"He'd rather you be a slave and be economically dependent upon him," is how Fox favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) put it. (No unemployment recipient has ever voted Republican?) The Atlantic mapped out where Romney's 47% of no-income-tax-paying voters live, and it turns out "those people are disproportionately in red states -- that is, states that tend to vote Republican."
In Romney's case, the Republican's long-standing caricature of the lazy welfare recipient gets dramatically expanded to include tens of millions of Americans who vote Democratic and who apparently worship big government and disdain hard work. Writing off nearly half the electorate as selfish dependents who refuse to take responsibilities for their own lives isn't usually how White House candidates frame their campaigns. This is the kind of fringe, conspiratorial rhetoric that campaigns usually leave to the periphery. And for good reason (see Sarah Palin, 2008).
But in today's Republican Party, Mitt Romney must bow at the feet of Fox News. Apparently, that means echoing the dark, incoherent attacks that the talk channel conjures up.
The full article is available here
