14 September, 2012

How The Romney Campaign Has Become A Modern Day Milgram Experiment And What It Tells Us About Romney's Dim View Of His White Male Base

In the now infamous Milgram experiment, an alarmingly high number of subjects were willing to deliver painful electric shocks to others if an authority figure in a white coat told them to do so. Readers who studied Psychology and remember the infamous Milgram experiment will notice that white male voters are now the "authority figures" in the white coats and Romney is the subject whose hand is on the controls that he thinks will deliver painful shocks to the people selected by the authority figures in white coats. And the manner in which Romney delivers these painful shocks tells us more about what Romney thinks of his white male base than he realizes.

For my readers who get all their news from AM Talk Radio and from Fox News, let me offer the following facts so you'll understand why Romney feels he must deliver pain to all but his white male base: 1. Romney is losing big with Hispanics, Blacks and Women. 2. He can't win the presidency if he loses with women and minorities unless he carries almost all the white male vote. It's the way he is trying to win that white male vote that resembles the infamous Milgram experiment.  Understanding what Romney thinks white males want him to do - to whom he thinks we wish him to deliver pain - explains everything he is doing lately - all his desperate foreign relations gaffs, all his flip-flops.

Romney, who once said he would get to the left of Ted Kennedy on same sex marriage, thinks white males want him to be against same sex marriage so now he is. Romney thinks white males want him to be even tougher on illegal immigrants than Obama (who deports illegals at a higher rate than any previous president) so now he utters all that non-sense about "self-deportation". Romney thinks white males want him to declare war on just about anybody with whom the US has even a minor conflict so now he talks about increasing the already bloated military budget, fighting wars on multiple fronts and how the recent Benghazi murders wouldn't have happened had a tough guy like Romney been president. Romney thinks white males want him to get their womenfolk under male control by denying them abortions and birth control so now this man who made $millions at Bain Capital by disposing of aborted babies through the Stericycle company, this man who once ran for the Senate as a pro-choicer, is now against abortion.

Let me be clear: in this modern day Milgram experiment called the Romney campaign, Mitt Romney is the guy behind a curtain where he is shown what he believes are electric shock controls. White males are the authority figures in white coats. But Romney doesn't wait for us to tell him to deliver electric shocks to gays, women and brown people. No, he just assumes that delivering pain to women and minorities will please us so he does it without hesitation and without even thinking about the things he is saying.

Romney's eagerness to deliver pain to people he thinks white males want him to harm tells us not only that he will do anything to get elected but it also tells us how poorly he thinks of the white male voters whose approval he is willing to win at any cost to women, minorities and brown people.

Oh, and for my friends and readers who get their news from Fox TV News and Talk Radio, President Obama will be re-elected. Handily. No, it won't be close. Why? Because there aren't enough white males like the ones Romney imagines to overcome his deficit with the women and minorities he has already written off.

-- 
Higginbotham At Large Publishes no pseudonymous or anonymous comments. All submitted comments come to me for deletion or publication. I only publish comments from identified submitters. No exceptions. 

2 comments:

  1. I agree with your assessment, and I think the Romney campaign and/or its white males must too, hence the efforts to disenfranchise the written off. I fear the election may come down to how much of the vote we can get out and keep from being intimidated. I'd love to be wrong. Incidentally, I'm Joanne Dixon, one of your LinkedIn contacts and fellow group members.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne:
      "Pedant" would remain merely an unpublished submitter while "Joanne Dixon" is a published contributor and participant so it's not "incidental" that you gave your name.

      Delete

Only identified commentators will be published. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. "Handles" and "screen names" are pseudonyms. If you wish to comment, you need to identify yourself or your comment will not be published.