King Mitt and the Dancing Horse

So Willard Mitt Romney will not release the customary ten years of tax returns that even members of his own party have asked for. What is he afraid of?

I believe that he is hiding a lot of things which would hurt the image he is trying to project as that of a normal, hard-working, American, who is just looking for a chance to get into office so he can straighten things out and make things better for everyone. I think that image is false and dishonest and I think Romney is hiding his tax returns because he knows it and just wants to keep up the charade a little longer — just long enough to beat that Harvard elite, Barack Obama.

Oh, I called Obama an elite. Was that a mistake? A Freudian slip, perhaps?

There is nothing wrong with elites. Elite means best and most qualified. We call the Navy Seals an elite fighting force, and so they are. We call our Olympic athletes elite. It’s not a bad word when used I that sense. Obama happens to be one of the most well-educated presidents of the we have ever had. If that doesn’t make him elite, then I don’t know why not.

But, back to Romney. Just the tax return that we have shows $75,000 in deductions for Rafalca, the horse he claims is owned by his wife, for expenses related to competitions in the sport of Dressage. Yes, Dressage is an Olympic event. The Romneys' horse will dance in the Olympic Games, currently taking place in London. And Rafalca is a beautiful German-bred mare. I hope she does well, though I won’t go so far as to shout “Break a leg, Rafalca.” Horses don’t understand the irony in that theatrical good-luck wish.


My point is they deducted more for their dancing horse than many Americans earn in a year. This deduction is most certainly legal. And I suppose that all the money Romney has hidden away in Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts is totally legal under our corrupt tax laws. We don’t know how much of that kind of activity there has been because he won’t let us see those returns.
Most of us can’t take advantage of deductions like that, and I’m not so sure that most hare-working Americans would avoid taxes by putting it off-shore, even if they could. And most of us don’t build beach houses with elevators for our automobiles, either. But Romney is doing that. I wonder if Rafalca will ever ride that elevator?

Romney is a member of the elite. But, it’s a different kind of elite. This is not the elite of hard work and intelligence. This is the elite of having lots of money, by being born into it and then by ruthlessly increasing ones wealth at the expense of others, sometimes by closing their plants, sometimes by firing them outright.

This is a dangerous and caustic form of elitism called entitlement.

Romney often seems clueless in dealing with everyday people. I wonder if he really understands what the Office of the President really means to the People of the United States, or if he feels it is just something that he is entitled to — not because of what he has accomplished — but just for who he is.
King Mitt the First? Or King Willard the Deserving?  Which title will it be, Mitt?

The elections are coming up in November. The clock is ticking.

And the horse is dancing.