Mitt Romney has gone to London. And made a fool of himself.
Thank heaven he isn't president, for then we would all have to be ashamed of the bad manners he has displayed in insulting the English. Yea and hark, ye all: He sneered at them, casting doubts on their ability to do a good job hosting the Olympics.
One London newspaper headline labeled him "Mitt the Twit".
Which of course brings to mind the wonderful Monty Python episode of "the twit contest". This was the first Monty Python show I ever saw, and "the twit contest" made me a fan forever. But there's actually nothing funny about Mitt Romney insulting other nations. He wants to be our "head of state". This implies he has to be something of a diplomat, doesn't it? Does a head of state go around insulting our closest allies?
He's such a rude little man. He insulted those NASCAR folks wearing plastic macs against the rain. He thought their gear was unacceptably cheap. Then he came to Pennsylvania and insulted the local cookie maker in one of our villages. He's a great one for sneering at people. The good, hard-working, just-making-it folks who are doing the best they can. Now he's gone international with his disgusting ways.
He is a spoiled brat with very bad manners. In each of the above instances he was a guest. One doesn't go somewhere as a guest and then insult the hosts, demeaning their efforts.
Bad manners sometimes come from lack of opportunity to learn. But Romney didn't come from a deprived background. He had opportunity galore. The other source of bad manners is a bad heart. Indeed, the word "courtesy" comes from the same Latin root as the French word "coeur" as in Richard the Lion-Hearted being "couer de lion", i.e. courageous. But it also means "loving", if you dig all the way back through the Late Middle Ages and Old French. Courage, courtesy, courting, courtly love, and even curtsy - all are linguistic cousins. (No extra charge here for the philology.)
Romney sure ain't no Richard the Lion-Hearted. And he is certainly no cousin to the words and concepts that make our civil life civil. He's a jerk. A mean-spirited and arrogant jerk. Even his $77,000 tax deduction dressage horse is more careful in how he steps around.
Mitt Romney is acting more and more like that other spoiled brat - George W. Bush.
Well, we've all sat through that movie already and we know the plot: unprovoked war, tax cuts for the rich, horrific deficits, no regulation of rapacious banks. And we know how that movie ends - not with a bang but with an enormous CRASH!
If a guy walks like a George W and talks like a George W and smells like a George W - RUN for the nearest exit! If a guy is a dumb jerk, he will not be a good president.
It's just that simple.
Now, let's forget what's-his-name Romney. Kick back. Light the torch! And let the games begin!
(Think I'll skip the dressage.)
I very much enjoy your writing. Thank you.
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