Mad Mitt, copyright @AzureGhost
Change means different things to different people. It’s a common enough campaign promise; in fact, Mitt Romney is running on “change” this cycle. Romney promises to deliver change on Day One, some of which is going to happen just because he was elected, according to him. In an email to supporters, he wrote, “This election is a turning point for America. It is a time for greatness, for big change, and for action — not more idle words. I’m not just talking about change, I actually have a plan to make it happen. From day one of my presidency, I will restore common sense to Washington, by cutting wasteful spending and putting us on a path toward a balanced budget.”
Romney’s “change” is actually not change but rather going back to Bush policies, by doubling down on Bush’s tax cuts and deregulation while amping up defense spending way past what the Pentagon said they needed. Romney says he’s running on “change” but he won’t give us any specifics of what that means or looks like, other than promising that he will deliver the 12 million jobs experts say will come our way if we keep doing what Obama is doing now.
Romney also wants to take us back to the social policies of the 1950s, you know, back in the good old days when women knew their place and people were “wholesome” (aka: trapped in bad marriages and housewives were drugged to dull the pain).
That’s Romney’s idea of “change”. I have no idea how he thinks he could change wasteful spending on Day One, but that is probably just campaign rhetoric best ignored, unless you feel like trying to hold him to the same standards Republicans have applied to Obama. I don’t suggest it. We fall down way before we get that high.
Obama’s ideas of change are changes that benefit the people (I detailed examples here), protecting them from corporate interests and helping them get a fair shot if they work hard. The man isn’t perfect and we are so far from digging our way out of 40 years of Republican “values”. I fear it will take another 40 to fix the systemic damage.
We are not where we need to be yet. We may never be where we should be. In a democracy, the fight for the people to maintain their power is never-ending. The elite will always try to steal power back, using religion and propaganda to do it as they have through history. The question isn’t are we where we should be, but are we going in the right direction.
Under Obama, we have made huge strides for the people. That is the right direction, and no, this isn’t even a question of ideology anymore. It’s a question of corporate elites versus the people. Mitt Romney represents the worst of the Republican Party and none of the necessary balance conservatism can lend to progress (real conservatism, not social Darwninism and subsidies for big oil masked as conservatism).
Republicans have forced Democrats to bear responsibility for the conservatives’ burden of fiscal prudence and balanced budgets since Clinton’s days, as they chased women’s reproductive health over a cliff. They abandoned civic duty and intellectualism to the Democrats, greedily siding with corporations and using churches to sell harmful policies to the masses. Republicans are the frothing, irrational radicals of hate now, infamous for not believing in science or polls or reality. Most of the real conservatives are in the Democratic Party now.
The Republican Party has become a sad caricature of itself, and Mitt Romney is the perfect albeit unintentional parody of that caricature. Obama is a great choice as a candidate on his own, but next to Mitt Romney, he is the only choice.
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grandmommy10
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 9:11 am
Amen!
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Reynardine
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 9:37 am
The Republican Party took a frank downturn with Richard Nixon, but even *that* Republican Party looks stellar compared with what we’re seeing now. Dear God, what will we awaken to Wednesday?
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Howard Brazee
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 9:58 am
As bad as Romney is, he is by no means a perfect caricature of the worst of the new Republican party. But maybe he’s extreme enough to start the cycle moving back to the middle.
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Reynardine
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 10:13 am
The current Republican Party is the most frankly misogynist entity I have seen this side of the Taliban; it appeals to like-minded “men”, whom I have seen openly endorsing the threat of unpunished rape, unwanted pregnancy, and unavoidable childbirth as a way to keep women “respectful” (only a few are this outspoken so far, but we can see it just beneath the surface on quite a few more). Similarly, it is openly angling for those whose only claim to worth is an increasingly threatened racial or religious “superiority”. A party grown so vicious is no longer fit to govern, and that it will not; it intends to “rule”.
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Rho
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Republicans… here’s your answer to the sex problem… nobody ever touch anybody ever again!
A bit extreme, but when it comes to their kind of extreme, you have to have some satire to keep yourself sane, since they certainly are not.
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limabean
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Great thoughts on what’s wrong with the Republican party and Mitt.
I think you have hit the crux of the problem on the head.
They don’t want to govern, they want to RULE.
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Andrew
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
Agree. Paul Ryan is that caricature.
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Maranon
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 11:13 am
The republics have been exploiting the fears and insecurities of their party members, their radio programing is a constant flow of anger and disparigings remarks that have nothing to do with reality. Romney and his mormon crew want control, the evangelicals may not like the mitt, but he has bent to their wishes, creating a new religion even more disturbing.
The LDS try to portray clean family image, but below the surface, the child mol;estation for boys and girls is always present. With recent arrests of females molesting their neighbor’s boys (in AZ)
May the force be with you…
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SorataYuy
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
“Romney and his mormon crew want control”
Uh – NO. Mitt might have some “buddies” of his that go to the same church, and that he’s promised a good position to if he makes it, but honestly, NO, the majority of us in the LDS church do _NOT_ “want control.” Way to generalize and offend the “Mormons” who actually don’t support him.
“The LDS try to portray clean family image, but below the surface, the child molestation for boys and girls is always present. With recent arrests of females molesting their neighbor’s boys (in AZ)”
It’s sad that that woman did that – but this sort of thing happens EVERYWHERE. Kindly do NOT try to pin it down to just “oh those nutty LDS, always touchin’ them little kids!” because that is grossly inaccurate, flat-out wrong, and honestly, rather offensive. People can up-vote your comment all they like, but it doesn’t change the fact that so far the -only- accurate statement you’ve made is about the GOP and their use of propaganda. That’s pretty sad, dude.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
YOU dont, but you dont speak for the leadership
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GemGirl
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 11:17 am
Sarah Jones — You are an excellent thinker and writer, based on several articles I’ve read by you.
Keep up the good work!
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Sugapea
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 2:36 pm
I agree. Great piece, Sarah!
You should write a book on this subject. Republican’s are living in an alternate reality of the 50-60′s.
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Mary
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 11:58 am
The repugs have become the party of the 1% and the haters., who actually believe they are Christians. This whole election has been non-stop lies and distortions. The repugss biggest mistake is believing most of the people in this country are as clueless and unable to form a thought of their, as faux cult members.
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Sally
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
And yet I have college-educated siblings who think Obama is the devil incarnate. What is wrong with people?
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A Walkaway
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
I have a big problem with the defense of conservatism. The “fiscal responsibility” was an attempt to defund – as always – anything that helps the poor or downtrodden.
The only time the conservatives have a legitimate gripe is when change is sought for the sake of just changing things. As the saying goes, “Don’t fix what isn’t broke”. I don’t ever remember a liberal calling for change just because they wanted to change something – change is always called for to deal with a real problem.
Throughout the history of this country, liberals have tried to fix the BROKEN aspects of society, and conservatives have fought to keep the brokenness intact (like slavery, no rights for women, discrimination against minorities, “Christian Nation”, and so on).
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ibwilliamsi
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
The markets will get a boost the day after the election regardless of who is elected. It does every four years as an “end to uncertainty”. The only time that it did not was 2000, for obvious reasons.
Bishop Romney knows this and was trying to capitalize on it in advance. “See how much they love my economic plans? I told you so! Let me do whatever I want, I’ve got experience and I’m revving up Wall Street already.”
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Alex
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Sally, sorry to hear that you have siblings with such hateful views of our President. Unfortunately, our colleges teach a dog eat dog capitalist societal view. This view tends to dehumanize individuals and turn them into numbers so to speak, part of the bottom line.
When you can dehumanize a society or a segment of the society it easier to disenfranchise them, blame them for their own plight. So, the thought of sharing, supporting, and caring about our society as a whole is something they do not believe in.
President Obama talks about giving everybody a level playing field. Supporting our teachers, making sure our children get a excellent education. Anti Obama folks don’t care about the future of this country it is all about I got mine and it is your fault you are where you are. Don’t use my tax dollars help any of these low life’s pretty much sums it up.
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A Walkaway
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
That may or may not be true for the two-year schools, but I do know that in spite of all of the political and economic pressure being brought to bear on the universities, there are departments and disciplines that are fighting against the dog-eat-dog capitalism. Maybe that’s why Scott has come out so heavily against my own discipline (anthropology), and why they insist that it will never be taught at the local university-turned-into-glorified-tech-school (aka Florida Polytechnic). It tends to wake students up a bit from their brainwashed state, and if taught right, makes them question the “givens” of what they’ve been taught (programmed).
We do see that attitude in the school of Business at times, sometimes in students in the pre-law or pre-medicine tracks, and from some of the engineering students. Beware if the schools start reducing the social science classes… it’s usually to prevent exposure to thinking that goes against the elite propaganda.
(Plus, I need to mention that the “Good Christian” churches don’t want anyone’s children exposed to such things as evolution and critical thinking… having their ideology disproved and encouraging the kids to think for themselves is verboten to those types.)
The schools I know don’t teach that, although as I mentioned, there is a lot of pressure being put on the administration to do exactly that.
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Debra Vermaas
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. These religous freaks in the Gop are all a bunch of “re-born” christians with horrific birth defects like intolerance, racism, and hatred. I hate to use the “N” word, but this is the same kind of hatred the Nazis had. It’s down right scary!
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A Walkaway
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
It turns out that the Nazis also were religious freaks. There has been discussion of that fact on Talk2Action in the past.
In fact, the German army wore belt buckles with “Gott Mit Uns” (spelling?) which means “God with us!”.
Your comparison is apt and valid.
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David B.
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
It sounds like you are also intolerant. Please don’t let your hatred cloud your brain. I and a lot of other Christians back Obama because he is the right person for the job. I am not a Republican or Democrat, I am a center leaning left type of person. And as such I look for the person who is best for this country, in this case, can be trusted and doesn’t lie through his teeth to get elected.
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harris stein
Nov. 5th, 2012 at 4:27 pm
“Romney also wants to take us back to the social policies of the 1950s,”
What? I think the 1750′s is more appropriate.
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Gary Vaughn
Nov. 6th, 2012 at 12:28 am
Shuddering thinking about it. The hoop skirts and bobby socks from the fiftes is a bad enough thought.
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D. W. Skinner
Nov. 6th, 2012 at 8:13 am
you mean liar, bigot, flip-flopper, sociopath…? I could go on..
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