Mitt Romney as Sixties Prep-School Marauder
I know I said I wasn't going to do as many political posts here on LJ anymore, but after compiling a list of quotes about Mitt Romney's days as a prep school bully on Snark Amendment I thought this topic in particular seemed appropriate.
The Washington Post reported that as a schoolboy at the posh Cranbrook School in Michigan, Mitt Romney allegedly attacked a long-haired student with scissors and cut his hair. And as the article notes, Romney often worked in tandem with other students during his so-called pranks.
From Paul Begala on Daily Beast:
. . . he didn’t confront his nonconformist classmate alone but rather took the coward's path: assembling a posse in an episode one classmate described as like "Lord of the Flies."
That sounds like Snape talking to Harry during Flight of the Prince when he says about James:
"Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?
One twitter compared Romney to a Slytherin student, but I thought the whole thing sounded much more Gryffindor! And as with the entitled and old-moneyed Sirius Black being somehow offended by Snape's appearance, Romney did not like the "looks" of the boy he attacked. But he swore he was not being homophobic.
From Romney:
I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far and for that, I apologize. I certainly don't believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s.
Fellow Cranbrook Alumnus Michael Barone also makes excuses:
I think it’s worth noting that the framing of the Post story-the suggestion that Romney and the others picked on this schoolmate because they thought he was gay-is anachronistic. In spring 1965 long hair was associated with surfers (the Beach Boys had their first national hit record in 1964) and the Beatles (who made their first U.S. appearance in January 1965). And hair length was a big issue in the 1960s. Men of the World War II generation, who had memories of military short haircuts, took umbrage when teenagers left their hair grow, and fathers would badger their sons to get haircuts.
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that this guy used the word "umbrage" to describe how Romney felt? And he grew up into the "Man Who Likes to Fire People." Wow. And the guy with the hair was what? The first hippie that Mitt Romney had ever encountered? The poor kid was just ahead of his time considering that the whole country got over their fear of human hair by the 1970s.
But does having a different hair style - or dare we say, greasy hair - justify the attack of a bully on an unsuspecting student? In the Harry Potter books, it's the conservative Petunia Dursley who attacks Harry with scissors, cutting his hair so short that he retaliates by growing it back overnight with magic. But certainly in terms of ingroup-outgroup behavior, Mitt was sending a strong message to a nonconformist that Big Brother Mitt was watching him.
From the original Washington Post Story by Jason Horowitz:
John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenage son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground.
As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
If that was an isolated incident maybe we could forget and forgive - maybe. But unfortunately Romney, like James and Sirius. was an incorrigible serial bully. He even picked on a teacher!
One venerable English teacher, Carl G. Wonnberger, nicknamed “the Bat” for his diminished eyesight, was known to walk into the trophy case and apologize, step into wastepaper baskets and stare blindly as students slipped out the back of the room to smoke by the open windows. . . . As an underclassman, Romney accompanied Wonnberger and Pierce Getsinger, another student, from the second floor of the main academic building to the library to retrieve a book the two boys needed. According to Getsinger, Romney opened a first set of doors for Wonnberger, but then at the next set, with other students around, he swept his hand forward, bidding the teacher into a closed door. Wonnberger walked right into it and Getsinger said Romney giggled hysterically as the teacher shrugged it off as another of life’s indignities.
Funny right? Not really - I don't think Harry Potter would have wished that on Madam Trelawney, even though he did think of her as a an Old Bat. But we never even see a single Slytherin pick on the blind seer, and Umbridge was the only bully who taunted her and wanted to give her the sack . . . wait, what? Yeah, Umbridge liked to fire people too.
In hindsight, Romney says he almost can't remember any of this. It was a long time ago. He's sorry. He grew up, blah, blah. The other guy grew up, left school (kicked out for smoking - see article) and was forgotten. Romney moved on. There was success and money in the bank and the wife and kids at home, right?
It makes me think that if James Potter had lived, he would have been a perfect candidate for Minister of Magic. I don't think he would have won, though. People tend to remember this stuff even if the bullies have memory loss.
Read More Quotes from Romney and Others ~~~
I’m not going to be too concerned about their piece they talk about the fact that I played a lot of pranks in high school and they describe some that well you just say to yourself, back in high school well I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended obviously I apologize but overall high school years were a long time ago...
~ Mitt Romney, quoted by ABC News
I don’t remember that incident and I’ll tell you I certainly don’t believe that I, I can’t speak for other people of course, thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from my mind back in the 1960s, so that was not the case. But as to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all, but again, high school days, if I did stupid things, why I’m afraid I got to say sorry for it.
~ Mitt Romney, quoted by the Washington Examiner
Yo, Romney, like Eminem said: “F*** Cranbrook.
~ Mother Jones Tumblr quoting Eminem's autobiographical movie 8 Mile about growing up in Detroit.
On multiple occasions over the last year, Romney has shown a tendency to dodge, weave, parse or deny in such a way that it outweighs the original offense. It’s his weasel problem, a real character flaw.
. . . what Romney seems to be implying - that bullying of effeminate-seeming boys didn’t happen in prep schools in the 1960s - is preposterous.
~ Timothy Egan in a NYT's Op-Ed entitled Romney's Weasel Problem
The Post reported that the abused boy was ultimately expelled from Cranbrook-for smoking a cigarette. Really. The victim got expelled for smoking a cigarette, but Mitt faced no sanctions for maliciously victimizing a vulnerable student and a teacher. It's good to be a prince. Maybe that's why Romney felt entitled to take a $10 million bailout for Bain, but opposed President Obama's bailout of the auto industry. He thinks there's one set of rules for the privileged, and another for the rest of us.
~ Paul Begala on The Daily Beast
What I see is an opportunity for Mitt Romney to lead and really be an advocate for decreasing bullying. It’s sad to hear what occurred many years ago characterized as ‘pranks’ and ‘horsing around.’ We’re no longer conformable with the notion of describing bullying as ‘kids will be kids.’ This was a presidential moment, and this should be a teachable moment for him.
~ Lee Hirsch, the director of “Bully”, a new documentary that focuses on bullying in U.S. schools, in a phone interview with TPMemo
Imagine holding someone down on the ground against their will. Imagine raising scissors to their head because you didn’t like the style of their hair. Imagine cutting the hair while the boy or girl beneath you struggled to get free. Is she crying? Is he? Is this a moment you could forget? Once you had matured would you want to? In the best scenario, a lesson is learned and behavior changed; in the worst, the behavior is rationalized and outwardly forgotten, finding rest in the dark recesses of the soul.
~ Tim Durnin, Santa Barbara Noozhawk
From Twitter:
The only shocking thing about the Romney bullying story is that at no point during the attack did he change his mind.
- Andy Borowitz (@BorowitzReport) May 11, 2012
Having learned about Romney's bullying past, I sense the wingnuts are liking him much more.
- Markos Moulitsas (@markos) May 11, 2012
Mitt Romney was a prep school bully. Which means he'd stuff you into a locker if you wore white pants after labor day.
- Denis Leary (@denisleary) May 11, 2012
So Mitt Romney's a homophobic, pet-abusing bully who destroys everything he touches. But does he have a negative side?
- Michael Kupperman (@MKupperman) May 16, 2012
The bullying Romney did 40 years ago is nothing compared to the painful wedgie he wants go give the entire country.
- Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) May 10, 2012
I still think the word "bullying" diminishes the act.Harassment is what it is, or in Romney's Cranbrook incident, assault.
- Ray Y (@rmty) May 16, 2012
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