People have drawn the connection between Mitt Romney and Patrick Bateman before. Bateman, in “American Psycho,” talked of concealing himself beneath a “mask of sanity.” Bateman was, quite literally, a blank canvas upon which all other characters projected who they thought he was: a preppy, Marcus Halberstram, an asshole, Paul Allen, grumpy, a Harvard graduate, etc. The same is true of Romney. He is whomever you need him to be—a Mormon, a liberal conservative, a job creator, a corporate raider.
None of them are accurate, though. Romney’s identity is so fragmented that he could easily be a Thomas Pynchon creation. None of this is really news either.
It has been my thought for some time that Romney is, beneath it all, a psychopath who is just barely able to conceal his real face—his shadow self, to get Jungian for a moment. What we have below is four-year old campaign video evidence of that real Romney. This Romney is sublimated in order to make money and gain political power to make more money for him and his friends.
Watch the video, in which an AP reporter reminds Romney that his ’08 campaign was run by a lobbyist, and tell me if you cannot see that Romney’s shadow is aching to break out of his meat suit and beat the living shit out of the reporter. Romney’s face says everything and it is truly terrifying. Romney’s mask disappears and we are shown the psychopathic rage on which his entire business career and political ethos were founded: a blank expression concealing total rage at everyone in the world who doesn’t agree with him or whom he finds socially inferior.
Romney, not willing to be upstaged by a plebeian who called bullshit on his lie, finishes the press conference then circles back to the AP reporter for a second round. Watch his face and his eyes: they practically darken.
It is, quite simply, the psychopathology of privilege.
And that is the man who wants to run this country.
September 06, 2012 at 5:10 pm, Victoria Alvarez said:
Oooo weee!
This one has issues.
Mitt looks like his head is gonna explode.
HA!
September 06, 2012 at 5:26 pm, Scott Evans said:
I watched it and was trying to watch the 'rage' – that's not rage; that's just being annoyed. Show me some real rage, eh?!?
September 06, 2012 at 5:46 pm, Aaron McDowell said:
in some dark, alternate universe, mittens would have charged at him with some safety scissors and turned the reporter's face into a lector-like skin mask.
September 06, 2012 at 6:20 pm, Melba Vaughn said:
How many times does one have to say, "He is not a part of my campaign" That was so rude to have to explain, over and over and over.
September 06, 2012 at 6:21 pm, Melba Vaughn said:
The reporter was out of line with his questioning with the same question, over and over and not moving on. That is annoying, to say the least.
September 06, 2012 at 6:42 pm, Bobby Farrell said:
looks like to me he was just trying to disprove a lying leftwing so called journalist that was not gonna accept the truth and think Romney did quite wee
September 06, 2012 at 8:52 pm, Corinna Wells said:
That reporter was not out of line. He appeared to be doing exactly what e was supposed to: HIS JOB. What's really disturbing is that Romney came back to "correct" the statement even after the fact.
September 13, 2012 at 3:04 pm, Melba Vaughn said:
The question was answered and Romney came back to speak to him. I thought that was good of him to do that. If it had been me, one answer only and I would have walked on by him. He was not worth anymore talk.
September 13, 2012 at 9:28 pm, Corinna Wells said:
As a journalist, his sole responsibility is to report the truth. If Romney didn't want the reporter on his ass, he shouldn't have made the claim in the first place. Perhaps this lobbyist is not running his campaign, as he repeatedly reminded us, but even he admitted that the man is an adviser.
It seems to me that the reporter was more knowledgeable than Romeny expected and that freaked him out. He had no real argument other than "he's not running my campaign," and as David Easterling pointed out in an earlier comment, titles are just words.
September 06, 2012 at 7:08 pm, Miranda Filippone said:
GOD forbid he correct a reporter oh no! It makes him CRAZZZZZY! Reporter is out of line and doing his best to make Romney to look like the jerk…lame
September 06, 2012 at 7:29 pm, Dustin Price said:
It wasn't the correction, it was his demeanor. I think you missed the point, but i'm not surprised.
September 06, 2012 at 7:52 pm, Miranda Filippone said:
His demeanor was him standing his ground to the overly repetitious question. It's ok, let Romney frighten you for standing up to a question with his rrrraaaggggeee, the other guy needs to check himself. Don't be surprised I'm standing by him, no hard feelings
September 08, 2012 at 11:04 pm, Dustin Price said:
Ummm… this is a democratic website, as if you haven't noticed by the slant of the topics and narrative, so, I just wanted to make it known to you that there are republican-based forums where you can share your butthurt elsewhere. P.S. Ifyou think that demeanor translates well with foreign relations and tax-paying middle class, you are far more ignorant than posting Romney love on a website that theoratically has no desire for you here.
September 08, 2012 at 11:07 pm, Dustin Price said:
How's he gonna deal with the middle east? The poor? Russia? China? Like that? It doesn't scare you? These countries are all going to be asking the same questions. Should the rest of the world "check themselves" too? Maybe i'm missing your brilliance.
September 06, 2012 at 8:36 pm, Denise Dykes Davis said:
What a description- psychopathic rage? I don't even see "rage", much less "psychopathic rage".
October 12, 2012 at 11:59 am, KT Kacer said:
It's mainly in his eyes, though admittedly would have been better to call it "barely concealed psychopathic rage" concealing it is the more telling. If it's not there there's nothing TO conceal. But I realize you might not be picking up on the subtleties.
September 06, 2012 at 8:38 pm, David Easterling said:
He did say the man was an adviser, that's pretty close in the inner circle.Titles are just words!
September 06, 2012 at 9:37 pm, Patrick Corkren said:
So A. You call that a psychopathic rage..heh heh heh? And B. You actually read that rag and think its news? Gimme a freaking break? Did some crazed bed wetter hypnotize you or something? You think the unions, rev wright, screwy Louie Farrakhan, Chicago politicos, lobbyists and on and on aren't advising BO? Are you really just f@#king with everyone and pretending to be some whacked out liberal to demonstrate how foolish they look? I remember how you just about convinced me in high school that you slept with Mrs. White and drank Matues wine with her… tone it down a bit for more believability.
September 06, 2012 at 9:41 pm, David Easterling said:
I did not call it anything ,simply made an observation.The old high school joke is funny,had completely forgotten about that, but the rest whew!
September 06, 2012 at 9:53 pm, Patrick Corkren said:
I know. Do you remember that too? I can't remember what made me think about it but I laughed my ass off the other day.
September 06, 2012 at 11:48 pm, Cliff Vick said:
I think he handled the little tick pretty well. If that was a psychopathic rage, they better lock me (and probably all of you) in the psych ward.
September 07, 2012 at 3:00 am, Karen Freibaum said:
Goes to show …he's not a unick.
September 06, 2012 at 9:17 pm, Bobby Farrell said:
If that would have been Aliblabla that lame reporter would have been called a racist
September 06, 2012 at 9:58 pm, Pattie N Dennis Samford said:
Whoever wrote that sounds demented to me. I thought he was much more polite than I would have been!
September 07, 2012 at 11:08 pm, Chris Weary said:
He's no Bill Henrickson that's for sure.
September 11, 2012 at 11:26 am, A Mitt Romney mixtape | Death and Taxes said:
[...] to rape and murder, or rather murder and corpse-fuck Mikael Blomkvist. The serial killer is also a son of privilege with anger problems. I, myself, quite like the song’s arrangements and dreaminess (it [...]
October 17, 2012 at 5:27 pm, Mike Farr said:
Hmm. Didn't seem like rage to me. There are plenty of valid criticisms of R.money without resorting to bullshit like this.
October 17, 2012 at 6:50 pm, Jason Rink said:
R.money is such a great hip-hop name, that I just want him to bow out now and cut a record.
October 17, 2012 at 7:00 pm, Mike Farr said:
Only if his first record is called "Binder full 'o bitches"
December 30, 2012 at 4:16 pm, Brian Herget said:
Sonny Elliman is right: do NOT get argumentative with the candidate. Show some professionalism, for crying out loud.
May 17, 2013 at 9:59 pm, Thomas A Hardy said:
Just recently Psychology Today printed an article by a self-professed "Sociopath" – in the second paragraph she describes an episode just like Romney's….as murderous rage.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/confessions-sociopath