Screaming to Get Out

I’m starting to believe there’s a decent man inside Mitt Romney, screaming to get out.  To my mind that’s the most logical explanation for Tuesday’s famous gaffe and several others.

In a speech Tuesday, Mr. Romney said, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.”  The context, which is important, was health care and his point was that under the current system, one can change insurance companies if one is unsatisfied with the coverage provided.

Even if one excuses the gaffe, I think the former one-term Massachusetts governor was already deep in the weeds.  A multi-millionaire like Mr. Romney can no doubt change insurance companies at will.  Most of us have long since ceased expecting to be happy with our insurance coverage, we take hassles and hostility from our insurer as a given and are happy to hold onto any coverage we can.

I think the honest man deep within Mr. Romney understands the point about insurance and is determined to sabotage the politician who appears before the public.  (This is my superficial understanding of Jungian psychology.)

Tuesday’s gaffe is what is known in the trade as an “unforced error.”  Mr. Romney was not in a debate, he was not responding to a charge leveled by one of his opponents or a question from a reporter.  He cooked up this doozy all on his own – or with help from his honest, shadow self.

I have fired people; I never liked it. Even when the person in question had been provoking me for months, when the moment came to sit him (usually) down and give the bad news, I always felt bad about it.

For all the jobs Mr. Romney destroyed during his corporate raider phase, I imagine he rarely, if ever, dispensed the bad news himself.  Avoiding that duty is another perk of Mr. Romney’s pay grade.

Watching the video, it seems clear that the politician realizes immediately that the inner, honest man has betrayed him, since he immediately goes into hamana-hamana-hamana mode.

Other moments when the honest man came through?  I’d say the December 10 debate, when Mr. Romney offered to bet Texas Governor Rick Perry $10,000 that he’s been consistent about health care.  In that moment, the honest man was pointing out that Mitt Romney (and the other candidates) live in a world of wealth unavailable to the average American.  (It’s worth noting these two bursts of honesty occurred in regard to health care, a topic on which Mr. Romney has dissembled perhaps to a greater degree than any other.)

Another “forced error,” again forced by Gov. Perry, was Mr. Romney’s take on having undocumented workers care for his landscaping. “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake – I can’t have illegals,” he said.  Once again, the honest man inside demonstrated the difference between Mr. Romney and the rest of us who cut our own grass while pointing out that the surface man, the politician, cares about issues not for their own sake, but whether they will or will not put wind in the sails of his fortune.

Someday, I hope we get to meet the honest man inside Mitt Romney.  I think I’d like him much better than the person we’ve seen on the campaign trail.  As for many of the other Republicans vying for office this year, I’m not sure any such Jungian struggle is going on beneath the surface.  And that’s what really scares me.

© Mark Floegel, 2012

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