Monday, April 16, 2012

Romney's Goal?

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)

I know that several people have suggested that Willard Mitt Romney seems to have no goal in mind as a Presidential candidate, no clear plan as to why he is running and what he would do as President. I believe I may have figured it out. Romney has two main goals: (1) he wants to be President of the United States, and (2) he intends to achieve that goal by proving that Honest Abe was wrong and it is possible to fool all of the people all of the time. How else could one possibly understand what he is doing?

Do not forget that Romney has taken opposing positions at different times on virtually every issue you can imagine. This means, among other things, he is a chronic, even pathological liar. Either he lied when he was for it, or he is lying now that he is against it. It is impossible to know where he actually stands on any given issue. This rather strange situation has been compounded now because one of his aides admitted the other day that what Romney believes in private is not what he says in public, does that not fill you with confidence? He was for choice, now he is against it. He was for universal health care (at least for Massachusetts), but now he’s against it for the rest of the nation. He was supportive of Roe vs Wade, now he’s opposed to it, and so on and on about most everything. He claimed to have been a hunter all his life, but actually has only hunted twice (until recently, I guess, when he apparently was taken Elk hunting for two days). He previously lied about owning a gun but has subsequently acquired two shotguns (I think). He lies so incessantly that nothing he says has any credibility whatsoever. His latest outrageous claim is that he is a lifetime member of the NRA and supports their position on guns and gun control. As far as I know this does not mean he has been a lifelong member of the NRA, but, rather, he must have recently bought a lifetime membership in that organization. In any case, Romney in the past has taken positions directly opposed to the NRA but now claims to support them.

I find this absolutely fascinating. How do you deal with a person who apparently has no core values of any kind and is willing to say anything at anytime to anyone anywhere, and then change and say the opposite the following day? How could anyone possibly trust such a person? He has apparently managed to fool all the people all the time in order to have now managed to grasp the nomination. There is no point in even having a debate with him as whatever he says cannot be believed. It would be like having a debate with the “Little Man Who isn’t Really There,” completely pointless.

Romney refuses to tell us what he would do as President other than generalities about how he would eliminate some things, merge others, and so on, but will not reveal just what agencies or whatever because he thinks not everyone would be in favor of what he wants to do. Really, he would expect everyone to be in favor of what he wants to do? He wants to deceive everyone because he believes that will help him reach his goals. How does anyone, including his own supporters, know what to believe. I think it is probably the case that Republicans put up with his secrecy partly because they know that if he tells the truth (if there is any) he will surely lose to Obama. I also think they doubt he can win and is thus merely a sacrifice for their plans for 2016. But as he has fooled everyone, how can even his supporters have faith. I assume they think he will probably just follow the Bush/Cheney administration policies, and perhaps he will. But what if once in office he decides that Robamacare makes sense? Or what if he returns to his previous anti-gun positions? His message seems to be, “Trust me, don’t pay any attention to anything I say.” He wants to turn what might well be seen as a serious character flaw into a free ticket on a ride to nowhere, or maybe somewhere, following his business career. With his business experience he could decide to sell off our nation’s assets to private companies, lay off as many people as he can, and raise his income from the paltry $57,000 a day to $100,000. How he can imagine becoming President with his non-platform of trust me, and how anyone could possibly support his unknown plan for the country, is a mystery to me. The banks and his corporate friends seem satisfied to let him run on a simple strategy and plan of roviating Obama as they have nothing of their own to offer. So onward, deeper into the unknown, at least be grateful he’s not Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum.

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.
H. L. Mencken

No comments: