The always entertaining Vice President Joe Biden addressed
supporters in Chesterfield County on Tuesday at the Chesterfield County
Fairgrounds[1] as
part of the Obama administration’s ongoing effort to stem the influence of Mitt
Romney in this predominantly Republican area.
Biden “hammered” away at a message that emphasized the
importance of America’s middle class, saying that “if the 47 percent doesn’t
make it, the country doesn’t make it.”
Biden unsurprisingly targeted the recent comments made by Mitt
Romney at a private fundraiser in Florida. In the video that was released by Mother Jones,[2]
Romney chides the “47 percent” of Americans who pay no federal income tax,
claiming that this 47 percent view themselves as “victims.”
Biden asked, “When he [Mitt Romney] said it’s not my job to
worry about these people – well, whose job is it?”
Biden went on to contrast his and President Obama’s views
about America’s social safety net relative to Mitt Romney’s. The Vice President
said he doesn’t think that access to Medicare, child-care tax credits, and
Social Security creates a “culture of dependency.”
As a further political move to shift swayable voters away
from the Romney camp, Biden told the crowd in Chesterfield that the current GOP
is not “your father’s Republican Party.”
Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that Republicans believed in the
legitimacy of science, the importance of protecting America’s social safety
net, as well as the importance of protecting the environment, even if it was a
burdensome endeavor at times.[3]
The contemporary GOP however, spearheaded by Mitt Romney,
appears indifferent to these issues at best. At worst, influential members of
the GOP seem more than willing to dismantle portions of America’s social safety
net, environmental protections, and even some of our country’s most prolific
public scientific institutions.[4]
Whatever the reasons may be, today’s GOP has consistently
made political moves that have alienated not insignificant segments of its
base: women, the elderly, the working class, and others.
Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are a lot of things to a
lot of people. But one thing Joe Biden, in particular, genuinely seems to be is
a man who cares about Americans and America’s future. I cannot say the same for
Mr. Romney.
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