@Thom_Hartmann blog: Romney Writes Off His Own Electorate
by Thom Hartmann,posted Sep 19 2012 2:53PM
The Mitt Romney campaign is still in crisis after a leaked video showed Romney deriding 47% of Americans who he claims are victims who don’t pay taxes, and who are dependent upon government for everything. Romney argued that he doesn’t need to worry about these people – and they represent the President’s base.
But a new study by the Tax Foundation shows that those Americans Romney was referring to who don’t pay federal income taxes aren’t from Blue states – they’re mostly from Red states. The top ten states with the highest percentage of residents who pay no federal income taxes are all in the South, plus Idaho. And each one of those states – with the exception of Florida – has consistently voted for Republicans.
Mitt Romney may have thought he was writing off President Obama’s electorate – but in reality, he was writing off his own.
Unfortunately, Republicans have used racist dog-whistle politics in the South since Nixon to convince tens of millions of Americans to vote against their best interests. And they’re trying to do the same thing today to convince poor, southern Americans that priority number one is to get the black President out of the White House.
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