Voting for Romney (D-Mass.): The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could Make

Country Thinker ^ | april 7, 2012 | Ted Lacksonen

[Mozilla]

Why am I so pas­sion­ate today? Well, most read­ers who visit here know the coun­try is in deep doo-​​doo. I’m here to tell you that vot­ing for Mitt Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) will not change that fact and may make things worse. I will explain two things. First, Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) is the pre­sump­tive Repub­li­can nom­i­nee pre­cisely because he will do noth­ing to improve our country’s for­tunes. He is the cho­sen one because he will main­tain the sta­tus quo. That is what the GOP machine has cho­sen him to do.

Sec­ond, you can­not “take over” the Repub­li­can machine and turn it into some­thing in decent. I have made that state­ment before, but I’m going to describe the machine in greater detail. Keep in mind that this is infor­ma­tion I have obtained from cur­rent and for­mer GOP insid­ers. Every­one on the inside agrees that the Party has been con­structed so it can­not be taken over. They have also con­structed a polit­i­cal sys­tem so the polit­i­cal duop­oly is very, very dif­fi­cult to chal­lenge. (Repub­li­can insid­ers HATE polit­i­cal free­dom, like so many other free­doms.) Whether that’s a good thing or bad thing is a mat­ter of judg­ment. For con­ser­v­a­tives and lib­er­tar­i­ans it’s bad. For estab­lish­men­tar­i­ans it’s wonderful.

Finally I will explain why vot­ing for Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) is the worst thing you can do, regard­less of whether you’re a “prin­ci­pals” voter or a “strate­gic” voter.

If you are not one hun­dred per­cent con­vinced that I am cor­rect in those state­ments, you absolutely must read the rest of this piece and tell me where I’m wrong. I know I’m cor­rect, and I can assure you that if you vote for Rom­ney (D-Mass.) it will be the great­est polit­i­cal regret of your life.

[Mozilla]

What is the Repub­li­can Party?

So what is the Repub­li­can Party? (This also applies to the Demo­c­ra­tic Party to a slightly lesser degree.) Politi­cians are not the Party. This is an extremely point to under­stand. When you open your eyes to this basic fact, you will see how futile it is to think that you can change things through the bal­lot box.

To com­pare the Repub­li­can Party to a car, politi­cians are the hood orna­ment. Money is the gaso­line, and spe­cial inter­ests are the dri­ver, mechanic, and gas sta­tion atten­dant. The rest of the vehi­cle is built of con­sul­tants, cam­paign man­agers, advi­sors, bureau­crats, media and mar­ket­ing folks, state and national com­mit­tee mem­bers, etc., etc. Within the con­text of Repub­li­can Party pol­i­tics, elected offi­cials yield the least influ­ence. The pres­i­dent may be the most pow­er­ful per­son in the world, but that doesn’t mean he’s in charge. Politi­cians who sin­cerely want to do a good job are deemed “Out­liers” and are given lit­tle influ­ence, or are openly attacked by the Party; see the sor­did story of Gov­er­nor John Kasich (R-​​Oh.) below. (Obama works off-​​script an unusu­ally large amount of the time for a pres­i­dent, which is why the Demo­c­ra­tic estab­lish­ment can’t stand him and can’t wait for his next term to fin­ish. Hillary Clin­ton will be much more compliant.)

The role of the Repub­li­can Party is to dole out America’s resources in the man­ner the major donors wish. The role of politi­cians, espe­cially the pres­i­dent, is to put a smil­ing face on it, which is why Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) is the GOP’s anointed one. The fact that he is so effec­tive at fundrais­ing should scare the crap out of any sen­tient being. He’s a hand­some, smil­ing bobble-​​head; noth­ing more. It tells you that he will exert lit­tle influ­ence over his admin­is­tra­tion if elected.

So the GOP can­not be taken over at the bal­lot box. You must move to Wash­ing­ton and evict all of those who com­prise the struc­ture of the machine. Good luck with that, espe­cially when you’re going to have to beat the money-​​men to pull it off.

Smart com­pa­nies like Gold­man Sachs and Gen­eral Elec­tric donate to both Par­ties. GS was Obama’s biggest donor last elec­tion cycle, and if polls show Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) likely to win, they will be his biggest donor. The rea­son should be obvi­ous; the firm and the other big banks wrote most of Dodd-​​Frank, and unsur­pris­ingly their mar­ket share has increased sig­nif­i­cantly since the bill was enacted. Had Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) been pres­i­dent, he would have signed it, too. (Addi­tion­ally, Bush and Obama have had thou­sands of Wall Street folks work­ing in their admin­is­tra­tions. It’s a modern-​​day spoils sys­tem, and Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) will do the same.)

Thus, Nancy Pelosi’s infa­mous “you have to pass the bill to find out what’s in the bill” com­ment was actu­ally non-​​controversial. Repub­li­cans didn’t know what was in Sarbanes-​​Oxley or TARP when they voted “yea,” either. The powers-​​that-​​be wrote them (the account­ing lobby in the case of Sarbanes-​​Oxley, and the Fed and Trea­sury in the case of TARP), and yes votes were both expected and received.

The Faux Nom­i­na­tion Process (Pol­i­tics as Usual)

Every­one knows Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) was the pre-​​selected can­di­date, but the cam­paign hasn’t gone accord­ing to script. There was only sup­posed to be token resis­tance to per­pet­u­ate the illu­sion that the rank-​​and-​​file actu­ally plays a role in the nom­i­na­tion process. And as soon as he started feel­ing the pres­sure, he imme­di­ately went neg­a­tive because he has no pos­i­tive mes­sage to run on. “I promise to take your tax dol­lars and give them to my cam­paign donors” isn’t a smash hit with voters.

(Note that Gary John­son ran zero neg­a­tive ads in his two cam­paigns for Gov­er­nor, although I can­not promise that he will do the same dur­ing this elec­tion cycle. I will also admit that this arti­cle will prob­a­bly make him uncom­fort­able if he reads it. After all, I’m not only going neg­a­tive on Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.), I’m going neg­a­tive on the entire cor­rupt Repub­li­can Party.)

Repeal Oba­maCare? Not a Chance.

Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) keeps say­ing he will repeal Oba­maCare, but I hope no one is naïve enough to believe him. His donors stand to make BILLIONS because of the bill. They wrote Oba­maCare, and now they’re fund­ing his cam­paign! Do you think health insur­ance com­pa­nies are going to allow him to repeal a bill that man­dates that all Amer­i­cans carry gold-​​plated insurance?

The Oba­maCare “repeal” will go down like this: House Repub­li­cans will pass a repeal bill. Sen­ate Democ­rats will block it. There will be lots of tense moments and spar­ring through the media as the White House and House straw men and –women wage a wink-​​and-​​a-​​nudge “bat­tle” with the Democ­rats. Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) will con­cede defeat and blame the Democ­rats, who will claim vic­tory. The Repub­li­cans will save face with their base by fight­ing the “good fight,” as will the Democrats.

Next, Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) will take charge of “fix­ing” it. Democ­rats will con­cede that it needs improve­ment. Cam­paign donors will draft “revi­sions” that will ben­e­fit the donors, and both par­ties will agree to those amend­ments. There will be some token resis­tance on cer­tain pro­vi­sions to keep Amer­ica fleeced into think­ing that we have a func­tion­ing Two-​​Party system.

This may come as a shock to Repub­li­can loy­al­ists, but the Supreme Court is the last chance at repeal. Now that it’s in place, the Repub­li­can Party wants Oba­maCare as badly as the Demo­c­ra­tic Party. Mod­i­fied, per­haps, but they still want it. They’re in con­trol of way too much money to relin­quish that con­trol. There won’t be enough votes to repeal even if the GOP has a super­ma­jor­ity in the Senate.

(Trust me on this point—I have this infor­ma­tion from a state-​​level insider.)

Is the Tea Party Dead?

Anec­do­tally, the Tea Party is nowhere near the force it was in 2010. There have been few pri­mary bat­tles pit­ting a Tea Party con­ser­v­a­tive or lib­er­tar­ian against an estab­lish­ment can­di­date that have received national cov­er­age. Part of it is because it is a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion year, and Obama is so deservedly despised by Tea Party folks. Unfor­tu­nately, many Tea Partiers have climbed back in bed with the GOP and have fallen back asleep. The Tea Party is still hold­ing their offi­cials’ feet to the fire, but the fire has dwin­dled to coals. That is bad news. By and large they have been seduced into play­ing a los­ing game.

At the Lib­er­tar­ian Party of Ohio’s State Con­ven­tion last week­end, Nick Gille­spie of Rea​son​.tv began his speech with a pic­ture of for­mer Delaware Sen­ate can­di­date Chris­tine O’Donnell. It was from her high school years, and she had on a lady­bug cos­tume, and it was one of the ones the media used to smear her.

I agree with Nick Gille­spie that Chris­tine O’Donnell was exactly the kind of can­di­date this coun­try needs because she would have chal­lenged the machine and been some­thing other than a hood orna­ment. Many Republi-​​zombies com­plain that it was a winnable seat, and they should have nom­i­nated more mod­er­ate Mike Cas­tle. No, no, no! It is the Mike Cas­tles of the world that have got­ten us into the mess we’re in. Pick­ing a bobble-​​head because they have the cor­rect let­ter beside their name will do noth­ing to clean up the mess.

But even if O’Donnell had won, it would still take dozens of years and hun­dreds of other vic­to­ries to get enough politi­cians in place to evict the ras­cals who con­trol the machine, as well as a total restruc­tur­ing of the Party. That’s not going to hap­pen. It is the Repub­li­can Party that needs evicted.

The sec­ond prob­lem with the “Any­body but Obama” argu­ment is that not only is the threat of a sec­ond term of Obama overblown, the ben­e­fit of a first term of Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) has also been greatly exag­ger­ated. As I’ve already dis­cussed, he is not going to repeal Oba­maCare. He is not going to reduce spend­ing to a sig­nif­i­cant degree, and may spend more than Obama with divided lead­er­ship. He may back off some EPA reg­u­la­tions, but only if his money men demand it. He will add reg­u­la­tions if his donors request them. Let’s not for­get that it was George W. Bush who teed up the era of regulators-​​gone-​​wild, and Rom­ney will keep it up.

Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) will be lit­tle dif­fer­ent than Obama because that’s how the Repub­li­can Party wants it. There is a very big pie to dish out, and the GOP wants con­trol of the spat­ula, not to shrink the size of the pie. Worse, we could poten­tially have eight years of Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.). If your eyes are open to what he’s about to do to us, that’s a more fright­en­ing prospect than one more term of Obama!

Con­clu­sion: What to Do

It should be per­fectly clear that I am advo­cat­ing that con­ser­v­a­tives and lib­er­tar­i­ans aban­don the GOP. As a card-​​carrying Lib­er­tar­ian work­ing on the Gary John­son cam­paign, nat­u­rally I hope you join us. But I want to make clear that I did not write this highly neg­a­tive piece just to attract vot­ers to the LP, although I cer­tainly hope it has that effect. I wrote this lengthy arti­cle because what I have writ­ten is true. I knew it intu­itively when I left the GOP, and now that I have spent time with cur­rent and for­mer GOP insid­ers, my gut feel­ing that the GOP is unre­deemable has been con­firmed. The Repub­li­can machine has been built so it can­not be destroyed at the bal­lot box.

So if you vote on prin­ci­pal as I do, you prob­a­bly have already decided against vot­ing for Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.). Per­haps you will choose John­son or who­ever emerges from the Amer­i­cans Elect process. Per­haps you will stay home. Any are supe­rior to vot­ing for the Governor-​​ashamed-​​to-​​call-​​himself-​​Governor.

If you are a strate­gic voter, the cal­cu­lus is dif­fer­ent, and it depends on what mes­sage you want to send. If you think Gary John­son has a chance, you should join me, because he’s the only fis­cal con­ser­v­a­tive who will be on the bal­lot. It cer­tainly would be an effec­tive protest vote. But if you still believe the Repub­li­can Party can be saved, noth­ing would send a bet­ter mes­sage to the GOP that it need to stop nom­i­nat­ing center-​​left pup­pets by vot­ing for Obama.

Let’s face it, a Rom­ney (D-​​Mass.) v. Obama matchup is by far the worst offer­ing from the two major Par­ties since the weak-​​president era of the Gilded Age in the late 1800s. This is a shame because Gary John­son is the best can­di­date to appear on a pres­i­den­tial bal­lot in a long, long time. (He is the LP’s pre­sump­tive nom­i­nee, gar­ner­ing 80–90% of the vote in straw polls at state con­ven­tions.) Per­haps between now and then he will get the trac­tion to make it a com­pet­i­tive battle.

But I am urg­ing con­ser­v­a­tives and lib­er­tar­i­ans: DO NOT VOTE FOR ROMNEY (D-​​MASS.)! You will be assist­ing the cor­rupt machine that despises you, and you will be help­ing to install a pup­pet who will ensure that con­ser­vatism is kept in check at the fed­eral level. You will be vot­ing against every­thing you hold dear.

There is a whole lot more in this explosive Article. Amen. It says everything I have been thinking and more.

[Mr. Lucky]

I’m with you; let’s all work to re-elect President Obama.

[Jack Hydrazine]

“I think the old standby definitions of who votes for which party have been blown away in this campaign. I think people recognize that I’m not a partisan Republican—that I’m someone who is moderate, and that my views are progressive.”
-Mitt Romney (2002)

Video of the quote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMcjJEXt9To

Obama continued: “I am somebody who is no doubt progressive. I believe in a tax code that we need to make more fair. I believe in universal health care. I believe in making college affordable. I believe in paying our teachers more money. I believe in early childhood education. I believe in a whole lot of things that make me progressive.”
-Barack Obama
http://www.progressive.org/mag/nichols0109.html

[null and void]

Compared to keeping Obama in office?

Tough call.

[Last Dakotan]

Yeah right, stay home and get used to saying “Justice Eric Holder”.

[Last Dakotan]

Yeah right, stay home and get used to saying “Justice Eric Holder”.

[cripplecreek]

[Ge0ffrey]

Are you the same person that posted the editorials: “Voting for Herman Cain — The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could make,” and “Voting for Perry — The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could make,” and “Voting for Gingrich — The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could make,” and “Voting for Santorum — The Worst Mistake a Conservative Could make”? Good Lord, give it a break. I’m a conservative and I’m not walking, I’m running to the polls to vote for Romney...if he’s the nominee.

[knarf]

No one else is running !

This has got to be the stupidest attitude ever in FreeRepublic.

Newt's out, Santorum's out, Paul was never in ...

Yeah, sure Romney sucks, but ANY vote not for Romney is a zero vote.

Or is that what is being fomented here ... revolution?

[Last Dakotan]

If you think Gary John­son has a chance, you should join me...

Who is Gary Johnson?

[stuartcr]

Do you have a realistic solution that will prevent both Romney and Obama from becoming the next president?

[Rock N Jones]

“let’s all work to re-elect President Obama”

That’s the worse mistake anyone can make, Republican or Democrat!

[Mozilla]

Enjoy the 8 years of anti-conservative Romney if Obama doesn’t get back in. I for one will fight the rinos all the way.

[G Larry]

Where do these clowns come from, who believe America can survive an Obama 2nd term?

How do they contend that the congress that would constrain Obama, would empower Romney?

Obama has demonstrated his willingness to endrun congress and the courts...and he WILL destroy America!

[Mozilla]

No because the system is rigged. Only solution is to fight the system.

[Dawebman]

Sorry Mozilla, I WOULD VOTE FOR MR. POTATO HEAD OVER OBAMA!

[Dawebman]

Sorry Mozilla, I WOULD VOTE FOR MR. POTATO HEAD OVER OBAMA!

[jersey117]

The choice has been narrowed down. I’m not supporting obama — will take my chances with Romney.

[Mozilla]

Yes. Romney is hijacking the party with brad of fake republicans.

[Mozilla]

Yes. Romney is hijacking the party with brand of fake republicans.