David Callahan has already posted a comprehensive analysis of Mitt Romney’s recently revealed assertion that 47 percent of Americans are entitled freeloaders, and it’s well worth a read.
So I’m going to tackle another, related question: Why is there such a persistent, pernicious tendency to beat up on the poor? What psychological needs are filled by this all-too-common feature of our political discourse?
Now, it’s very easy for undue speculation or pseudoscience to creep in whenever politics and psychology meet, so I’m going to be careful here. But here are a few reasons why Romney may have said what he said:
1. The in-group/out-group tendency. The division of the species into Us and Them comes very naturally to human beings, and it occurs at every level of human interaction, from middle-school cliques to nations to the sorts of civilizational struggles postulated by the Samuel Huntingtons of the world.
Romney was speaking to a very “In” group — wealthy donors who had contributed $50,000 for the chance to spend an evening with him. What better place to highlight the differences between “us” — hardworking, entrepreneurial, willing to play by the rules — and “them” — freeloading, entitled, seeking only to take rather than contribute?
