So, to summarize this great American success story, Mitt risked no money, no reputation, no employment, and career track. Wow, how capitalistic of him.
Mitt Romney’s Bain story typifies the neocapitalist. This is the same ideology that preaches privatization of education, that insists that corporations are people, that demands that states prevent people from voting because they can’t persuade huge swaths of people who don’t look exactly like them, to actually vote for the policies that disenfranchise them. NeoCapitalism is the idea that you can be born on third base, look around, and declare, “I just hit a triple. Why can’t you?”
Mitt Romney, with the help of a few friends who didn’t seem all that friendly – neither Gov. Kasich nor Chris Christe seemed particularly interested in touting the "everything is a failure and Mitt will save us," meme that the Romney campaign wanted and needed – put on a great show. To quote David Mamet’s iconic political consultant from Wag the Dog, “it’s a pageant, not a war,” seem to be the color of the day.
There is so much material to cover that it seems sort of heartless to pick on Ann Romney, one of the few speakers actually fond of Mitt, and who delivered a heck of a speech supporting her husband. In fact, my phone blew up half way through her speech with people saying the wrong Romney ran for office.
However, the pageantry was well done. A couple of problems marred the day, Mitt’s power grab of delegates ended with his victory but also with the grassroots vocal protests. Ron Paul, if he’d just had a little more help or a little more time could have made some real noise. But, he didn’t and couldn’t and the Mitt Romney Pageant rolled right over him and right through.
Then there was the little problem with the Platform of the Republican Party, the one the GOP asked people not to read, but then voted on. Yeah, that wasn’t a great moment, but at least the GOP got to, in one document, end Medicare, reclassify a woman’s body as their property, disenfranchise and denigrate millions of people who don’t look like them – Michael Steel said famously that there were 36 black delegates at the last GOP convention -- and generally act like privileged, anti-science, tax cut, economic neophytes.
And, of course, that brings us to the Brave Neo World of the GOP. Ann Romney told a heart warming tale of the American Dream, as lived by her husband. How he and a group of friends, seeing an opportunity to fill a market need, quit their jobs, put their own money at risk, and threw caution to the wind to create Bain Capital. How their bravery, their foresight, their courage in the face of an untested marketplace typifies everything that is right with America. How their success, earned completely on their own with no help from anyone, is the American story that the President somehow hates. How Mitt is living breathing proof that Horatio Alger still exists. -- from nothing to magnificent wealth, and all because he had the courage to risk everything.
It is a great story. Too bad, it is a complete and utter fabrication. Forget the “you didn’t build it,” nonsense for a moment. Let’s talk about exactly what happened and how Mitt story, the story of the modern 21st century GOP, the story of bailouts and backdoor deals, the story of a super-safety-net and no risk is really what happened at Bain and is really what informs so much of this debate this presidential cycle.
According to the Huffington Post, here’s what Ann got flat out wrong last night, “From
"The Real Romney:"
He saw the opportunity, of course, but he also saw risks. First, he felt comfortable in his life. He already had a great job and had five young sons at home. Second, he and the partners in the new firm would be expected to contribute significantly to the investment fund, and thus, if deals went south, they could lose their own money. Romney explained to Bain that he didn't want to risk his position, earnings, and reputation on an experiment. He found the offer appealing but didn't want to make the decision in a 'light or flippant manner.' So Bain sweetened the pot. He guaranteed that if the experiment failed, Romney would get his old job and salary back, plus any raises he would have earned during his absence. Still, Romney worried about the impact on his reputation if he proved unable to do the job. Again the pot was sweetened. Bain promised that, if necessary, he would craft a cover story saying that Romney's return to Bain & Company was needed because of his value as a consultant. 'So,' Bain explained, 'there was no professional or financial risk.' This time Romney said yes.”
The reason this quote from the book is so important is simple. Mitt isn’t a capitalist, he’s a Neo-capitalist, and like all the other neos running around the Republican Party, he is neither New nor a Capitalist.
Mitt Romney’s entire “success” story is one of born on third base logic.
Mitt was asked to head Bain. First lie in his biography.
Mitt turned it down because he didn’t want to risk his position. Second lie
demonstrating risk aversion.
Mitt was promised that he could return to his position at Bain’s parent company. Third lie, no risk again.
Mitt was promised that he would get all salary bumps he missed if the company he started failed. Fourth lie, again no risk to him
Mitt still said no, he was worried about his reputation. Mitt was promised that the parent company would LIE for him; create a fiction of Mitt’s greatness, saying that he was brought back, even in utter failure, because the parent company NEEDED him.
Again, no risk to him
So, to summarize this great American success story, Mitt risked no money, no reputation, no employment, and career track. Wow, how capitalistic of him.
Mitt Romney’s Bain story typifies the neocapitalist. This is the same ideology that preaches privatization of education, that insists that corporations are people, that demands that states prevent people from voting because they can’t persuade huge swaths of people who don’t look exactly like them, to actually vote for the policies that disenfranchise them. NeoCapitalism is the idea that you can be born on third base, look around, and declare, “I just hit a triple. Why can’t you?”
This is a larger systemic problem. Whether it is the NeoConservative movement that, again is neither new nor conservative -- they are the Mad servants of a Mad god of limitless war and military expansion -- or whether it is the Neoliberal movement that seeks to used business principles – an oxymoron if ever I heard one – as a justification for gutting public education and or co-opting same for the purpose of enshrining the business model and “market” force major as the standard for excellence, completely undermining and gutting the structure of education and the benefit of it, the Neo Republican is a catastrophe.
There is no system, so unbalanced as to grant massive success with no risk, that remains sustainable. There is no system that functions so much on privilege that it eschews and ignores all the deep current balances that exist actually to make society that remains sustainable. There is no system that allows for a hyper minority to control all the wealth and all the access to agency with none of the concomitant risk or responsibility of nationhood that survives.
We’ve seen this play before, it ends with Rome burning, with the rise of revolutionary forces in America and then in France, with Madam Guillotine, or a war for freedom. We’ve seen how this plays out all across the span of history: it is the death of empire, the resurgence of balance, the violent and sudden end of Nations. That’s what Ann Romney’s speech ignored in her mythmaking rush to laude her husband. He’s a Neo, and as far as I can tell, Neo’s are going to be the death of us all.