In my earlier post detailing the Republican candidates for the nomination, I didn’t say some things about Romney that I meant to. So consider this post a further declaration of why Romney is unfit to be the nominee. Should he get the nomination, and I think he likely will, then I will be casting my vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson.

• Family Legacy: I don’t take any issue with Romney’s religion or ethnic background. But I do take issue with the fact that his father ran for president. Given that Mitt Romney doesn’t appear to stand for anything specific, I can only guess that he is running for office to somehow satisfy his father’s legacy. For those not in the know, George Romney was a serious contender for the 1968 Republican nomination, until he claimed he had been brainwashed by US military officials into supporting the Vietnam war. This is the worst of all possible reasons to run – to restore a lost family legacy. We elected a president like that in 2000 and look what it earned us. No, anybody running for president should be doing so because they have convictions or experience that they bring to the table. They should run because they believe they are uniquely positioned to make the country better, not because they need to slay family demons.
• He Stands For Nothing: Mitt Romney appears to have no core beliefs whatsoever. His flip flopping has been covered in many places before and I feel no need to revisit the details here. But not only is it the case that he appears to have no core beliefs, but he is running a campaign that feels like an empty “Morning in America” campaign. Romney wants to make America great again, or something. Romney is incapable of arguing against the greatest abomination to come out of the last 4 years, Obamacare, because he masterminded the precursor program in Massachusetts. And despite his eloquence, he says nothing about the decade of bad legislation that has led us down this economic path, and what might be required to get us out. That’s in part because he supported TARP. He’s an establishment politician who supports establishment views at the precise moment when the establishment needs to be sent packing. As a result, he is incapable of expressing anything substantive. The result will be that he gets defined by Obama and the media, and gets run roughshod over in November.
• He Is A Liar: Romney is fond of pointing out that we have “50 laboratories of innovation” in the country. He’s right about that. But typically, when a governor runs for president, he is running on the notion that he developed in his laboratory a successful formula that should be brought to the nation as a whole to either cure its ills or propel its growth forward. Romney is the first governor to my knowledge who is running for president while claiming that what he did for his state should NOT be propagated into the nation as a whole. This alone causes too much cognitive dissonance for most people, myself included. But it is also a giant lie. Romney instituted Romneycare because the Heritage Foundation published a paper in the early 90′s, when Hillarycare was being debated, suggesting that a preferable means to achieving universal coverage would be to mandate that citizens purchase catastrophic medical insurance for themselves. Romney viewed this suggestion as a classroom assignment, and raced to be the first in the nation to institute such a thing (ignoring for the moment that what Romney mandated was comprehensive insurance be purchased, not catastrophic). This alone is problematic enough, and suggests a lack of proper thinking ability. But what’s worse is he has been lying about it the entire campaign. In his book, he wrote that what he did in Massachusetts could be a model for the nation. And in 2004 he campaigned on the fact that he implemented Romneycare in Massachusetts. Now he claims to have never said that Romneycare could be good for the country.
  
  It is difficult to stomach that level of dishonesty generally. But when you couple it with the fact that the issue in question is bound to be the main issue of the campaign, it becomes impossible. Especially when you couple it with the fact that nearly everyone gets a creepy sleezebag vibe from the guy. He has shifty eyes, and he looks like he’s gauging the audience while he speaks. And people from all walks I encounter say he just seems dishonest. This is a massive handicap, especially for a Republican nominee going up against a Democrat who is well regarded on a personal level.
• He will be a steward of the Status Quo: If you think that the problem with Democratic governance is that they don’t know how to balance the budget and keep the ship of state afloat, then Romney is a great pick. He will not likely repeal Obamacare, but will change it to make it more workable and less costly. At least that is what he was claiming early on in the campaign, saying he would repeal “the worst aspects of Obamacare”. Indeed, even now he promises to issue 50 waivers to every state to let them out of the requirements of Obamacare. But this is not repeal. And worse yet, it undermines the rule of law, which should apply equally to everybody. If Romney truly wanted to see Obamacare repealed, he would immediately revoke all waivers on day one of his administration. That would motivate people who got waivers to lobby for Obamacare’s repeal. But I would not expect to see a repeal of Obamacare should Romney become president, which he won’t. What we will see is the institutionalization of everything the Democrats have put into place, just run smoother. If your problem with Democrat governance is the governance, then Romney is the last guy you want to succeed Obama.
• Romney will be a Racially Charged Candidate: Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and the Mormon religion was predicated on some racist beliefs, the totality of which were not repudiated until 1978. The Mormon church taught that American Indians were descended from white Jews, and that as those jews lost their faith and ceased to be monotheists, their skin darkened. It also taught that the mark of Cain was being black. And there are no shortage of appalling quotes from Brigham Young confirming that this was a core doctrine of the early church. As a result of this, the church refused blacks full membership, under the guise that they were not worthy by virtue of their race. Moreover, they did not reverse these policies until 1978, at which time they also revised the Book of Mormon to change all the references to skin color to references about purity of one’s soul.
  
  The issue here is that Mitt Romney had already completed his 2 year missionary work prior to 1978, meaning that he spent two years of his adult life proselytizing what was at the time a racist religion. If you don’t think that Barack Obama isn’t going to confront Mitt Romney about that point blank on stage at a debate, you’re nuts. Romney may retort by playing clips of Reverend Wright, but the end result will be a scorched earth campaign at the end of which race relations in this country will be markedly worsened, regardless of who wins. If that idea appeals to you, by all means vote for Mitt Romney. If it doesn’t, then you should choose a different candidate.

I am going to address Mitt Romney’s record at Bain in another blog post. But suffice it to say, it bears little relation to capitalism or even creative destruction as commonly understood. But that is a long post unto itself. Suffice it to say that Mitt Romney is not the guy we should have standing up and defending capitalism either.

UPDATE: Clearly Squared brings up Shannon O’Brien, whom I forgot to mention previously. Everyone should understand that Mitt Romney only ever became governor of Massachusetts because the Democrat nominee, Shannon O’Brien, was a townie who literally was offering to show off her tattoos on the campaign trail. In other words, Romney only won in Massachusetts because the Democratic nominee imploded, not because the state ever really liked Mitt. Furthermore, once elected, Romney was such an asshole in office that mayors and town managers soon refused to take his calls, requiring Romney to hire an ambassador of sorts to communicate with the cities and towns of the state. Remember that when you cast your vote as well.

Tags: Mitt Romney

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 11:38 am and is filed under News & Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.