These ideologically barbaric words, spoken by Mitt Romney during a GOP debate in the wake of the Joplin, Mo. tornado catastrophe, came in direct response to moderator John King's question about the federal government's responsibility for disaster relief and, perhaps, more adequate FEMA funding:
Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, thatβs the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, thatβs even better.... It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that weβll all be dead and gone before itβs paid off. It makes no sense at all.
As Hurricane Sandy bears down on and then blows away much of the East Coast, millions of devastated Americans will want to pridefully keep in mind that a President Romney would be thinking mostly of the supreme good and superior humanity of private profit.
In the not-too-distant future, as they're sitting in their roofless homes, admiring, directly, the stars at night, and as they're getting in touch with their inner rugged individualism, foraging for unspoiled food and fresh water, these Americans could have the invigorating opportunity review the folly of their past, mistaken collective ways. Maybe next time they'll sign a contract with Joe's Disaster Relief & Exorbitantly Priced Morsels Inc. before the hurricane comes.
For we would be, after all, real Americans then, whose motto isn't so much "Dog eat dog" as "Go fuck yourself, I got mine."