Dear Governor Romney:

With less than seven weeks until American voters determine the fate of the free world—no, the whole world—in the presidential election, I wanted to ask you how you’re doing.

I’ve been reading things you said that you didn’t expect to have to share with the whole public—you know, things you said behind gilded, private doors, for the benefit of people just like you—the wealthiest, whitest one percent of American citizenry—things like, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the President no matter what . . . . My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

As I count myself one “who will vote for the President no matter what,” you are therefore talking about, well, me. So I guess I’m asking you how it feels to disregard fully 47 percent of the electorate. Alarmingly, there is still a chance that you will be my next president, so it concerns me that you can so blithely claim that it is your “job not to worry about [me].”

And I can’t imagine what you mean by “convincing” me that I should take “personal responsibility and care” for my life. I was nearly 50 before I was able to pay off my college loan in full, I’ve never depended on another person for my living as an adult, and I raised two children through grad school who are now contributing to the betterment of society. I realize you are not in close touch with the 47 percent you hope to govern, but if you bothered to check, you would no doubt find that my story is the story of the vast majority of us, that we work hard and play by the rules. And those rules include paying our taxes. “These are people who pay no income tax.” What? You got that one all wrong.

You said I am “dependent upon government,” a self-identified “victim,” I believe that the “government has a responsibility to care for [me],” and I believe that “[I am] entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”

If by “dependent upon government,” you are referring to, for example, the interstate highways and bridges I need to drive from point A to point B in our beautiful country; to the state university system that enabled me to send my daughter to a good college; to the federal insurance that protects my savings accounts; to the national parks and open spaces protected by federal grants; to the armed forces that serve to protect our freedoms; to the freedoms themselves, guaranteed in our Constitution, then yes, I am, as charged, “dependent upon government.”

If, when you say I think of myself as a “victim,” you are referring to my assertion that as a citizen approaching my senior years, I have earned the right not to have to choose between eating and taking prescription drugs, and that I think I deserve the Social Security benefit I have earned for 39 years’ worth of paying into the system, then yes, I am guilty as charged, a “victim.”

If, by believing that the “government has a responsibility to care for [me],” you mean that I think the purpose of government is to be, as President Lincoln so aptly described it, “of the people, by the people, for the people,” then, by all means, I am guilty as charged, and believe that my government has a responsibility to care for me.

And if you think I feel “entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it,” there I go again, guilty as charged.

You’ve lumped nearly half the voting public into a group with me—the ones you don’t need to worry about—so I wonder, just whom do you consider it your job to worry about if you’re elected?

Apparently not the demographic that includes a white, middle-income, upper-middle-age, college-educated mother, who pays her taxes, is a professional, an artist, an advocate of marriage equality, and a heterosexual woman—in other words, me.

Then there’s my housemate, another member of the 47 percent who plans to “vote for the President no matter what”; he’s white, middle-income, upper-middle-age, college-educated, professional, an artist, and gay.

It’s clearly not your job to worry about me, a woman. If elected, you pledge to legislate what I do with my female parts without regard to my wishes. And it’s obviously not your job to worry about my housemate, who is gay. Among other positions, you opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and have made it perfectly clear that you intend to introduce a federal ban on same-sex marriage. These campaign promises beg the question of just who is “dependent upon government.” Or is it just fine to be dependent on government as long as it serves to legislate your agenda?

Then there are all the other members of the 47 percent who plan to vote for the President no matter what. According to an analysis of the voters who elected the president in 2008, they were the “most racially and ethnically diverse in U.S. history, with nearly one-in-four votes cast by non-whites.” But don’t worry; it’s not your job to care about them either.

On reflection, I believe I have my answer as to just how you really feel about me, and it’s this: You don’t even notice me, because I cannot and will not help pay to get you elected, and because if, by some terrible accident of the universe, you are actually elected in November, you will not govern in a way that protects my freedoms and rights.

So let me ask you again, Governor Romney. How are you doing? Are you proud of the contempt you demonstrate—when in the company of people just like you—for your fellow Americans who happen not to have been born into wealth and privilege as you were, for the rest of us, for us freeloaders? Are you proud to be representing just a small percentage of the American electorate? When you look at yourself in the mirror, do you like seeing a man who would turn back the tide of justice and progress, without regard for the will and wisdom of 47 percent of the people you are campaigning to lead?

I realize I’m asking a rhetorical question, one to which I’ll never get a personal answer. And I suppose, because I am kind hearted, I do wish you personally well, which is obviously more than you wish me. But something tells me that a percentage even greater than your scorned 47, like me, will now “vote for the President no matter what.”

Sincerely yours,

Proud Member of the 47
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