GOP hopefuls trying to define the new ‘normal’

By Rod Haxton, editor

Politicians love to cultivate a belief that they are just one of us.

It works two ways.

It allows our Congressmen and the occasional presidential candidate to give the impression that they connect with us common folk.

And we, as common folk, can walk away thinking that these individuals really aren’t that much different from us when, in reality, they are.

There’s something to be said for a Congressman or a presidential wannabe who’s “just like us.”

But, in reality, shouldn’t we expect a little better?

Andrew Jackson was often referred to as the “people’s president.” He was so connected with the people that at Jackson’s first inauguration, the White House became virtually an open bar. About 21,000 people were on hand for the swearing in ceremony and an untold number broke through barriers and entered the White House where the party continued.

What was described as a “drunken mob” could only be dispersed when bowls of liquor and punch were placed on the front lawn of the White House.

It’s also no surprise that the White House was a mess with the crowd leaving behind several thousand dollars worth of broken china.

Who can’t relate to that?

And how many times were we reminded during the George W. Bush Administration that the president was the kind of person voters would like to drink a beer with? No one thought of his father, or Ronald Reagan or Gerald Ford in that manner.

Maybe, G.W. would make a great drinking buddy, unfortunately he ran the country like one of our old drinking buddies. Great guys to party with, but I wouldn’t put them in charge of my microwave, let alone an entire country.

Should we really be surprised at the result?

Yet, here are Republicans trying to convince us they are the party of the middle class. In doing so, Republican presidential candidates are completely redefining what it is to be an average American in terms of financial status and moral stature.

Mitt Romney, the $250 Million Dollar Man, knows our pain.

“I know what it’s like to worry whether you’re going to get fired. There were a couple of times I wondered if I was going to get a pink slip,” he said at a campaign rally.

Really?

His father was the former CEO of American Motors and a two-term governor of Michigan.

Just how close has he ever been to drawing an unemployment check?

Romney, who truly has his finger on the pulse of the common man, said that income from speaking fees between February 2010 and February 2011 were “not very much” - as in $374,000 not very much. He receives $60,000 per speech - which is more than the average American’s annual salary.

The mere mention of this is enough for Romney and his camp to claim we’re envious. Personally, we don’t care how much money Romney makes from his speaking engagements. And if people are willing to spend $100 or $10,000 a plate on the rubber chicken circuit to hear what Romney has to say, that’s fine.

But we tend to become a little offended when someone who wants to be president is so disconnected from reality that he considers $374,000 “not very much.”

That kind of individual would seem incapable of “feeling our pain” when it comes to unaffordable health insurance premiums or a family who has to choose between paying their rent or putting food on the table. For those families, it will take most of a lifetime to earn $374,000.

And yet, we have to come to Romney’s defense when Newt Gingrich takes it upon himself to define the new “normal.”

Gingrich, the conservative right wing’s new standard bearer for morality after two extramarital affairs and three marriages, says that cheating on his first two wives gives him an advantage over Romney since it makes him “more normal.”

“So, I think in that sense, it may make me more normal than somebody who wanders around seeming perfect and maybe not understanding the human condition and the challenges of life for normal people.”

There’s no doubt that anyone who refers to corporations as people - as Romney does - and who makes $57,000 each day on his investments without having to get out of bed has no understanding of the human condition. And I don’t think that understanding would change if Romney were to start having an extramarital affair.

Neither does cheating on more than one wife make one more sensitive to the challenges facing “normal people.” Despite Newt’s desperate attempt to condemn the “liberal media” for bringing up the topic and his second wife’s claim about wanting an “open marriage,” it doesn’t make him one of us.

Lots of people face challenges in their lives, but they do so without turning to alcohol, spousal abuse, embezzlement or becoming a hypocritical politician.

If Gingrich is the new definition of “normal” then moralists within the Republican Party have truly lost their way.

Rod Haxton can be reached at editor@screcord.com