Romney’s cloak of Inevitability: Can a liberal Republican Change America?

Keywords or Terms: Uninspiring Republican Candidate; Etch-A-Sketch Nominee; Contrasting Obama with Mitt Romney; Power Change from time to time: Democrats vs. Republicans; Paul Ryan’s Budget and 2012 Presidential Election; American Society of News Editors (ASNE).

Once again, Mitt Romney is finding his voice. The potential Republican nominee, who was hurting so bad from spree of loses last month in states like Missouri, Tennessee and Kansas, is finding his voice again after yesterday’s successes in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington D.C. In his newly found unbanning voice, Romney is pledging tax cut across the board; he is pledging to take the country away from big government; he is championing Paul Ryan’s budget plan, he is insisting that his understanding of what is wrong with America’s Economy is over bloated government and the grounded understanding or knowledge of what it must take for the economy to start growing at a faster rate than what we now have by President Obama.

For many months, Republicans argue among themselves, if Mitt Romney was the right candidate for their so-called conservative leaning?  In a dispersed group of shareholders, where the extremists took over the party, politicians like Congressman Paul Ryan bloomed and the possibility of their voice coming mainstream became realistic for the Republicans. Enters the opportunist Mitt Romney and his desire to curry this type of extremism in America’s politics, Romney began to talk favorably about Paul Ryan’s budget plan that was all but rejected by the Republican lawmakers in congress a year ago. Is Romney realistic? Is Romney the manager he is claiming to be? How can a chief-executive subscribe to a plan that will disenfranchise majority of his shareholder? Does Romney know what is in the Paul Ryan’s budget plan?

Consider that Paul Ryan’s budget only offer anxiety, stress and exhaustion for adults and poor children on Medicare and Medicaid. Doubly consider that a conservative leaning Newspaper, Washington Post, has criticized the Paul Ryan’s budget plan in its opinion page as dire and worthless. Why then is Romney championing the course of a right wing legislator like Paul Ryan? Is it out of his newly found voice or the necessity to do anything it takes to seem more conservative than he was before his front runner status among Republicans seeking their Party’s nomination? One probable uncontested reason, is the fact that for all intense and purposes, Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican flag bearer after their convention. Other contestable reason is, Mitt Romney will do anything possible, to seem more attuned to the welfare of women, like having his wife speak for him or re-brand his campaign, even if he is intuitively nursing how to draw back on the gains of women on their reproductive issues, courtesy of the right wingers who have now taken over the Republican Party.

The most spectacular reason is the necessity to become a mainstream candidate if he is going to win votes from independents. In the frenzy fight for Republican nomination, Mitt Romney made so many gaffes that his supporters wondered, if this was truly a serious candidate that understood the plight of ordinary Americans. From my wife drives two Cadillac to, I don’t care about the poor! Yet, in a session with the American Society of News Editors today, Romney claimed that President Obama is criticizing policies that no one is proposing and failing to run on his record.

Governor Romney may be tempering his Etch-A-Sketch image by attempting to appeal to a broader audience with his pronouncements, but the reality is: Governor Romney embraced Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget that is attempting to completely destroy whatever is left of the American middle-class. While Governor Romney maybe attempting to prevent the Obama’s Campaign team from defining his campaign to the American voters as shown by the President’s speech yesterday, the reality is: President Obama has not said anything that many living Americans in the past three decades do not know: The trickle down economics doctrine, supply-side economics, once branded Reaganomics, has never worked for America and would continue to be a disaster for the nation’s middle-class if we continue to buy into it.

In the early 80’s, under President Reagan, the nation bought into the pipe dream of supply-side economics and got badly burned to the extent that it had to go back on some of the public policies before the nation start trending to a catastrophic economic depression or Armageddon.  Under the second Bush Presidency, George W. Bush, the nation went back to the same devious idea of cutting taxes for the rich after making some strides under a Democratic President, William H. Clinton. The doctrine failed so badly, the house of cards collapsed about four years ago, and everyone saw and experienced the fallacies: lost jobs, homes and savings. Lost lives, time and hope! Many economists lambasted President Reagan’s excessive correction of the economy, which some claimed was one of the reasons many social programs that were helping many Americans stay above water, went away. Once again, we are having another apostle of supply-side economics vying for the office of the presidency!

In an attempt to over-correct for some excesses of the economy, including wastage on social welfare programs in the 80', one supply-side guru, named Ronald Reagan, nearly brought the whole economy to demise, before we entered into the first Gulf War. The cutting of taxes for the wealthiest precipitated a culture of deficit spending that kept on digging America into a hole. Another Republican President who still insisted he could make it right, believing in some of the tenets of President Reagan's supply-side economics, got us into the first Gulf War and with his eyes away from the ball, lost billions in our coffers and we went spiraling into a recession. With the slogan, 'it is the economy stupid', President Clinton corrected for some slag in the economy and assisted us in building a nest house, a respite we completely lost under the voyeurism of another Republican President into the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The unbridled spending during the second Iraq war precipitated the fast-track free fall of the economy. 

Once we entered into an unpaid war in Iraq, there is no way we could avoid falling into another of deficit spending or possible recession. With an unpaid for war and huge tax cut for the wealthy, not only were jobs not created as promised from the supply-side Republican economics gurus, we unwittingly fell into a deeper hole with financial sector laws deregulation and consequential budget deficits spending that only the 'Reaganomists' could explain. We began fearing our note holders were going to come calling; and, China and India, countries that were third world nations barely two decades ago, began dictating the rate of interest on our over-bloated debts! Correcting for many of these past mistakes, which an intelligent, sharp and cautious President, Barack Obama, is helping us figure out, is what we are still on. Now come another snake oil sales man, Republican Mitt Romney, attempting to dissuade us, calling for us to go back to our old bad habits of cutting taxes for the rich, fighting unpaid for wars and building up on our armories, one that is better than any other country's in the world, with an Etch-A-Sketch strategy campaign. Many of us who have lost our jobs, homes and savings remember this and would not allow another Republican zealot to continue to destroy America. Cutting taxes for the wealthiest, fighting unpaid wars and promising to exploit one of the nation’s natural resources till kingdom come, will do the nation and its people, no good. Any politician of that persuasion therefore, must be kept at bay, because we all saw what happened the last time. Was this point well-articulated by President Obama in his speech to the American Society of News Editors? Yes! Should President Obama apologize for his speech before this group? No, No and No!!!

As an Etch-A-Sketch politician, Governor Romney indicated that the type of health care reform in the state of Massachusetts is just as good for the nation. Once he began to show keen interest in the Presidency and critics began to ask questions about what is now called ‘Obamacare’, a prototype of ‘RomneyCare’, the flip-flopper began to backtrack. The American voters' aim is to bind Mitt Romany to the health care reform in his home state of Massachusetts, yet he is balking? Who can imagine that less than a decade of a health care reform packaged and mid-whiffed by Governor Romney, he will today be running away from the same law. What must residents of Massachusetts be thinking today: Did the snake oil governor/salesman sold us another bad investment in Romneycare? Who can imagine that a man, who can hardly be taken as reflective, is turning away from many of his statements, just to gain currency and win a general election? Is this type of person worthy of consideration to be the President of this great nation? My candid response to the last question is this: H*ll No.!  What we want as a nation is a stable hand, a consistent and dependable leader, a man of his words, not a wish-washy fly by night politician, who will do anything to be elected President of this nation. We are tired of deceptive leaders who will want to derail our dreams and ambition as a nation. We do not need another Supply-side economics or public policy before we know it will fail us again!

How might Paul Ryan’s budget figure into the 2012 Presidential Election? Sometimes, it might be wise for Americans to look back into their Economic History to be able to make better prediction(s) regarding what Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan has to offer the nation and its people. The hostile takeover of the Republican Party by the extreme right may offer a great debate of where America must go from here in the 2012 Presidential elections; however, regarding the welfare of the economy, Paul Ryan’s budget is the last anyone should be looking forward to getting us out of our deficit hole. Knowing what we went through towards the end of another Republican Presidency, President George W. Bush, the nation must take a long hard look at anyone selling us another tax cut policy. We must make it harder for Republicans or any deceptive leader to ascend the thrown very soon. If Paul Ryan is right, and economic history is any guide, the type of budget being proposed and receiving blessing from 'Republican Nominee' Mitt Romney, will serve the nation, no good. And if any politician is subscribing to this type of supply-side economics, we must all speak with one voice and repeat: Once bitten twice shy!

The intrusive nature of the Tea Party that has held Republicans to ransom must not be allowed nationwide; and, this is probably one of the greatest reasons to reject the Republican's likely nominee from the oval office. To paraphrase President Obama’s speech yesterday before American Society of News Editors (ASNE): If the nation buys into Paul Ryan’s plan to save Medicare and reign in spending, as passed on party vote line in the House of Representative last week, the nation would see mothers and young children loose healthy and nutritious food, college students lose financial aid, the Department of Justice and FBI unable to enforce laws and administer justice, and in certain parts of the country, air traffic controllers would vanish; even, weather forecasters would be handicapped! Is anyone prepared for such a scenario? If President Obama is not exaggerating, are we ready to stomach another Armageddon? Your guess is as good as mine. 

Yes, the government may need to speed up the economic performance so that the 8.3% unemployment rate could come down. President Obama has made it possible for rule changes in many of the government regulations that have been stifling economic growth; he has worked most recently to allow for some lease and licensing for alternative energy source exploitation and other opportunities for drilling in federal lands, and we are experiencing some life in the economy. But why should we switch in the middle of gradual progress to an unreliable switch and bait executive officer in the White house, whose only campaign logo is:  I once did it in the private sector, so I can translate my private sector success or experience to the public sectors that is well over a billion size of Bain's Capital? Governor Romney’s promise is simply that: a promise from a politician! Knowing what the nation knows right now about apathy in congress and dishonesty of politicians, why should anyone have faith in an aspirant who is depending or casting all his lot with a politician. Paul Ryan, who has hardly known what it takes to work in a framework of compromise for the betterment of the whole nation, is asking the nation to buy into another tax cut and disheveled budget, only for the sake of savings on Medicaid and Medicare. Is this necessarily right for America at this time? This is one question that must be on the mind of American voters come November 6, 2012!