MITT ROMNEY THE MAD MAN
Were Mad Men ever to feature a US politician, he would probably look a lot like Mitt Romney.
The slicked back hair.
The Quarterback smile.
The lantern jaw.
Those crisp white shirts.
It is easy to imagine the Republican presidential nominee in 1960s New York, leaving his Fifth Avenue apartment for his Wall Street office, and then heading off, with his wife Ann, to their pile in the Hamptons on the weekend.
Mitt Romney would also have suited Mad Men era politics.
After all, America in the late-1950s and early 1960s was heavily populated with Republicans like him. They were rich and impeccably groomed.
Typically they could boast an Ivy League pedigree (Romney went to Harvard), a stellar political bloodline (Romney’s father, George, was the Governor of Michigan and also a presidential hopeful), and a background in banking or high finance (Romney founded the venture capitalist firm, Bain Capital).
By today’s standards, they also tended to be fairly moderate in their political views: conservative, yes, but conservative with a small “c.” They were not much interested in God or guns. Instead, their focus was the greenback (the US dollar), and, at a time when communism was seen as the main threat, the global dominance of American capitalism. On Saturdays, they would attend Country Clubs rather than NASCAR motor races. Sunday would find them in Episcopalian chapels rather than Evangelical mega-churches.
They were “liberal Republicans,” a phrase, oft-heard fifty years ago, that now sounds like an oxymoron.
In Mad Men, Betty Draper’s second husband, Henry Francis, actually worked as the communications director for precisely this kind of Republican: the then Governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller. In the early 1960s, Rockefeller, a scion of the famous banking dynasty, was viewed as one of the Republican party’s brightest stars (in a Mad Men-like plotline, he ruined his chances by divorcing his wife, then a real no-no, and marrying his mistress called “Happy”). Nowadays, he would deemed way too moderate to prosper in what has since become a much more right-wing party.
Whereas the Republicans used to be the party of the establishment, now it is infused with the radical, insurgent spirit of the Tea Party.
It helps explain why Mitt Romney is doing poorly. His background is as a moderate, Mad Men-era Republican. As the governor of Massachusetts between 2003-2007, he championed healthcare reform – his system became the model for Obamacare. He was also pro-choice and supported strict gun controls.
Now, he presents himself as pro-life, pro-gun and the politician who will dismantle Obama’s healthcare reforms.
Which one is the real Romney? The Massachusetts moderate, or the presidential candidate who was secretly filmed telling a private fundraiser that there are 47% of Americans who “are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.” Or perhaps the answer is both: an unprincipled political opportunist, who says different things to different audiences.
Who is the real Mitt Romney? Image via nakeddc.com.
The central question in Mad Men is who is Don Draper, though most of the characters never get to find out his true identity.
Alas for Mitt Romney, this has also become the main storyline of his troubled campaign.
Six weeks out from Election Day, much of America is still trying to make sense of his opaque and often contradictory character.
MORE STORIES BY NICK BRYANT
A Pocket Guide to the US Election
*Nick Bryant is a foreign correspondent with the BBC. He has reported from trouble-spots all over the world, and was the BBC’s Washington correspondent during 9/11. He was recently the BBC’s Australia correspondent. He is married to the fashion designer, Fleur Wood.
Nick is the author of a book on US politics and the recently published memoir, Adventures in Correspondentland.
8 Responses to this article
-
SawHole September 26, 2012
Great article, Nick.
I actually think Mitt is more Roger Sterling than Don Draper, from wealth, gaffe prone and a bit of a silver fox but I get your point about the era of small c Conservatiism. Life seemed less serious back then. -
monica September 26, 2012
EXcellent article Nick. Clarifies the difference between old and new Republicans.
-
liza September 27, 2012
Shades of Tony Abbott ? Opportunist. never believe me unless it sworn on the bible or written down.
-
amd September 27, 2012
He is terrifying. Have been following him for months. Let’s put aside the fact that he is a Mormon misogynist who wears magic underwear. Did you know about him strapping his dog to the roof of his car (in a pet carrier) and driving for 12 hours like that? At one point he pulled over for petrol and the dog had crapped itself in terror. So he hosed the crap off the roof of his car and hosed the dog down and kept going. Or the time he, aged 18 (I think it was 18) helped his bully friends, they held down a weeping, terrified boy of their own age while he hacked off his hair in clumps. Ever really watched the man in action? Creepy and robotic are two words that spring to mind. I hope he finds this is one thing his millions kept in the off shore bank accounts cannot buy him. Frankly, Tony Abbott is a dream by comparison (and I will NEVER vote for Abbott).
-
Melissa Mitchell October 9, 2012
I’ve never watched the TV show, so I can’t draw comparisons, but I follow closely US politics. And I’m afraid, I believe it is the latter. Mitt Romney is an opportunistic ladder climber. He is whatever the crowd wants him to be, when they want him to be it.
A Governor of Mass, he is in blue territory. Most of the East Coast (the northern parts, anyway) is safely democrat. He has no choice but to appear Moderate at the very least.
Now, on a national stage, with the tea-party-powers in the Republican party taking over, he has to lean as far right as possible. There’s no choice. A moderate can’t win over the party base.
Oddly enough, had he stuck to his more moderate self, he would probably have scored most of the un-decideds who last time supported Obama.
