How is it callous to point out that Ann Romney tells us to vote for her husband? And that said husband espouses policies that would make the lives of people with MS or breast cancer harder?
The issue isn’t that Ann Romney had breast cancer or has MS. The issue (among other issues) is that Romney is wholeheartedly in favor of policies that would callously deny others access to the same treatment she has has. Or any treatment at all. Why are you so incapable of admitting this fact?
It’s not Ann Romney’s riches many of us find reprehensible. It’s her failure to admit to having such riches. And her callousness towards those who don’t share her unearned privileges.
There is no point in invoking logic or reality with the likes of magellan01 and his ilk. He’s drunk the kool-aid and there is no chance of rational discussion.
She does not deny her wealth. But focusing on her mortality she’s not saying she’s not rich. The two have nothing to do with each other. Except, evidently, in your mind.
Some people have a problem with the wealthy because they charge that they view those poorer than them as being less human. You do the converse here. You seem to think that if her humanity is dialed up, that her wealth becomes less. The two thing have nothing to do with each other. It’s like claiming that the the blueness of a person’s eyes gets diminished by their being taller.
Thanks you for yet another of your valuable contributions to SDMB debates. “Kool-aid” and “ilk” it one short post. Your value to the boards is incalculable.
It necessarily follows from her attitude. She deprives Anne Romney of the most fundamental aspects of being human. In her her mind, wealth erases, or degrades the most fundamental aspects of our humanity.
For the fifteenth time Ann Romney is the one depriving people of their fundamental humanity by a) pretending she’s ever faced the same financial problems we do and b) telling us to vote for her husband and his plans to hurt cancer and MS patients who don’t share her wealth.
In her mind it’s okay to do that as long it means she and her husband can pay less in taxes.
Can you lay out the logic of that a little bit? I’ve honestly got no idea how you could possibly arrive at that conclusion, based on anything she’s posted here.
I don’t know if you are trying to misunderstand what everyone is saying, but if not, try this. First, try to separate from your thoughts the idea that any rational person thinks that generic wealthy people are not human.
Okay, now, in your example above, that sounds horrible and I sympathize with anyone who has lost a child. No amount of wealth or insurance money could lessen that tragedy. But this woman is not running for President on the Republican platform. She sounds like a regular middle class person.
Imagine a woman whose husband had killed their children and then himself, thus invalidating his life insurance and obviously multiplying the horror. Say she misses a week of work, what with the multiple funerals and all. Her boss fires her for taking unapproved leave. As she’s being escorted out of the building, her boss (your friend ) says she really knows how she feels, after all, she went through the same thing.
Yeah, seriously, the fact that the Romneys are rich isn’t the problem. Most pols on this level are, at least compared to us common folk. But why take the tack “I’m just like you, I’ve struggled financially?” Because you haven’t. It’s pandering, it’s untrue, and it really insults the intelligence of the American people.
Funnily, enough, I remember tons of abuse directed at the Kerrys back in 2004 because they were rich. But I don’t think they tried to insult the electorate by insisting that the private school educated, windsurfing Kerrys were “just like us” with their hardscrabble tuna and pasta dinners by candlelight.
The thing is, I think Ann Romney seems like a nice enough lady. She just seems clueless and insulated from the economic reality that most Americans live in. Her health woes are certainly humanizing and are the kinds of tragedies that affect everyone - but being able to tackle a devastating diagnosis with resources that she had is very different from someone without the privilege and access to treatment.
I think it was a tactical error to not acknowledge their wealth and privilege. It would be easy to say, “Yes, we’ve been blessed by the opportunities America presented to us. We want to give back, and have been giving back, by being involved in public service.” It seems like a softball sailed across the plate and Ann’s speechwriters missed.
Her whole nonsense spiel about eating pasta and tuna and having a desk made out a door and two sawhorses was meant to do just that: deny her wealth and privilege.