By Arthur Piccolo
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Aug. 3, 2012: Ridiculous and pathetic!
Since this election is over even before the national political conventions and more than three months until Election Day, the challenge is to continue to keep this all interesting here in my commentary, if not in the real world of political boredom.
Mitt Romney’s key flaw is that his selection is the inevitable result of a party without a soul and a confused collection of groups and views – almost all of them pernicious – that squeeze themselves under the mantle of the so called Republican Party. Or to use the Republican’s euphemism: “their big tent.” Big leaky, creaky tent!
What the Republican Party is for all practical purposes is a “protest” party. Protesting against a convoluted view of America built on a fictional view of the country and especially its “glorious” past distant and recent. It is anchored in wealth for sure. The quality of human nature is that those with the most are generally greedy with an insatiable appetite for yet more. They anchor the Republican Party and give false voice to the middle class they abuse with their privileged access to power and money.
In a society, ours (and most others), built on the accumulation of wealth, which is the same as power, the powerful use their wealth to buy everything in sight, including very much so, the political process and most of the media. This Ruling Class tolerates the rest of us to the extent that they must. Their wealth and power is built on lording it over the rest of us and most of all, all of us buying their products and services since we must.
This is coupled with the painful irony that when the power class gets too greedy and/or too sloppy as with the mortgage fiasco, there are no problem for them as they use the system and our national resources to fix the problem and make them whole again. And they are once again richer and better off now than before the crisis even as the American society become ever more unbalanced.
So here in 2012, in walks Mitt Romney pushing aside a group of even more forgettable rivals for the nomination for President.
Worse is that all of them were selling superficialities and mostly one issue mantras and trying to go up against the individual who had done nothing these last 8 years other than run for that nomination and use his huge personal wealth. Easy choice! Romney beats them All! Wealth trumped the others mendacity.
So what has this “protest” party got in Mitt Romney?. Exactly what you would expect – a “protest” candidate! A ranting, raving incumbent that is so bad, anyone other than Obama is a better choice.
Except for one very big problem. The hundred million plus Americans who show up to vote Election Day have only one choice vote for one or the other. There is the no do not re-elect Barack Obama box. But to vote against Obama you have to vote for Romney. That is Romney’s problem. Not in guaranteed Republican states.
Rather in those damn swing states where the election is decided.
And that dear readers is why this election is over and Mitt Romney
has already lost the presidential election and will disappear right
after election day never to be seen again except by his rich friends
as he spends his fortune in places where the super rich congregate – on luxurious islands that are fabulous tax havens too.
Why is this?
Because the majority of Americans, and more to the point
independent voters in Swing States, do not have lives like Mitt
Romney and do not identify with him at all. Or his identification with the Super Rich.
Romney is a very rich guy who made his fortune in the rarified world of the business elite – buying and selling companies under the banner of Bain Capital, then further emphasizing his disconnect with too many Americans by doing everything possible to avoid the Tax Man stash his wealth here and there in tax dodging strategies and off shore accounts beyond the reach of Uncle Sam.
Why are enough American voters going to identify with a super-
rich guy who will not release most of his tax returns?. IF he did he would not lose what may prove a somewhat close race. If he releases his tax returns for the last 10 years he will lose in a landslide after Americans get to see how much wealth he has and how he has “protected” (sic) it by paying a very, very low tax rate if any at all, on most of his wealth. The rest of it is off-shore.
Think about it. There is no doubt in his mind anyway Romney has been actively pursuing the Presidency for more than a decade. How out of touch is he that during all that time he did not appreciate that his tax returns would define him for the non-Republican voters he needed to win the Presidency. No doubt if you asked Romney today if he would give up half of his fortune or much more and he would be President, he would eagerly do so.
Yet at the same time for 10-15 years, or who knows how much
longer – we don’t know cause Romney won’t tell us – he has obviously been filing tax returns that go out of their way to minimize his taxes to the max. For Romney to believe he can use every trick in the tax book to avoid taxes and that would not negatively impact his appeal to middle America proves this guy is way out of touch with reality. Just as you would expect from a guy who spends all his free time among his clan the Super-Rich who all use the same exact tax avoidance strategies.
Say it isn’t true. Simple. Let Romney release all his tax returns for the last 10 years if not longer. But Romney says he won’t! He says there is nothing more to discuss on the issue. Maybe in his mind!
Then he makes it worse by Americans he wants more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which puts even more emphasis on his own taxes. That exposes yet another fatal flaw in the Republicans as the party of GREED. You might think that Republican Big Wigs so, so interested in beating Obama would collectively agree let’s not demand more tax breaks for the top 1% until after the election. Instead if Romney ever said any such thing his candidacy would be over. They would nominate someone else if they could. There would be mass desertions.
So “logically,” in his warped world, he will not release those returns to ensure he loses by less rather than even more. The fact about the election is that no matter how despicable Romney is almost half the 50 states will in the majority vote for the Republican candidate for President no matter who he is or she might be in the future.
Yes there are plenty of Americans but not the majority not in most Electoral College vote ‘rich’ states – there are still plenty of Americans who buy into the elitist philosophy of the Super-Rich.
Why? Because no matter what reality tells them like buying Power Ball tickets it is the dream not the reality driving them.
The elites who control the Republican Party ( yes different elites
control the Democratic Party ) in their view must be right yes very
right wing because look at how successful they are. It completely
escapes the mass of Republican voters who are not rich and powerful that those who are rich got that way to a great extend on
their middle class backs and these elite Republicans who want
nothing to do with the rest of them except get their votes.
And they sure do and why the Republican Party has not completely
faded away as it would otherwise. Indeed is capable of winning
majorities in both the House and Senate and controlling many
states their governorship and legislature. Lots of Red States.
Adding to this illogical allure of the Republicans is that perennial
favorite flag waving in which real patriotism is subsumed by a
simplistic version in which the U.S. being the enforcer around the
world and spending wastefully on military budgets is viewed by most Republican voters as tantamount to godliness. We can’t
spend to much on the military budget, CIA, etc..
Distilled further, the Republican myth makers are selling effectively to many, a view of America as a damaged place that would be a pure paradise except for the discontents on the other side, otherwise known as Democrats. There is a genetic primordial appeal within humans wanting to believe what we place our faith in is beyond reproach combined with a strong human trait that to use a colloquium “might makes right.” And Republican success!
As the Republican presidential nominee, Romney by definition becomes the embodiment of the Republican “philosophy.” Whoever the candidate is does, which keeps returning us to their fatal problem.
Romney must appeal beyond the Republican base their rich base and their middle class base in order to win the Presidency. There are just not enough hard core Republicans to do the job all alone.
That is why Mitt Romney will lose beyond a doubt. And why in recent weeks I write over and over again that Barack Obama will not win re-election but Mitt Romney will lose the election.
The result will be the same regardless but the difference says volumes about our nation and about the reality of Barack Obama. It says nothing about Mitt Romney who is a very much an empty expensive Republican suit selling slogans. And it says practically nothing about the Republican Party, because the party stands for little more than protest for some hatred against the real America
that exists for most of us – not their fictionalized dream version.
So Romney can go to Israel and beg them to bomb Iran. Romney can go to Mars and become the first human ever to land there. Romney can promise to increase the military budget by a gazillion dollars. Romney can say he will raise the dead if he is elected. Much more parochially, Romney can say he will create millions and millions of new jobs across America without telling us how and at the same time eliminate all taxes for everyone.
Romney can say anything and everything. It still will not get him elected. Because none of it will have any credibility beyond the Republican base which he already has in his pocket even if he takes a vow of silence from now until election day.
Because Romney cannot win with his Republican base. And while he and everyone else in a position of influence within the Republican Party knows that as well as 1+1=2. Still there is nothing Romney can or will do to win over enough independents let alone any Democratic voters on Election Day.
Romney has nothing to say to anyone beyond his base. His life of wealth and separation from the rest of us precedes him. And his insistence on hiding his tax returns from all of us.
And this is why a very flawed candidate like Barack Obama, who lied to us to become President 4 years ago, has to do nothing except … show up on ballots across America on Election Day to be re- elected for another 4 years. And he will.
In fact it is a very sad story for America for all of us that we are left to vote against the worst candidate. Not as we should for the best candidate. That’s what we thought we did 4 years ago. That proved nothing but a charade. So back to the formula in which irony of ironies still benefits Barack Obama.
In reality it’s just about who do you want to lose, its about what will happen. Romney will lose!.
About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.
