Before the last US Presidential elections, I knew Romney was a fraud, but
he fine-tuned his public persona quite well, and became the man who loved his
wife and children and cared about everybody, so long as he knew he was in the
eye of the media. It was horribly frustrating to watch. Of course he couldn’t completely
control his runaway mouth, but such was the fear of Obama that Romney’s
supporters forgave him every time.
They would have sold their soul for a Republican President. In the end
they were rescued from that dire predicament by Romney himself who revealed his
real absence of humanity and the elitism that forms the foundation of his true
personality, and by the man who recorded him.
His name is Scott Prouty, a bartender at that fateful fundraising dinner.
Recently he was interviewed on NBC and Huffpost Live, and anybody who can get
their hands on him is clamoring for an interview. Anybody except Fox News.
“You can tell a lot about a man by the way he takes his drink” said Prouty
(Huffpost Live). Normally, people say thanks and acknowledge the bartender. Romney took his
drink and turned away without a hint of a thank you. To him the bartender was
just a servant. Contrast that with Bill Clinton, who, at a fundraiser at a
private home, came into the kitchen to thank all the staff, one of whom was Prouty.
He was very moved, and his experience of Clinton helped inspire him to release the video.
On the Republican night in question, Romney sat down and demanded that
the food be brought immediately, because he was late. “I’d never do that,” said
Scott, “even if I was the guest of honor. I’d never walk into a house and say ‘where’s
the food? Come on, bring it, bring it’.” (Huffpost Live)
He decided to record Romney. None of the staff had been told they couldn’t record the event, so he didn’t hide the
camera; he set it up on the bar in full sight. The media weren’t invited, but I
guess it didn’t cross Romney’s mind that the waiting staff might be smart
enough to fill the gap. I also guess Romney didn’t care enough about the 47% to
worry about what would happen if they heard what he had to say. Which says it
all, really.
Prouty obviously had a job to do but he was also there as a voter. He
wanted to hear what Romney had to say and expected him to address everybody in
the room. But it was as if for Romney, the staff didn’t exist. He didn’t
include them; he didn’t see them as individuals and he didn’t care about them
as voters. What a person instinctively does tells the truth of them, so his bit
about the 47% of Americans being lazy, unwilling to do anything with their
lives, wanting bailouts, was just affirmation.
Scott Prouty is a down-to-earth, straightforward guy with a sense of
decency and his own dignity. He said he
released the video because most Americans couldn’t afford to pay $50,000 to know
what Romney really thought. “It’s a shame”, said Prouty, “you would wish they
[politicians] would say the same things in public as they say in private. Maybe
they do but clearly he didn’t.” (Huffpost Live)
What Romney said was so “diametrically opposed to what he was saying in
public” that Prouty couldn’t bear to let him get away with it. He spliced
the video and the first release was only a piece. It was “sort of a dry run”.
He wanted to get a feel for how it landed. And people saw and heard what he
did; the hypocrisy. YouTube shut down
that first partial video, entitled “Romney exposed”, as did some other places
he put it up on.
But a Tumblr user noticed a second video and contacted Huffington
Post reporter Brad Shannon, and Prouty had media traction. His original
intention had been to start a conversation but he ended up helping to change the direction
of a Presidential election, because after this, Romney didn’t have a chance.
Social media makes it possible for an ordinary guy to affect the course
of history. “[It’s] a great equalizer. If you have a good message, a strong
message, an important message and you are persistent enough you can share it
with lots and lots of people.” Prouty added that he was very grateful to all
the ordinary people who retweeted his message very persistently, even before
the media found it. “[Social media] lets you get around the media filter...This
was going out no matter what, and if the media ended up picking it up, that was
great.” (Huffpost Live)
YouTube didn’t give Prouty any reasons for
shutting his video down, which leaves room for speculation. But in any case, they couldn’t stop this one.
Kudos to Scott Prouty. His twitter account is @scottprouty.
