The Field is Set
Warning: I’m about to rant about something that I’ve been pondering for a while now. This mornings announcement by former Governor Mitt Romney naming Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate stirred me to the keyboard. I’m not negative about individuals that are Democrats or Republicans. People can agree and disagree. I’m ranting about National politics. For a long time I’ve thought that my vote in national elections didn’t matter. An opinion that was mostly solidified by the Supreme Court stepping in to name our President back in 2000 and gifting unlimited and undisclosed dollars into our political system. Maybe voting in national elections does matter and if it does the current political climate is motivating me go to the polls this year, if I’m allowed and have the right ID, to cast a vote for President Obama.
This morning Mr. Romney actually introduced Rep. Ryan as “the next President of the United States.” This slip stirred my memory of something I saw reported about Grover Norquist and his speech at CPAC this year.
“All we have to do is replace Obama. … We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate. Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.”
I tire of hearing politicians discount the history and economics of Europe. The whole “freedom fries” phrasing from a few years ago demonstrates just how gullible politicians believe the governed are right now and they may have a point. But, for all the bashing of European governments, health care, and economies I found an “aha” moment in Mr. Romney’s slip this morning and the depth of what Mr. Norquist is driving toward which is a parliamentary style of governing that has a strong Prime Minister (the Vice President) and a figure head as President / CEO (think Royalty). When you reflect on the last GOP Administration to inhabit the White House that kind of “governing” seems to fit, Cheney and Bush,. Given what we know about Mr. Romney, his business past and his “flip flop” on the issues to get elected, add that to what we know about Rep. Ryan and his federal budget plan, and fold in the words of Mr. Norquist alongside the outrage of the likes of Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck, it makes sense to me that the power brokers within the GOP and the white plutocrats funding their run for the White House and control of Congress, have determined that Mr. Romney is a very rich guy looking to check off his bucket list what his father could not do: become President of the United States. All he has to do is what he is told to do and embrace what he is told to embrace.
So, what are the plutocrats doing? Well, what economic aristocracy does, what corrupt nobles did in Europe, they pit the peasants against each other to retain power. They throw around “welfare, food stamps, and entitlements” and hang photos of a non-white persons on those terms and say “it is their fault.” They do what they always do and set themselves above accountability. The current economic climate and the lack of arrests and jail time for the people that caused this mess, that is global now, is the best example of how these persons are above the law. Much of what the National GOP, their Super Pacs, the folks like Karl Rove, and the pundits at Fox are doing in TV and radio Ads, the Internet ads, and in their publications, all of it is grounded in calling President Obama a “foreigner” that has failed the country. It is suggesting that President Obama’s election victory was just a “band wagon” experience for the nation. It is counting on a soft racism among the citizens to ensure that they will vote against their economic and social interests. It is counting on Christian religious fundamentalism that would define our Republic as a “Christian nation,” to “civilize” and “evangelize” the globe. It is counting on an “us and them” that sees the GOP world view as the only right world view and that is based on white male dominance. It’s built on the fantasy that I’ll buy the winning lottery ticket, have money to invest, and become a member of the economic aristocracy that can live off interest, not work, and manipulate the system for their own benefit. It is counting on every day citizens of every race forgetting that to whom much is given, much is required or if you prefer, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Supply-side and “trickle down” economics has benefited a very few people and corporations in this country and around the world. Is this Republic willing to be “governed” by the GOP economic aristocracy that has since the 2010 mid-term elections taken away rights of workers, that has set up 21st century poll tests and taxes to deliver the election for President for their candidate, and taken away the rights of women of self determination when they will choose to have a child or not. Really, just so a person of color does not become the President of the United States, again. Is that what the rhetoric “take back our country” means for the GOP?
This morning Mr. Ryan, in accepting his selection as the VP candidate, said that he would not be afraid of telling the public the truth. Will he denounce the soft racism of some in his party and those that associate with it? Did he contact the Sikh community in Wisconsin that was terrorized or speak out against such violence in his home state?
So, the field is set in this election and there are clear choices about the vision and direction of this country into the 21st century. Do we have the hope, resolve, and capacity to do what is right for all Americans, again, like our history has recorded when people of good will come together for a common purpose and a greater good? I guess it depends on how you define the “greater good” in the 21st century. Based on what I’ve seen from Mr. Romney’s past in business and from Mr. Ryan’s budget plan the greater good is the continuance of white economic aristocracy. I could be wrong.