Not Excited About Romney?

CE.com ^ | april 25, 2012 | David J. Peterson

[Salvation]

Not Excited About Romney?

• Politics
• April 25th, 2012
• David J. Peterson

This year’s GOP primary has been an odyssey filled with sound and fury. But, like elephants who never forget, millions of Republicans are muttering “haven’t we seen this movie before?” Conservatives who were looking for a solid alternative to Democrat Barack Obama are angry and disappointed. The party rank and file was opposed to the nomination of Mitt Romney, seeing him as a weathervane – willing to adopt any position or cause to suit his ambitions.

The Republican establishment, which is dominated by big business and the Wall Street elite, heard the same chorus of protests when Senator John McCain was nominated in 2008. The party elites argue that, as a centrist, Governor Romney has the best chance of beating the incumbent president in the November US elections. They claim that since his term ended in Massachusetts, a left-leaning stronghold, Romney’s positions have “evolved” and he is now closer to mainstream conservatives. Yet, his detractors say fielding a candidate who is clearly unable to articulate any coherent moral outlook is a big blunder.

American voters have not warmed up to the nominee. Since early 2011, Romney support among Republican voters in statewide polls never rose above 20 to 30 percent. In an ABC survey in March – just 34 percent of all voters had a favorable opinion of him. His unfavorable score, nearly 50 percent, was exceeded only by one other Republican, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, and by only one top candidate in 28 years, Hillary Clinton in 2008.

It is a mystery how a candidate so unpopular among average voters could remain the “front runner”. In addition, the single issue where Barack Obama is most vulnerable is his controversial national health care mandate. Unbelievably, it turns out that the original model for the “Obamacare” health law was first enacted by Governor Romney in Massachusetts. Both laws require everyone with income to purchase health insurance. As with Obama, Romney’s plan provides free contraceptive coverage, which Catholic and other religious institutions must pay for!

The outcome of the GOP primary season poses the question: is democracy taking a long sabbatical in the country where it all began back in 1776? First, there is the obvious issue of disparity in money. Multi-millionaires like Romney have a tremendous advantage over opponents. At the same time, candidates who are not responsive to the wealthy elite will always be swimming upstream. With access to unlimited donations raised by “SuperPacs,” the GOP winner shelled out hundreds of millions in slick attack ads – helping to vilify his opponents in every state primary. The two expected nominees have already raised a combined total close to US$400 million. Overall spending by both presidential campaigns in 2008 was $1.7 billion, 10 times what it was in 1976, and perhaps this will double in 2012.

A second major concern is how Governor Romney was originally designated as the front runner. Who determined that the Republican nomination was his, unless a challenger could snatch it away? It is hard to escape the conclusion that a corrupt bargain was in place from the start involving the top US elites, the GOP establishment and the national media barons. In modern election contests, the big media carefully frame the race between two poles, the liberal Democrats against conservative Republicans. In the primary debates the media make it next to impossible for a dissenting candidate to get anywhere near the nomination.

From 1970 to 2000, America’s former Christian culture has been stripped away like bark from a tree. As with Sarah Palin – a leading Christian conservative who was nominated for vice president in 2008 – a candidate who openly talks of a serious commitment to Christian or Biblical moral virtues is considered a “cult follower” or extremist.

This year former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former Senator Rick Santorum and even Texas Governor Rick Perry were all bullied and ostracized by partisan TV journalists. When Perry or Santorum made foolish statements, the media labeled them hopeless bumpkins who were unfit for higher office.

Mitt Romney’s blunders were criticized but labelled as just bumps in the road. But the front runner made several mega-gaffes where he appeared to be getting coaching from Ebenezer Scrooge. During the worst economic crisis in almost a century, multi-millionaire Romney stated “I am not concerned about poor people”. Elsewhere he bragged about how he enjoys firing people. He described government loans which saved two-thirds of the auto industry and over 1 million American jobs as a terrible mistake. After first stonewalling on his taxes, he revealed that by using loopholes and off shore accounts he paid only 14 percent, a rate well below that of most middle-income Americans.

For independent minded voters, including social conservatives and Christians, there is a temptation to simply avoid the race or to stay away from the polls this fall. The damage done by Obama in the next four years may not be as bad as one or two terms under a slightly less liberal alternative. Before he suspended his surprising campaign, Rick Santorum said the difference between Romney and his Democratic rival is negligible. Arguments about the lesser of two evils, which surface like a swarm of cicadas every four years, are sounding hollow.

As Plato noted in the Republic – in an oligarchy “there is not one state but two, one of the very wealthy, and one of everyone else. “If history is a guide, then Ben Franklin’s remarks at the 1787 Constitutional Convention should be noted. When asked – ‘what have we got?’ – he replied, ‘A republic if you can keep it’.” As in earlier eras, 21st century Americans will have to provide their own answer to his timeless warning.

 

David J. Peterson is an author and a high school teacher with a degree in economics. He lives in Chicago. 

This article was originally published on MercatorNet under a Creative Commons License.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Our children will be the ones to suffer the most.That kills me.

[donna]

Arguments about the lesser of two evils, which surface like a swarm of cicadas every four years, are sounding hollow.

It is time to stand up against the bullies. Speedy (Obama) or Slowmo (Mitt), the difference isn't just speed. Republicans actually do the work of making government bigger more efficiently.

[Lancey Howard]

This is excellent.
BUMP

[Rytwyng]

The Republican establishment... The party elites argue that, as a centrist, Governor Romney has the best chance of beating the incumbent president in the November US elections

How many times do they have to lose on this strategy, before they figure out that it's wrong?

The problem with Romney is that he can't beat Obama because he's not different enough. Bob Dull, John Mcsame.. and now Obammney... *sigh*

I'll be voting for Ron Paul in the California primary. It'll probably be the last one ever...

[kingu]

Actually, a really bad analysis of it. The nominee is the defacto leader of the party. It is typical that his campaign chairs will rise to near or at the top of each state's party. The stupid ‘Wall Street’ or ‘GOP Elite’ straw-men aren't accurate. We enabled this when we nominated John McCain as our nominee. We enabled John McCain with eight years of George Bush, who was brought to us by Bob Dole, who was brought to us by George HW Bush.

The midterms are so critically important to conservatives, not because it's easier to nominate and get conservatives elected, but because it is our only real chance to dislodge and eject the drones put in by these RINOs in the state parties.

We need concrete goals if we're to take back the GOP. First and foremost, an end to these stupid liberal state primaries as the first ones out of the gate. No open primaries, only solid conservative states to weed out the RINOs and minimize their impact on future primaries in liberal areas. If the state requires an open primary, select delegates through the party convention in the state.

We need to get these money bundlers out and on their rumps. It's ok, they'll bounce back and go work for the liberals - they already agree with most of their agenda anyway. Find all these leeches who take a percentage of donated money and toss them out. Find the media worms who take a percentage of media buys, and toss them out as well. Again, they're just liberals who are trying to sabotage the election, not conservatives who want to push forward a conservative agenda.

You want to bring in ‘minorities’? How about actually treating them like conservatives, instead of liberal voting blocks? Ask Christians of all denominations if they want the liberals planting the seeds of homosexuality in their children's minds in school. Ask them if they want marriage corrupted into a meaningless word, or if they really believe that marriage is as it always has been - a union of a man and a woman. Ask them if they want their daughters being preyed upon by the abortion providers, or teaching that it's just fine to be promiscuous? Here, have some more condoms.

There are vast resources of conservatives in this country, but whenever we attempt to reach out to them, we think of them in liberal manners - we talk Spanish to Hispanics, rather than talking about the value of the family. We hold up token people of color, rather than pointedly ask - the liberals have destroyed your communities, do you really want to let them do it all over again?

Talk about the slavery of welfare. Talk about the millions of children murdered, the generations lost and replaced with pop idols who talk about sex and murder as if these are good things.

Ask seniors if this is really the country they grew up in, the values that their parents held dear.

And consign the media vultures to the trashpit they want to live in.

That's what you do, and that's what we don't do. Romney was anointed as our nominee the day that he conceded to McCain. We had four years to toss out the bums, and instead, we railed about how we can't fix the party. So let's fix it.

[caww]

no need to fear Romney will lose in a landslide.

I wouldn't be so sure of that Texas. Romney has some very powerful people (thugs) equal to Obamas working behind the scene. Make no mistake about that. They have amazing leverage to make things happen.

But aside from that I'm not so sure the Democrates want to be at the Helm when the nation falls....they may very well want the Republicans to take the hit and come back in after 8 yrs, on the tail-end of the Republicans cleaning up most of Their Mess. Then step in and take the Glory in short order.

It's all about 'the blame game' they all pull on the public to deceive them into thinking they are opposing each other, but neither side does anything but "take" from the American people, and "give handouts" to those who financially support them or they owe favors to...here and Globally........ While at the same time letting the Welfare Hogs hang out in the "safety net", as Romney called it, to keep them from rebelling...... Meanwhile the Working Class pays their Pipers and fills their coffers.

[Salvation]

Your hypothesis about McCain/Romney is so reasonable. Yuck, what have they done to us?

[Salvation]

I’d like to see Texas mount a huge write in campaign for Newt, for Santorum, for Perry, for Sarah, for anyone but Willard.

[caww]

there is at least room to push.

I understand your argument for Romney taking the Helm, but there are 'other' factors playing in this regarding Romney's "agenda"....and it isn't the GOP alone he's going to be listening to.

Furthermore the question is "who" would be doing the pushing???? ....We can and have replaced some in the congress but they too get wrapped in the Washington Powerhouse among seasoned politicians ...who can and will play more than hardball with these newbies. They can and do strong arm them.

Few who can resist the maneuvering... for if they don't "comply" with their game, as it now stands, they are simply left out of the circle of the informed and basically ignored...if they resist then the strong arms come into play. They don't call Washington a cesspool for nothing. It's where power and money meet head on and the goal of all who enter it's doors.

As for "us" doing anything substantial ...there was no more outcry of the people then when the Obamacare was being pushed. It passed. So much for pushing.

Now convince me otherwise please...for I cannot see the equations changing enough for any kind of "holding anyones feet to the flame".

[so_real]

An Obama 2nd term, by contrast, is going to be pure, unabashed leftism.

Agreed. Which also provides a clear and evident line the conservatives can rally in opposition against. With Romney in the White House, the republicans will be compelled to negotiate with his socialist ways and we will continue to descend down the slippery slope. With Obama unabashed in the White House, there will be absolutely no inclination toward compromise. The conservatives will battle him head-on on every issue and maybe, just maybe, a republican or two will grow a spine. I prefer the enemy on the field in front me ... not disguised in my uniform at my back.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

...he only had to show up and avoid any questions which would require a straight answer in the debates. All the rest has been scripted for him...and if he gains the Presidency it will be then as well.

Why does this have a nauseatingly familiar ring to it, I do believe I've heard this song before (and I didn't much like it then either)

Why do we even pretend to have primaries? Why do we have people zipping back and forth across the country spending over a billion all told when the game has been rigged from the get-go? The "little man behind the curtain" has been exposed for all to see. What do we do about it?

I thought so...

Gandalf

PS Methinks it's time to start over w/a clean slate

[gghd]

Unfortunately, sometimes in life we only get to choose between bad or worse.

+It’s a >Mystery; how can a Loving God give us Romney & Obama as our candidates.

&It’s possible we will see a modern day Jeremiah. (5:1-3)
“Roam the streets of (Washington), look about and observe, Search through her public places, to find even one Who lives uprightly and seeks to be faithful, and I will pardon her!”
“Though they say, “As the Lords lives,” they swear falsely.”
“O Lord, do your eyes not look for honesty? You struck them, but they did not cringe; you laid them low, but they refused correction; They set their faces harder than stone, and refused to return to you.”

Romans1:28-29, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite...”

Same-o, same-o = always. Our job is to support Holy Mother our Church = a life of righteousness, prayer, fasting & alms-giving. +Vote wisely.

I’m voting for >anybody but Obama.

[Velveeta]

Good article, thank you.

I can’t stand Mitt, but I want people like AG Holder along with the Omarxist voted out now.

If Newt can’t be encouraged to hang in there until the primary, I will have to vote ABO.

[Slings and Arrows]

It’ll be fun to watch their faces when all their media buddies who built Romney up in the primary start eviscerating him in the general.

[caww]

Your points are well taken...however you're basically talking about educating the people and tossing out the creeps.

Educating a dumb-downed public who doesn't give a rats butt isn't going to help....look at the Freepers who couldn't see the game,.. all they saw was a candidate...and it was a game of musical chairs in every sense of the word as they jumped from one candidate of their “liking” to the other.

Further, much of the general public who vote don't even remotely look into candidates as we do here. You can put out ‘one’ bad political ad and kill a candidate.....just as Romney did each and every one who were running against him..and that with the media's help.....How are you going to “control” the media? You cannot. And it takes millions to set up “something” else to take it's place....not to mention they eat each other...look what they're doing to Murdock.

At my districts voting place a total of 124 people showed, half were democrats....no lines...no interest. Yet not 200 feet away were people waiting in line for hours, in the cold, for free give away at the Salvation Army, and the doors weren't even open yet. It was a contrast I will never forget.

There's no way we're going to take the GOP back...they will resist as much as we saw in this election. Even the C-Pac has been infiltrated with worse than undesirables...and though people whisper about it there's no action against this.

When you say there are “vast resources of conservatives in this country”. I don't think so anymore....the youth have been “liberalized” thru the education system...and that's run by liberals. So as each generation comes to adulthood...conservatism is less and less....we are now “less”.

Your comments of social issues all fall in the arena of our churches today and they have become barely luke warm for the things of God...which are the foundation of morals... No God ..and a push to get Him out of society..and all morals become of each ones own making....truth is each to his own.

So no...there is no taking back of the GOP....it's gone.

[LADY J]

"I’m voting for >anybody but Obama."

Exactly the way they planned it!! So - stick around & get ready to do it again the next time around.

It works like a charm for the GOP RINO ELITES....so why should they change what they do?

AND SO IT GOES!!

[caww]

The conservatives will battle Romney head-on on every issue

Oh really....Name 'one' conservative who has the power and will to do that who we've already replaced in congress. How are our newbies doing? Please tell me.

[matthew fuller]

" Rick Santorum said the difference between Romney and his Democratic rival is negligible. "

And Conservatives will stay home in mega-droves 11/06/2012.

[caww]

Lady J....remember just recently Carl Rove said concerning Romney......" The Conservatives will have temper tantrums for awhile, but when Romney wins they'll get behind 'our' Candidate, they always do".

They have no reason to change....Republicans yield and they know that they will...just as we see them doing on these threads. Furthermore we have fewer and fewer conservatives in our nation....as God is pushed out...and liberals taking over our school systems and churches, the generation of young adults today are a far cry from conservativism....few even understand what that is.

[Pinkbell]

This year former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former Senator Rick Santorum and even Texas Governor Rick Perry were all bullied and ostracized by partisan TV journalists. When Perry or Santorum made foolish statements, the media labeled them hopeless bumpkins who were unfit for higher office.

Did the writer of this piece read FR? I didn't read the Perry threads, but I have since read some of his supporters saying he was bashed. As a Santorum supporter, I saw Santorum bashed relentlessly by a group of posters on this site using the same lines that could be read in the liberal media and the liberal blogs like Huffington and DU. One of the biggest complaints among this group was that Santorum was a social conservative who truly meant it and wasn't giving it lip service, and he was given nicknames like "Saint Rick".