# Mittens blames all those po' folk **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 15, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049 "2012-11-15T00:51:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/21 "2012-11-15T02:27:18Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > So just how do republicans in general expect people to get healthcare? Poor person: “How do you expect me to get health care?!” [del]Goldfinger[/del]Republican: “[del]No, Mr Bond[/del]Poor Americans, I expect you to _die_.” ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/22 "2012-11-15T02:36:06Z")
This argument always makes me laugh, because…well, isn’t the whole point of democracy to serve the people you represent? Guess what…old white dudes are a small minority. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/23 "2012-11-15T02:37:58Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Nothing which isn’t all that untrue but politically incorrect to say nonetheless. > > And, really. You have to be trying hard to find fault in Ryan’s statement. You don’t have to try hard at all. Romney and Ryan are saying that poor people and black people and women and Hispanics don’t vote for the Republican party and they feel it means there’s something wrong with poor people and black people and women and Hispanics. They need to stop and consider the possibility that there’s something wrong with the Republican party. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/24 "2012-11-15T02:39:40Z")
It literally astounds me that people like him cannot seem to understand that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce, which in turn means a solid bottom line for their employers. When you’re sick, or your family is sick and you have to worry about how you’re going to pay the doctor bills, work tends to take second place. Sick or hungry kids make for poor students, and poor students don’t get very far, and our country suffers as a result. You want to cut medicare? Want to cut food stamps? Then make sure your citizenry is healthy and educated, and the problem will eventually fix itself in large part. Obama (and anybody with a brain) is in it for the long game, not the short political gain. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/25 "2012-11-15T02:44:41Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Nothing which isn’t all that untrue but politically incorrect to say nonetheless. > > And, really. You have to be trying hard to find fault in Ryan’s statement. Don’t ever change, **OMGaBC**. Keep on reminding us how totally fucked up and underhanded your party is, and why we should bother fighting back. You remind us that even if it seems as if we’ve won the battle, there is still a political war going on. Thank you for keeping us on our toes, dude. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/26 "2012-11-15T02:47:00Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Nothing which isn’t all that untrue but politically incorrect to say nonetheless. That sentence needs to be taken out and shot. I’ve read it about five times, and I can’t make the negatives add up right. I’m pretty sure it says the opposite of what you mean. > [@WhyNot](#): > > I make too much for Medicaid, and y’all killed the Medicaid expansion, so no free Medicaid for me. Give it a year. The Medicaid expansion will only be rejected by a few red states, and only for one election cycle. “My opponent prevented you from getting nearly free health care, not out of the state budget, but paid for by the federal government for several years, just to make an ideological point. And he/she gets his/her health care paid for by the government, by the way.” is just too good a campaign speech. Even the Republicans will get on this bandwagon. They have to, or they can give up the vote of the unemployed, disabled, veterans, working poor, parents, students, AND the elderly and see who’s left. Fundamentally, the issue that the Right has is that they argued against a largely fictious version of the ACA (death panels, rationed care, huge costs to businesses, etc.), not the one that actually passed. Most folks like the real ACA once they’re exposed to it, and Romney’s loss ended the last chance that could kill the ACA before anyone got a chance to see it work. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/27 "2012-11-15T02:48:49Z")
The bit about Ryan’s statement that I can’t understand, is why is it considered newsworthy? Anyone who’s paid any attention at all to politics in the past few decades knows that cities overwhelmingly tend Democratic while rural areas tend Republican, and that a big part of any politician winning is in getting good turnout from their base. So to the statement that Obama won, in large part, because he got high turnout in urban areas, I say “Duh”. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/28 "2012-11-15T02:50:36Z")
> [@Der Trihs](#): > > GoldfingerRepublican: “No, Mr BondPoor Americans, I expect you to die.” Oh come on, they aren’t _that_ heartless. They expect you to pick yourself up by your bootstraps, borrow $10 million from your parents and start a business. Or knuckle down and work five jobs to support yourself while you put yourself through school in order to get that higher paying job. Or pray really hard and Jesus will provide. Or just never get sick or injured. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/29 "2012-11-15T02:52:00Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > “…various voting blocs that wouldn’t piss on me if my hair was on fire.” To quote _The Lion in Winter_: “Let us strike a flint and see.” ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/30 "2012-11-15T02:52:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You don’t have to try hard at all. Romney and Ryan are saying that poor people and black people and women and Hispanics don’t vote for the Republican party and they feel it means there’s something wrong with poor people and black people and women and Hispanics. They need to stop and consider the possibility that there’s something wrong with the Republican party. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that Obama lost the “white” vote and yet won the popular vote. The Republicans are far too busy shitting their pants to think properly. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/31 "2012-11-15T02:52:54Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > …Give it a year. The Medicaid expansion will only be rejected by a few red states, and only for one election cycle… [http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Florida-Governor-Scott-Drops-Opposition-to-Health-4037900.php](http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Florida-Governor-Scott-Drops-Opposition-to-Health-4037900.php) **Florida Governor Scott Drops Opposition to Health Law** > [@](#): > > Florida Governor Rick Scott dropped his opposition to President Barack Obama’s health overhaul, saying he wants to negotiate on the issue that began his political career… Offered without comment. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/32 "2012-11-15T02:53:38Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Oh come on, they aren’t _that_ heartless. > > They expect you to pick yourself up by your bootstraps, borrow $10 million from your parents and start a business. > Or knuckle down and work five jobs to support yourself while you put yourself through school in order to get that higher paying job. > Or pray really hard and Jesus will provide. > Or just never get sick or injured. Or die. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/33 "2012-11-15T02:59:18Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that Obama lost the “white” vote and yet won the popular vote. That’s true, but the same thing happened in 2008. Republicans got around 55 percent of the popular vote in each of the last few presidential elections, but Gore in 2000 and Obama in 2008 still won the popular vote and minority voters did not make up the deficit for Kerry. This time Romney got almost 60 percent of the white vote and still lost the popular vote by around 3.5 million. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/34 "2012-11-15T03:01:04Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > The Republicans are far too busy shitting their pants to think properly. That IS how they think. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/35 "2012-11-15T03:03:53Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > I think this needs to be said again. > > So just how do republicans in general expect people to get healthcare? > > To have preventative medicine rather than obscenly expensive emergency care? > > Isn’t healthcare a fairly fundamental core of any realtively well funcitoning society that is taking care of its members? Don’t you realize healthcare is something that should be considered a luxury item - if you can’t afford it, you can’t have it. So either get off your lazy, welfare collecting ass and get a job _ **or** _ just put more Mercurochrome[sup]TM[/sup] on it and STFU. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/36 "2012-11-15T03:07:11Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It literally astounds me that people like him cannot seem to understand that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce, which in turn means a solid bottom line for their employers. When you’re sick, or your family is sick and you have to worry about how you’re going to pay the doctor bills, work tends to take second place. Sick or hungry kids make for poor students, and poor students don’t get very far, and our country suffers as a result. You want to cut medicare? Want to cut food stamps? Then make sure your citizenry is healthy and educated, and the problem will eventually fix itself in large part. Obama (and anybody with a brain) is in it for the long game, not the short political gain. Hear hear, and further, preventative care only costs a very small fraction of chronic / emergency care. Also, just a question here given that Obama won the “non white” (I hate that term) vote… By and large, aren’t many of those groups (from Asians to Latinos etc) fiscally conservative? Aren’t they rather big believers in working hard, prodiving for yourself, living within your budget etc? So what does it say in general that Obama gets so much support from this demographic? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/37 "2012-11-15T03:09:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The bit about Ryan’s statement that I can’t understand, is why is it considered newsworthy? Anyone who’s paid any attention at all to politics in the past few decades knows that cities overwhelmingly tend Democratic while rural areas tend Republican, and that a big part of any politician winning is in getting good turnout from their base. So to the statement that Obama won, in large part, because he got high turnout in urban areas, I say “Duh”. A [more detailed analysis](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/11/patchwork-nation-from-election-exit-polls-a-mountain-of-data.html) of the issue though is interesting. > [@](#): > > that distribution of American voters – urban, suburban, rural – is pretty basic. There is a lot of room in there to dig further, particularly in the difference between the older, closer-in suburbs and outer-ring exurbs. > > Patchwork Nation, the journalism project I lead that breaks the nation’s 3,100 counties into 12 demographic/geographic types, sees the breakdown a bit differently. We see sharp distinctions in the wealthier closer-in counties we call the Monied Burbs and the more exurban counties we call the Boom Towns. … > > … The Burbs, which are wealthier and more socially moderate, seem to be moving more into the Democrats’ tent. Mr. Obama won them by about 10 percentage points in 2008. And in this election, even after a long recession and with a lot of voters saying the county is on the “wrong track,” he still won them by 6 points. > > That’s noteworthy because almost a quarter of all the votes yesterday came from the Monied Burbs, as you can see on this map of results from WNYC radio in New York. If that trend continues in future elections, it is problematic for the GOP. > > The Republicans’ hopes may lie in the Boom Towns, which tend to be more socially conservative. Mr. Romney won them by 9 points on Tuesday – about 21 percent of the 2012 presidential votes came from those counties. … Other factoids: > [@](#): > > … the exit polls showed the national electorate was about 72 percent white, 13 percent African-American and 10 percent Hispanic. … it was 81 percent back in 2000. The black percentage of the electorate held steady at 13 percent in 2012 and the number of Hispanics has grown steadily since 2000, from 7 percent to 10 percent. … > > … while Mr. Romney won college graduates (51 percent to 47 percent), Mr. Obama actually won those who had done post-graduate work (55 percent to 42 percent). … ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/38 "2012-11-15T03:10:08Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Also, just a question here given that Obama won the “non white” (I hate that term) vote… > > By and large, aren’t many of those groups (from Asians to Latinos etc) fiscally conservative? Aren’t they rather big believers in working hard, prodiving for yourself, living within your budget etc? > > So what does it say in general that Obama gets so much support from this demographic? Depends who you ask, I’m thinkin’. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/39 "2012-11-15T03:11:30Z")
I think Mitt and all the other Republicons are absolutely correct. This is a nation full of takers, not like the rich people who have earned everything they have through hard work. And people don’t deserve health care if they don’t have enough money. And our biggest problem is illegal aliens and a lack of wars. I strongly suggest they keep up this line of argument, with greater volume, and pointing out how all who disagree with them are not real Americans. I’d contribute to that campaign. The dumb people who voted for Obama just didn’t hear the message. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049/40 "2012-11-15T03:16:34Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I think Mitt and all the other Republicons are absolutely correct. This is a nation full of takers, not like the rich people who have earned everything they have through hard work. And people don’t deserve health care if they don’t have enough money. And our biggest problem is illegal aliens and a lack of wars. I strongly suggest they keep up this line of argument, with greater volume, and pointing out how all who disagree with them are not real Americans. I’d contribute to that campaign. The dumb people who voted for Obama just didn’t hear the message. Poe’s Law, dude. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mittens-blames-all-those-po-folk/641049.md?page=3)