"Greed is good"
Isn't that what Representatives of Raw Capitalism like you tell us? That Greed motivates us to raise our goals and shoot for the moon, and when we succeed, everyone around us benefits as well?
Mitt, if Gordon Gecko were corporeal, and you needed a brain transplant, wouldn't he be the perfect donor candidate?
And that picture! You and your Raw Capitalism Reps all posing with enough bills inserted into various gaps and seams to make a stripper... Envious?
I'd like to chat for a moment about a couple of issues I perceive with your campaign...
A) "Attacking my record at Bain is an attack on the Free Market itself!"
No, Mitt, it isn't. At all. Because there is a spectrum of players in the Free Market.
You see, some businesses actually make products, provide services, fill a need, employ and enliven and enrich communities, and sometimes even strive to have a positive effect on the world and it's inhabitants. Sometimes, businesses have higher goals than simply maximizing profit, and are driven by motivations that surpass Greed.
And at the other end of the spectrum, you have Bain Capital.
Mitt, criticizing ambulance chasers is not "attacking the American system of Justice."
Criticizing Michael Jackson's "doctor" Conrad Murray is not "attacking Medicine" or "attacking the health system."
Criticizing someone who runs a "chop shop" isn't "attacking on the Automotive Industry."
You know what? Charlie Sheen doesn't represent the entertainment industry.
I could go on... Regardless: I understand that there's a place in the world for each of these flavors of scumbag*; They do fulfill certain needs, after all.
But merely being a lawyer, even a successful one, doesn't automatically indicate that the ambulance chaser is a SCOTUS-caliber lawyer...
...Just like being a "chop shop"-style businessman doesn't indicate that you have the executive gravitas desired in a US President.
In other words: It's really, really not Free Enterprise that we don't like; it is just you.
* Except the illegal chop shop guy. (Interestingly, putting aside the illegality, the role seems to fit Bain's MO more closely than the others...)
B) "The politics of envy"
Here, we find you dismissing criticism of your Bain record and income-inequality/OccupyXXX-style complaints as arising solely from mere envy on the part of the complainer...
Can you BE any more condescending?
You know that girl in high school? The Hot Princess with the circle of sycophantic near-clones? Who is either loved (i.e. tolerated for whatever shallow services you offer) or loathed ("because they're just jealous")?
That's you.
It's not the stuff you've got that we'd love having that we have a problem with, Mitt. It's the fact that you have all that, and it's still not enough for you.
It's the fact that the policies you're pushing are hulked-up versions of the current ones (surprise surprise, from the Preservative Party/GWB that we can't seem to ditch) which have 1) drastically benefited the upper-upper-class (i.e. you), while 2) leaving the rest of us twisting in the wind, and 3) blowing up the deficit so that our* descendants will have to pay for your Greed too.
* Not yours, with Estate Tax cuts being part of your party's platform and all...
Not only do you enjoy all of the benefits of the wealth you've accumulated; you're also enjoying a playing field that is demonstrably tipped in your favor, and you want to tip it even more in your favor.
There's a word for that, which I'll get to in a moment...
According to your ilk, Greed is the foundation of the American Dream. Strange, then, that you should be portraying Envy as the enemy of the engine of the American Dream, i.e. Free Enterprise, i.e. Capitalism. I say it's strange because Greed and Envy are the kissing cousins of the seven deadly sins.
Now Mitt, I don't doubt for a second that it takes a special type of person to pursue profit with such single-minded determination that they don't cringe when applying terms like "greed" to the factors which motivate them. It takes a very special lack of soul to not care about the people you need to trample to achieve your goals, and perhaps even more-so to care and trample them anyways. And I'm equally sure that as you hack and slash your way to the top, you begin to exercise a very particular quality along the way, such that when you finally do make it to the top, this quality has been strengthened to the point where it may be the strongest one you've got. It may be the one you exhibit most brightly as you look back, and down, at everyone you've surpassed. (And this brings us back to that word I mentioned above.)
That quality/word? "Contempt."
By all means, Mitt, enjoy your wealth. As far as the whole "President Mitt" thing goes though? If your brand of "business" foreshadows the type of President you'd be?
Personally (and I truly hope that I speak for many others), I don't need your brand of "help."
Thanks for the talk...
PS: Don't even get me started re: you and SCOTUS appointments, Mitt.
1:18 PM PT: Thanks to all for noticing and recommending my little rant!
I didn't hit "publish" until about 3am, and figured my diary would just bubble on down past the front page without much notice... Especially with the "yeah, so what else is new" title. :)
So I appreciate the feedback very much!
I especially like the satirical product ideas mentioned below! I might have just inspired you guys&gals to inspire me right back... I've been thinking about what I could do with a 3d printer. :) Tell you what: In keeping with the spirit of this diary, if I DO actually get off my duff and do anything along those lines, I'll give half of any profits back to dkos.
Mitt might call that "crazy", but less self-centered businessmen would call it "leverage."
fpg