the influence of lawyers and legalism in US external relations, and has published articles on these subjects in the New York University Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. More generally, his recent interests focus on the response of public institutions to social problems, and the role of ideology in framing policy responses. Professor Zasloff has long been active in state and local politics and policy. He recently co-authored an article discussing the relationship of Proposition 13 (California's landmark tax limitation initiative) and school finance reform, and served for several years as a senior policy advisor to the Speaker of California Assembly. His practice background reflects these interests: for two years, he represented welfare recipients attempting to obtain child care benefits and microbusinesses in low income areas. He then practiced for two more years at one of Los Angeles' leading public interest environmental and land use firms, challenging poorly planned development and working to expand the network of the city's urban park system. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency charged with purchasing and protecting open space), the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (the leading legal service firm for low-income clients in east Los Angeles), and Friends of Israel's Environment. Professor Zasloff's other major activity consists in explaining the Triangle Offense to his very patient wife, Kathy.

6 thoughts on “Shorter Mitt Romney”

  1. Any chance he’s getting the message that people think he’s an emotional stiff and this is his attempt at Christie-izing himself? RIght wing nutter just love people who punch hippies.

    1. Seems kind of late for that, and it’s not really his style anyway. He’s a technocrat, not a fire reather.

      1. ACLS: that’s the problem. Emotion-free isn’t what a lot of voters want, and doesn’t make for the kind of horse race the media want to cover.

        I’m going with both/and. It is a perfectly plain statement of modern republicanism, but it’s also coming out under duress.

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