I've noted repeatedly the utter lack of empathy or understanding that Mitt Romney seems to exhibit towards virtually everyone other than religious extremists and the super wealthy. The rest of us are pure out of luck if we expect the man too grasp the fact that we are as fully human as he or his billionaire donors. A piece in the Boston Globe that reviews Romney's actions towards the LGBT community is particularly alarming in the manner in which Romney is so utterly out of touch and unfeeling. His perhaps classic remark was "I didn't think you had families" comment to gays while being lobbied on the issue of same sex marriage. Here are highlights from the Globe article that ought to have LGBT voters asking themselves WTF is wrong with gays who support the GOP and Mr. Romney in particular:
It was 2004, after the Supreme Judicial Court had cleared the way for same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses in Massachusetts. Governor Mitt Romney remained a roadblock, endorsing a constitutional amendment that would ban it. . . . . they shared their stories, pled their case, and tried to explain how equal marriage would protect them and their families. Romney sat stone-faced and almost entirely silent. “Is there anything else?” Romney asked when they finished. With that, the meeting was over.
“It was like talking to a robot. No expression, no feeling,” recalls David Wilson, one of the plaintiffs in the case who met with Romney that day. “People were sharing touching stories, stories where you’d expect recognition in the other person’s face that they at least hear what you’re saying — that there’s empathy. He didn’t even shake his head. He was completely blank.”
Occasionally Romney would say something. “I didn’t know you had families,” remarked Romney to the group, according to Wilson.
It was the ignorance of these facts — and Romney’s inaccurate, insensitive answer to her parting question, that pushed Julie Goodridge to her breaking point.
“I looked him in the eye as we were leaving,” recalls Goodridge. “And I said, ‘Governor Romney, tell me — what would you suggest I say to my 8 year-old daughter about why her mommy and her ma can’t get married because you, the governor of her state, are going to block our marriage?’”
His response, according to Goodridge: “I don’t really care what you tell your adopted daughter. Why don’t you just tell her the same thing you’ve been telling her the last eight years.”
Speaking with those locally who had experience knowing, meeting with, or working with Romney, a few commonly held perceptions emerge. Perhaps the most common is that Romney seems generally disinterested in others, and has trouble connecting with anyone unlike him — whether in terms of lifestyle, economic class, or sexuality. Some share stronger words. “He completely lacks empathy,” says Goodridge, speaking this time about her own experience meeting the governor.
That lack of empathy plays out in Romney’s tendency to gloss over incidents that are distressing to the gay community. Take the time he tried to dismantle the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. The Commission, established in 1992 by Republican Governor William Weld, was intended to specifically address youth-related issues like anti-gay harassment and teen suicide.
Later that month, Romney’s administration attempted to squash another youth-oriented effort over inclusive language: the publication of a 120-page anti-bullying guide for public schools.
There's much more in the Globe piece but these excerpts speak volumes about Mitt Romney and none of it good. We truly do not need this man in the White House.
No comments:
Post a Comment