While you were checking your wallet for the impact of the sequestration cuts last weekend, Mitt and Ann Romney graced the American people with the number one thing they didn’t ask for: Their presence. 

Americans who thought that Romney losing the 2012 election badly would allow him to disappear gracefully and quietly are not in luck.  Romney, who unlike other recent presidential losers is not an elected official anymore, doesn’t need to weigh in on policy issues he can’t influence. Nor does he get to vote in Congress on any legislation. 

Thus, here are five reasons Mitt Romney and Co. need to self-deport from the American political conversation forever:

1. "Self-deportation"

Let’s get right to it: Mitt Romney was never comfortable when talking about immigration or any other issues that impact people of color. He infamously went on Univision wearing what looked to be self-tanner— perhaps in an effort to blend in—but no amount of spray tan would erase the phrase “self-deportation” from the collective memories of Latino voters.  

No one should forget how Romney responded to a question about what to do about undocumented immigrants: "The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to allow them to work here.  And so we're not going to round people up."

In other words, the then-presidential hopeful suggested creating an environment so hostile for an undocumented person that they choose to leave, rather than live under such difficult conditions. Romney’s hard right position solidified his lack of empathy for the world to see, and that is why 3/4s of Asian and Latino voters, voted for re-elect President Obama.

2. "I’m not concerned about the very poor"

The poster child for the Top 1%, Mitt Romney, actually said out loud that he’s not concerned about the very poor and when you’re a guy who thinks that $362,000 in speaking fees is, “not that much,” pretty much everyone is poor by comparison.  Romney’s lack of concern for working people was made worse when he and his wife Ann tried to sound poor by highlighting the time in their lives when they only had millions in inheritance money to pay for Harvard.  When Ann Romney pretending to understand financial hardship in her speech at the Republican convention was simply confirmation the Romneys were completely and utterly out of touch.

3. Romney only cared about half of the country anyway

When Mitt or Ann Romney blame the media for losing the election, everyone should know this is totally off the mark. 

When Mitt Romney was caught on camera saying, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, 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. That that's an entitlement,” he sealed his own fate.

When you label half the country as lazy moochers, that isn’t the best way to win votes.  Romney insulting half of the electorate is why he lost the election, the media is not responsible for his loss by reporting the insults coming out of Romney’s own mouth.

4. The dancing horse

The Romneys not only have an actual horse, but one that dances competitively and participated in the summer Olympic games in London.  The dancing horse symbolizes the very reason the Romneys could never relate to the average American.  A middle class family working hard to save for college is looking at your dancing horse worth the equivalent of 4 years of college tuition and has no choice but to question whether Romney knows how the other half lives.  The answer time and again was, he doesn’t. And, as I mentioned above, he didn't care anyway.

5. Romney refused to release his tax returns

Romney’s unprecedented refusal to release his tax returns for years other than the whitewashed versions as he ran for president, are less likely to be brought up as a factor in Romney’s loss.  His decision to withhold this information from the American public which he was running to lead is evidence, he felt entitled to be president and not privileged to be elected.  Romney never behaved as if he was running for the privilege to lead the country and Ann Romney by extension referenced the American public as “you people” and implied that American voters needed to mind their own business and stop asking for the tax returns. 

It was Mitt Romney’s own father that set the precedent in releasing 10 years of tax returns and by failing to even follow the lead of his own father, Romney came across as even more privileged and out of touch than before even after American learned he owned a dancing horse.  Romney ran for president assuming that Americans would feel lucky to have him and never realized it was he who would be lucky to lead us.

So no Mr. and Mrs. Romney, the media is not to blame for your loss last year.  You only have yourselves to blame for that. RIde that dancing horse off into the sunset and try to reclaim your dignity. 

Zerlina Maxwell is a political analyst and soon-to-be attorney.  You can follow her on Twitter @ZerlinaMaxwell.