Romney: Echoes of Triumph of the Will
Mitt Romney said of John Edwards, "This baloney when he says there are two Americas. There is only ONE America!" His eyes flash blue fire as he proclaims this--at a parish house in New Hampshire.
With his clean-cut good looks and piercing blue eyes, Mitt Romney is the poster child for soft-focus right-wing politics. He sounds disturbing echoes of another era, another movement all wrapped in a reasonable, soft-spoken manner.
He stresses his five sons and his long marriage, in part to distinguish himself from Giuliani, but also to present himself as the model for a better America. In his appearances he gives a litany strangely reminiscent of a scene in Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph of the Will, saying that wherever he goes, he shares Americans' values whether in New Hampshire ("Yankee values"), Iowa ("heartland values"), or South Carolina, ("Southern values"). He explains, when talking of South Carolina, "I'm proud to have southern values, because they're American values." I wonder what that means.
Americans "…love work, the people in America love their maker…" Muslims don't, I suppose. "People in America love family." Other people hate them? "We love this country." And what, I wonder, do the Russians, or the Iraqis feel about their countries. "We" all have the same American values. In Triumph of the Will, Germans call out from the midst of the huge rally in Nuremburg, the equivalent of: "I'm from Saxony," "I'm from Bavaria," "I'm from Baden Baden," and so on, and then all proclaiming in unison "One Fuehrer! One Volk!"
So, what are these American values, according to Romney? To be really American, people ought to be married before they have kids. The 37% who do not, maybe they're not American? "We have to strengthen families!" He cites Moynihan and then points out that when Moynihan warned against the dissolution of society, he was talking about 25% of children among African-Americans born out of wedlock--and now, he says, it's 68%--among African Americans--45% among Hispanics, 25% in the rest of society.
Notable that he leads with African Americans, he with his so-white skin, a member of a religion which held that black people didn't have souls until the 1970's. "Marriage between a man and a woman is essential to the strength of society." This is interesting, too, since Mormons originally were polygamous, and splinter Mormon sects still are. "A family that's close enough to come together to have a meal together regularly." With all four wives? No, seriously, this is one of his formulae for making America better--make sure everyone gets married and has dinner with their children--as if the trend isn't radically in the opposite direction, as if couples working two jobs on different shifts are somehow not American. And the nice white people listening in the New Hampshire parish room are all nodding their heads, "Yes!"
Romney buys into the millennial American vision, having cited Ronald Reagan as his hero: "This is a unique nation." "The greatest land on earth," says Romney. Strengthening America, strengthening our families, strengthening our military and better managing government--turning his skills as the head of a firm that "turned firms around" to the federal government: these are his goals as President.
It is noticeable that the first item on his to-do list is to "defeat global Jihad," but it is also interesting that he says "not just militarily" all over the world, but by "helping the Muslims to figure out how they're going to get rid of the extreme…." He means extremists, but at least he doesn't use Giuliani's term, "Islamo-fascists."
Romney is soft-focus. Romney is smooth. Quite a contrast to the abrasive Mayor. But Mitt doesn't project warmth; he gives off the scent of cold, clear ice.
He's "optimistic for America," but I wonder, after he says this, what he sees as "America." Not those 68% of African Americans who've had children out of wedlock, not the 25% of "the rest of us."
He talks about Education as if the "Teachers Union" (there is more than one, but he doesn't seem to notice) is the only thing standing in the way of excellence. He likes the NCLB, likes the idea of testing, but he doesn't want the federal government to be directly involved; that's for the states: he worries that some "liberal President" will take hold of education and decide what should be taught. What, Liberal values, like diversity, like tolerance, like freedom of speech? How awful!
Romney has money--his own and a well-funded campaign--but perhaps his Mormonism will sink him. There are other factors that should tell against him in the primaries and the General Election: the fact that he was pro-choice and now is not; that he was for civil unions, but not gay marriage; that he governed a liberal state, not brilliantly; that his only real success was brokering a healthcare program he now claims and also disavows, since it's close to Hillary's proposed plan for the nation. In other words, Mitt Romney looks, at least, like everything he claims not to be: a political chameleon.
Seeing those steely blue eyes, though, you get the feeling that you saw someone like him before: in some grade B World War II movie; this person I remember was not one of the Americans; he was scary.
