Mitt, the Net Dwellers, and Thurston Howell III

      Back in the Sixties, Mitt spent thirty months living in Bordeaux and Paris, trying to convince the French to become Mormons.  I’ve never heard how successful he was at that, only how successful he was at Bain Capital and at the Olympic games. 

      During his tour de France, he was forced to live among the proletariat, a humbling experience for a lad to the manor born.   According to Romney, he had to make do on a salary of $110 a month, showered with a hose, and peed in a bucket.  Mitt found the experience formative and one that made him realize how fortunate he was to be born an uber-rich American.

      Mitt now lives among his own kind and makes $57,000 a day on his investments, plus a tidy sum in speaking fees.  This week, a bit of unvarnished truth emerged, when Mitt revealed that he was “not concerned about the very poor”—a phrase that would’ve made Marie Antoinette flinch.  Forty-six million people—15% of Americans—are living in poverty; that’s a lot of people not to be concerned about.

       According to Romney, the economically deprived have a safety net, but he neglected to tell us just how full and frayed that net has become in recent years.  Besides, he intoned, Democrats take care of the net-dwellers; he’s only interested in the middle class—though it’s unclear just who falls in that category in Mitt World.

      Most politicians are careful not to use insensitive expressions, but Mitt seems unaware that his indifferent remarks distance him from ordinary people. Rachel Maddow likened him to the cash-flush Thurston Howell III of Gilligan’s Island, oblivious to those of lesser means than himself. 

      Yes, Mitt is a Thurston Howell kind of guy.  No doubt, the Howells would have enjoyed that photo stunt where Mitt and his pals pose with money overflowing from their pockets.  I can hear Thurston now, turning to his wife and saying, “Why didn’t we think of that, Lovey; it would make a great Christmas card.”

      Of the two kazillionaires, Thurston is definitely more likeable.  Perhaps because he never tried to fool us into thinking he was one of us.