The Right Way?

I don’t really like to belabor the same points over and over again, but I still confess to be completely bewildered by what is going on in our country. No, I am not bewildered about the outcome of the New Hampshire Primary, Romney was expected to win and did. The only thing of interest was that Ron Paul finished second and Jon Huntsman third. I guess if much of Paul’s vote was from Independent voters who are anti war and might go eventually to Huntsman, he might be in a stronger position than we realize (Huntsman is not anti war but has a much more realistic grasp of the problem than any of the other candidates, who seem eager to rush into war with Iran without pausing even to think about it). Even so, it looks like Romney will, as predicted, be the Republican candidate.

What has me bewildered is what seems to be the rather constant claim that the 2012 election is going to be very close. I have heard Democrats say this often and Republicans believe they really have a chance to win. Allen West , Republican “bizarro” from Florida has announced that Obama will lose after a “Bloodbath.” More importantly, along these lines, I have also heard Republicans repeatedly claim that “Anyone of these (Republican) candidates can beat Barack Obama.” One recent poll has Romney beating Obama 47% to 45%. I cannot help but wonder who it is they are polling. As I have said previously, I cannot see any Republican candidate getting much in the way of the Black vote. Nor can I see them getting much of the Hispanic vote. As all the Republican candidates want to do away with Social Security I can’t see them getting the older vote. Similarly, as they have mounted an all-out attack on Planned Parenthood and women’s health and right to choose, I can’t see them getting the women’s vote. As they are also anti-Gay and anti-Muslim they should not garner many votes there. As Republicans have also demonstrated repeatedly they are opposed to unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and even food stamps, and as so many citizens are now living in poverty or close to it, I should think the entire 99% would be opposed t them. So why would anyone assume the coming election would be close? I would predict an Obama landslide, except for the fact that all of my predictions turn out wrong. Is the youth vote, supposedly turning against Obama, going to elect a Republican? I don’t think so, especially as the youth vote is supposedly mostly anti-war and Republicans are far more interested in permanent war than even Obama. As I say, I am completely bewildered.

Even the things I personally hold against President Obama are not things I would think would bother Republicans. I think, for example, Obama is too much of a “hawk” for my taste, but why would that bother Republicans who are far more hawkish than I am? I have been very critical of Obama for not prosecuting the Bush/Cheney administration for their blatant war crimes, but why would that bother Republicans? Obama is criticized by the left for protecting the banks, but isn’t that precisely what Republicans would wish for? They rail against “Obamacare,” but that left private Insurance companies fully involved in health care (about the most ridiculous involvement one could ever conceive of) which should not have displeased them (except, I guess, for the fact they are so stupid they somehow think Obamacare is some kind of socialist enterprise). Anyway, nothing that is going on in our current political climate makes any sense whatsoever to me. Perhaps I am just too stupid to understand it, or maybe too liberal to even conceive of it, or maybe even too senile, but I just plain “don’t get it.”

The more I think about it, and try to understand it, the more I return to the same conclusion – they just don’t like Obama, he’s Black. I cannot think of any other explanation for their (to me) truly strange behavior. Even when Obama wants to do something they themselves have originated and wanted, they don’t want it. They say “We want our country back,” but I ask myself, back from who or what? I conclude the only thing they could possibly want it back from is Obama, not because his policies have been particularly bad, but because he’s Black. Apparently a majority of the electorate says we are going in the wrong direction. But they don’t offer any explanation as to what the right direction may be, other than lower taxes, fewer regulations, the very conditions that brought about this mess in the first place. Is that really what they think might be the “right” direction? If not, just what is the right direction?

If we did not know the Republicans have made it their number one goal to make Obama a one term President, their behavior over the past three years would have to be seen as just plain insane, as without this particular goal it makes no sense whatsoever. It seems to me a truly sad state of affairs when the only thing that keeps them from being seen as insane is their hatred of Obama. They have done enormous damage to our country, materially, ideologically, and in the eyes of the rest of the world. However much you may dislike it, President Obama is “the only game in town,” the alternative is too horrible even to contemplate.

“Corporations are people, my friend.”

Willard Mitt Romney