This comes out of the RomneyRyan12 thread which is now embroiled in argument over whether one can dislike what Obama said at some point more or less than Romney's 47% claim and not be a rabid partisan on one side or the other.
The most deeply troubling (IMHO) point of Romney's 47% speech, the one that is most arguable and seems to appeal to Conservatives on a most visceral level, is that Poverty Is a Character Flaw.
Who agrees with this and why? Do you think it applies to all the poor, some of the poor, just a troublesome few? Is it just the American poor or does it apply to those in poverty everywhere?
If you believe this, how do you put this into context with the fact that all human societies are and have been structured with lots of poor(er) people. Do you square this with the belief that most human beings for all of history have had the character flaws that lead to poverty? And is this an inherited trait, since the children of wealthy tend to stay wealthy and children of poor tend to stay poor....?
Some might approach this as a simple yes/no question. The more thoughful might say it's chicken/ egg but the result is the same. Or they might say it's true for some but not others. If you think it's categorically NOT true, please explain. Do you really believe there's no poor character, lifestyle, behavior associated with the reasons that result in people's poverty? Why should people who do gigantically stupid things get help correcting the consequences of that stupidity?