We heard the Romney family claim their Mexican heritage at last week’s RNC without mentioning that the reason their forefathers fled the United States of America was because polygamy had been made illegal in exchange for the admission of Utah to the Union. What we had not heard until today was Lenore Romney, Mitt’s mom, explain that her husband, George, despite his great wealth, had a very good understanding of people in need.

One of the few perks of being a liberal in a right-wing era is that bitter experience has made us veritable experts in handling rejection in a psychologically healthy (if politically disastrous) way. This is a highly adaptive trait on a personal level; when dumped, one doesn’t blame the dumper, and both inwardly and outwardly seeks the sort of self-improvement that might avert a recurrence. When the shoe is on the other foot, we don’t blame the scorned for their shortcomings, but resort to such charitable lies as the shopworn but still usually convincing, “It’s not you; it’s me.”