Why I Cannot Vote for Romney
It is a good question that needs an answer as election day gets closer. Why can’t I vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket? What do some of my relatives and old college friends see or intuit about this man, his policies and Republicans that I cannot? Why don’t I feel like I’ve lost freedom in the same way that some in the nation feel since President Obama was elected? Am I, as often suggested, too educated to get it? Do I misunderstand the biblical witness so badly that I cannot see the prosperity gospel and miss the obvious capitalism that Jesus supported in the gospels? Why can’t I understand that Romney’s plan and the Republicans have my best interest at heart and not their own wealth? Paul Krugman does a great job answering that last question.
Snow Job on Jobs
by Paul Krugman | The New York Times | Oct 18, 2012Before I get there, however, let me take a minute to talk about Mr. Romney’s claim that he knows how to fix the economy because he’s been a successful businessman. That would be a dubious claim even if he were honestly representing his business career, because the skills needed to run a business and those needed to manage economic policy are very different. In any case, however, his portrait of his own experience is so misleading that it takes your breath away.
What do Mr. Romney’s economic advisers actually believe? As best as I can tell, they’re placing their faith in the confidence fairy, in the belief that their candidate’s victory would inspire an employment boom without the need for any real change in policy. In fact, in his infamous Boca Raton “47 percent” remarks, Mr. Romney himself asserted that he would give a big boost to the economy simply by being elected, “without actually doing anything.” And what about the overwhelming evidence that our weak economy isn’t about confidence, it’s about the hangover from a terrible financial crisis? Never mind. Click here to read more.
Why can’t I vote for Mr. Romney? Simply put, from my research into his life, Mr. Romney will say anything to close the deal. The Salt Lake Tribune makes the case better than I can.
Tribune Endorsement: Too Many Mitts
October 19, 2012Sadly, it is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party’s shape-shifting nominee. From his embrace of the party’s radical right wing, to subsequent portrayals of himself as a moderate champion of the middle class, Romney has raised the most frequently asked question of the campaign: “Who is this guy, really, and what in the world does he truly believe?”
The evidence suggests no clear answer, or at least one that would survive Romney’s next speech or sound bite. Politicians routinely tailor their words to suit an audience. Romney, though, is shameless, lavishing vastly diverse audiences with words, any words, they would trade their votes to hear. Click here to read more.
Moreover, I think Romney sees the nation as a way to enrich himself, as if he needs more, and this nations latest generation of plutocrats, to create a business climate that can compete with the cheap labor of China and India by driving down wages and enslaving another generation to an American dream that includes a personal debt consumption that precludes effective participation in our democracy. In the age of the Internet, it is easy to search Mitt Romney’s history from non-partisan, fact based, media outlets to discover his propensity to sell himself and the deal while collecting the “management fees” even when the deal goes badly for those that have been leveraged. The infamous “47%” comments are probably closer to what he believes and how he operates. He will govern the same way he has been a capitalists: the bottom line and how it grows his own wealth, that of his family, and that of 21st century plutocrats whom see their wealth and power as “divine right.” He argues against government that can help ordinary citizens by leveling the playing field and managing the rules of the game while taking all the help the government tax breaks and loans that created his wealth. What I get from Mr. Romney is that money is his main objective and people are ways to gaining wealth. He is the walking talking image of the 1980’s Gordon Gekko. Mr. Romney has not released a decade of his taxes probably because it will show him to be the wealthy, out of touch rich guy that he is. It may even show that he broke the law.
Why can’t I vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket? Because I trust he will govern as a CEO and not get into the detail work where people live. His way of living is foreign to my way of living, but moreover, I think he sees his lifestyle and money as amoral and when his lifestyle and wealth is held up to the standards of being a follower of Jesus of Nazareth it could be argued, immoral. Can Romney’s hard work be compared to mine workers, to people who build cars or work the graveyard shift, to people that have to actually work 3 jobs because jobs have been shipped overseas that will never come back?
Why can’t I vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket? Because they are supported by a political party, that is in many states, rigging the voting system to keep people not like “them” from voting. Why can’t I vote for Romney/Ryan? Because many of their policies want to bring back pre civil war era states rights where a state or group of states can discriminate, can roll back to early to mid 20th century society. Because they are comfortable with division and profit from it.
Some believe that President Obama has a bad record. I’ve read, heard over the airways, and watched on TV so many talking about how bad it is now and how badly President Obama has handled policies and the reputation of our nation. Really? I’ve yet to hear anyone speaking on behalf of the President, nor the President himself, note that as he was being sworn into office there was a group of Republican leaders laying the ground work to NOT govern alongside this President. The Affordable Care Act grew out of Republican ideas, insurance company ideas, and medical workers had a voice. The Republican argument appears to be that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” does not include health care, affordable or otherwise, food security, or housing. What this has meant for our nation is that it has taken longer to recover. The Republicans in Congress did not help “right” the nation and reverse the economy because to have done so would have meant admitting that the last 8 years were a mistake, an experiment on the backs of ordinary Americans gone wrong. They didn’t offer ideas to co-govern. They obstructed out of fear. I name this fear like this. If a non-white male can govern effectively as President then it will be harder for a white male like us to get elected from this day forward. They would have done the same thing if Hillary Clinton had been elected without the messages of overt soft racism. They stoked “debt fear” even as most of that debt was created on their watch and with the previous President. They stoked “race fear” by passively embracing the Republicans called “birth-ers” out of their own fear of loosing power and control. They are fear profiteers and that is why I cannot vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket nor most of the Republicans joining their version of what America is and can be. To use religious language I would say Romney/Ryan are interested in revival rather than reformation. One serves them and the other evolves what this nation is about and diminishes how Romney/Ryan define power, public service, and what “American” means in the 21st century. That is why I cannot vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket nor any that would follow their vision for this American century.