Guest Blogger-"Why I did not vote for Romney"

The following post is from a guest blogger who appears here from time to time.  The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily those of the keeper of this blog spot (that would me moi).  Anyone wishing to counter with a blog of their own may do so by contacting me at george.stockwell@gmail.com.  I reserve the right to publish or not any responses.

12/2/12

Why I did not vote for Romney

Let me start by stating that I am a registered Republican and have been since I was old enough to vote - primarily because my parents were. Let me also state that I am a liberal Republican or conservative Democrat (read middle of the road voter) and have voted fairly equally between Republicans and Democrats over the years.

When the primary season started a long time ago, I thought Mitt Romney was a sensible and intelligent man especially compared to those he was running against.  And coming from the business world, he might possibly be someone who would take a different approach to governing.

However, that was not to be.

Right away the Democrats and liberal media called him a flip- flopper. That little bit of nastiness was initially lost on me but he ultimately showed himself to blow with the wind in an effort to please all of the relatively extreme factions of what now make up the Republican Party. That was a losing proposition.

The Republican Party has become one of extremely conservative and uninformed and just plain nutty ideas. They have allowed the fringe overrun and paint the party as unbending, unforgiving and unintelligent.

Examples:

1)    Mitch McConnell started 2008 by flatly stating that his only goal over the next four years was to get rid of Obama. There was not one word about the economic meltdown created during the Bush years and voters struggles with losing jobs and homes.

2)    Sarah Palin started out OK but turned into Joe Six-pack’s mouth piece spouting religion and demeaning any who didn’t believe her ideas, plus leaving Alaska in the lurch when she quit her day job as governor.

3)    Michelle Bachman was just plain off the wall with her many inaccurate pronouncements about what the US wants/needs and her wild religious beliefs.

4)    Rush Limbaugh, the self appointed representative of the Republican Party, was allowed to run rough shod over anyone who disagreed with him (that’s most of us, Rush).

5)    Grover Norquist, a God damned lobbyist, was allowed to browbeat 95-98% of Republicans in Congress into signing a pledge not to raise taxes for any reason (a lobbyist mind you) with threats of ruining their careers if they didn’t sign.

6)    Tod Aikin tried to define some rape as legitimate.

7)    Senator Richard Mourdock said that rape is God’s will.

8)    The Tea party thinks that just cutting spending will solve all our problems, overlooking the fact that they too are making use of that money with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

9)    The Republicans have pounded us about the need to open oil reserves in pristine areas of Alaska. Turns out that the US will be the number one producer of oil in the world by 2020, beating out even Saudi Arabia. We may need more refineries, but if that’s the issue, say so. We should be putting much of that money into making cars that average 40 mpg.

10) “The only way to resolve the deficit crises is to cut spending”. That’s part of it, but cutting spending does not raise the money needed to pay off the dept. However, Republican rhetoric seems to point to helping the super rich (less that 10% of the voting public) with their tax burden as their primary goal outside of getting rid of Obama.

11) The NRA (of which I’m a proud life member) has been wailing that Obama will take away our guns. He didn’t in the first 4 years and has little chance of doing in the next 4.

Note to the NRA: Let’s not make this fight over the right to own guns/clips that can fire 100 rounds a minute. Our founders didn’t have this type of weapon in mind when they wrote the Second Amendment. I personally believe they fall into the category of machine guns which are illegal.

12) Republicans have been the only ones who have conjured up a myriad of ways to require voters to have ID’s. Many seem specifically designed to make it difficult or impossible for the voting poor (mostly Democrats) to vote. Certainly a National voter ID system can be produced that wouldn’t create the present problems.

13) Since 9/11, the Religious Right (Christians only need apply) has been pushing have to have their very conservative views foisted on the rest of the population and are using The Republican Party to do it. This includes wanting to control what women can and can’t do with their own bodies.

14) Donald Trump is using his own money to chase the idea that Obama isn’t an American. The Donald was still at it even after the election.

I’m hard pressed to believe that the vast majority of traditional Republicans believe those folks referenced above represent their real values. I, for one, am thoroughly disappointed in the Republican Party.

A final comment: This is not to say that I believe the Democrats are fault free either. But they seem to be much more sensitive to the majority needs in this country.

So, there you have it. This is why I couldn’t vote for Mitt Romney.

Ken Mackenzie