Open Salon | July 31 2012 | Thanks, Thomas
As Thomas says “Open mouth. Insert foot.” ~G
Mitt Romney recently said in Israel that Palestinians don’t have as high a GDP per capita as Israelis do because their culture is not as good as Jewish culture. That is both deeply racist and deeply stupid.
According to that logic, Jewish culture must not be as good as Arab culture because the GDP per capita of Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait crush Israel’s.
Mitt Romney also talked about divine hand of providence as a possible explanation of why Israelis are richer than Palestinians. Did God, or should I say Allah, change his mind and decide that he likes Arabs in the Gulf States more than even the Jews?
Here’s another explanation for the Palestinians plight: They have been under occupation for over 60 years now. They don’t even control their own borders or trade. There have been crushing embargoes on their territories. It’s a little hard to get trade going when you’re literally not allowed to trade.
Our military has aided and abetted this occupation and, in many ways, we have paid for it. Now we have a candidate for president of one of our major political parties go there and rub their face in it. It wasn’t our military that did this to you; it was your own inferior culture. That’s literally adding insult to injury.
Despite all of this, the most relevant part of this exchange might be the perspective it gives us into Mitt Romney’s world view. Rich makes right. If Israel is richer, by definition, it must be superior. If Mitt Romney is richer than everyone else, he must be superior to everyone else. Elect me for president, I’m richer than the other guy.
What he leaves unsaid is what is obvious in his mind, “The richer guy is obviously the better guy.”