Apologia latin: To Speak in Defense; A Formal Justification; An Explanation of Motives and Actions
The recent blast from the Rmoney camp is of a piece and is entirely in keeping with the character of the nominee: slickly belligerent; completely unjustified; and adept at taking all the wrong things seriously. The fumbling ineptitude, confusing the schedule by caustically berating a supposed ‘apology’ written and released prior to the offending event, is also part of the package: Mitt Rmoney is in such a hurry to accuse others of apologizing that cause and effect has no affect.
Refusal to apologize has long been a central and a constant refrain of RMoney: his book is entitled “No Apologies”; he’s been sounding the refrain that “Obama travels the world apologizing for America” since at least 2007; and his refusal to discuss specifics, long a feature of his campaign style and of the five minutes of actual governance he’s committed, is beginning to smack of this pathological aversion to apologizing.
To Apologize: To speak to the understanding of context and to express regret for the consequences of actions and motives; to acknowledge the better judgement of others in a specific instance.
Rmoney has long been considered ‘robotic’; his crisply ironed and starched white shirts with the sleeves impeccably rolled; his artfully graying hair (and the proven distaste for long hair in others…); his rat-a-tat delivery of long passages of memorized campaign patter in stark contrast to his fluttering incoherence when he freestyles (“I like the trees. They’re just the right height.”); the fondness for ‘etch-a-sketch’; his bristly debate performances with out-of-left-field wagers and aggressive body language; all point to a dangerously controlling personality. His youthful id actually acted out this refusal to be out of control when he pinned another human beneath the weight of his lackeys and forcibly removed his hair. Even the sudden reversal of his agreement not to politick on 9/11 (he almost made it…) points to this long held habit of total control.
And the refusal to apologize is part of that bundle of control pathology: for Rmoney, it’s an admission that his control has slipped or somehow come up short; it’s a clear repudiation of his ability to influence his environment wholly; it’s that space where daddy, or money, or charm or what-have-you cannot rescue him from consequences. Unlike the rest of us, Mitt Rmoney has never spent much time in that place.
Mitt Rmoney can’t apologize, ever, because that’s a direct assault on his ability to control.
This is how Barack Obama is going to take Rmoney out at the debates: he’s going to keep him off balance; he’ll make him feel like he’s not in control; he’ll hit him again and again with the simple fact of consequence. It’s going to be nasty, in fact sinfully ugly. And it’s going to be sinful how much I will so enjoy it…
That’s no typo is it?