By Rick Morris
Mitt Romney has
been running for president continuously since 2006. I was not favorably inclined towards him initially
based on what I knew of him and by 2007, when I learned even more, I was a
full-throated opponent of his and have remained so to this day. His scummy levels of character
assassination and filth-propagating about his opponents in the 2008 and 2012
primaries were truly historic. It would
be too arduous to link to every column I have done on this subject over the
course of 5+ years, but if you do a search on our blog archive page,
there will be a great deal that materializes.
It is for that
reason that I am resisting the strong urge to vote for the strongest opponent
of Barack Obama – with me opposing 90%+ of his policies with every fiber of my
being – this coming Tuesday. I said in
the primaries of 2008 and the primaries of 2012 that I could never vote for
such a man as Romney, somebody who has flip-flopped on every key issue on the
spectrum and somebody who promised another Dubya presidency (more about that in
a moment). In 2008, the Republican Party
listened to sane opinions like mine.
This year, they did not. So be
it. This disaster is on their hands.
Which
disaster? You might rightly ask that,
inasmuch as this election is very close and could still, theoretically go either
way. I say that the Einsteins of the GOP
have boxed this nation into a situation where disaster awaits either way. Although I could never vote for someone of
Obama’s political ilk, I have reluctantly concluded that his election is the
lesser of two evils. I could never vote
for the man, so instead I will be casting a positive, affirmative vote for a
great public servant, Virgil Goode, Jr. on the Constitution Party line, in the
hopes that the alternative and authentic brand of conservatism promoted by that
wonderful party can take greater hold.
Why do I think
Obama’s reelection is the lesser of two evils?
Although so many of my friends, family and other ideological
fellow-travelers are missing the point, I actually think it’s quite
obvious. We had a disastrous Big
Government, warmongering president in George W. Bush and the most central part
of his legacy is the election of Obama.
For Romney, a man unattached to any kind of public policy beliefs
whatsoever, four hapless years of his “leadership” would lead to a far more
effective Democrat in office than first-term Obama: perhaps a “Grover Cleveland
Obama” circumstance in which the former president is swept back into office
with a huge mandate to implement all of his heart’s desires, or, probably
worse, someone like Andrew Cuomo with a clean slate and coattails enough for
60+ Senate votes to implement a radical Democrat agenda. In short, the choice given to us by the
Republican elites this year boils down to confining our large national problems
to the next four years and then hitting rock bottom and paving the way for a
great American like Senator Rand Paul in four years or having Romney do a
slightly better job than President Noam Choomsky (see what I did there!), but
then losing in a landslide to restart the clock on the O agenda in 2016. Of the two putrid selections, I’ll choose
Door #1, thank you very much.
[By the way,
let’s just knock down the laughable suggestion that anyone with any authority
in the Republican Party would “hold Romney accountable” for pushing bad
policies. Look at the Dubya Cheerleader
Squad braying about how he was one of the all-time greats as he increased
federal spending by a full 70% in eight years.
The Republican instinct is royalism, a mindless worship of whoever is in
power. There is no circumstance possible
by which federal spending will be down in the next four years, yet at a Romney
reelection convention, there sure as sh%& won’t be a ginormous federal debt
ticker! Speaking of the nightmare that
would be wrapped up in the Romney reelection apparatus, consider the words of
my old boss Morton Blackwell about the
coup that the Mittens Gang pulled at the Tampa convention in order to stifle
any internal dissent now and until the end of time.]
That’s what we’re
facing if Romney wins. All year long, I
have been saying that he would not, that the idiots running the GOP were
seduced by a false image of a winner.
Look at how long it took to put away the nomination even after all the
bought-and-paid-for Republican hacks assassinated the character of Rick Perry
and the worst field in recent decades was all that stood in his way. After the way that Obama tanked the first
debate and breathed new life into the Republican campaign, I will no longer be
absolutely shocked if that prediction is wrong, but in the end, I’ll stand by
it. And that result would vindicate my
warnings as well. It’s the sign of a
truly diseased political institution when they cannot defeat a president with
the abhorrent record of Obama. Had the
party hacks not conspired against Perry and instead embraced him as the winner
that he is (12 years and counting as Texas governor, a truly historic feat in
the history of large American states) or succeeded in recruiting an equivalent
talent, that candidate would be up five points even in such a narrowly divided
electorate (consider that Obama, himself running against an incumbent’s putrid
economic record four years ago, racked up a 7.3% win in the popular vote).
In a country
that has become completely tribal in its politics, the amnesia about Romney,
his record, his unelectable creepy persona and all other aspects of this
morally bankrupt individual has proven truly frightening. During the primaries, I remember a great many
conservatives vowing as I did to oppose him without letup until the end of
time. They forgot. I did not (and to his credit, neither did
fellow FDH Lounge Dignitary Nate Noy, a fellow supporter of Goode). In this pro wrestling landscape that our
politics has become, Romney is running against a “bad guy,” so he must be a “good
guy.” In reality, this is the political
equivalent of Kevin Sullivan vs. The Iron Sheik. There is no “good guy” and reductionist
inferences to the contrary are merely childish.
The cynical puppet-masters in the Romney campaign and the Republican
establishment are counting on conservatives fearing and hating Obama so much
that they will actually spite the interests of policies they profess to
advocate by elevating a man who will destroy and discredit them. Although my advice will fall on deaf ears in
terms of those you who generally agree with me politically, I beg you not to fall
for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment