Mitt Romney, the man who defeated himself

Mitt Romney was defeated both by the things he said and the things he failed to say.  Most of his plans regarding taxes seemed to be a big secret.  No one could pin him down to specifics as to how he was going to justify proposed tax cuts.  The bottom line is that about half of the breaks would go directly to the top 1 percent, which would get an average net tax cut of $100,000 a year.

He also kept his own history on taxes a secret  Investments, loopholes, business dealings, paying such a low rate have been questioned.  Romney was subject to a very low tax rate, since most of his earnings came from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate than wages. Romney did not release tax documents prior to 2010.

When he traveled abroad, he put his foot in his mouth in Great Britain and in Israel, offending the British after their careful, meticulous planning for the security of the Olympics.  He also ended up offending the Palestinians to please his Israeli friends.

He managed to offend Russia by calling Russia the United States' biggest geopolitcal adversary, creating an adversary that only exists in his little fascist Cold War mindset.

I would find it hard to believe that a single retiree or soon to be retiree would vote for Romney.  His voucher plan to replace Medicare sounded like a sure road to hell for seniors that would strip them of all the benefits they have earned after a lifetime of hard work.

The same could be said of his dubious plans for the "future" of Social Security, which would likely end up being non-existent after privatization.

His stated prime objective was to get rid of what he calls, "Obamacare," replacing it with a big nothing and diverting the funds for social safety net programs into the already inflated, gigantic, bloated, gluttonous military budget, which is the largest in the world.

His efforts to blame the national debt on Obama were ridiculous and laughable.  Only a moron would believe that nonsense.  Obama inherited a crisis, a disaster, a country deep in recession, never having seen anything worse than since than the depression of 1929.  That is something not overcome in only 4 years.

With the trillions and trillions of dollars going to the miliary, to foreign wars and occupations that do nothing to protect the national security of American citizens, how could any sane, rational man blame the debt on Obama?  Yet Romney would have you believe that the safety net set up for citizens was to blame. 

Romney ended up offending many (47 percent) American citizens.  Mitt Romney complained about all those people who don't pay income taxes and who "believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That's an entitlement." Via Mother Jones, a secretly recorded tape of the Republican presidential nominee talking to big dollar donors at a fundraiser in May:

Romney is someone who has basically made a living out of figuring out what people want to hear and telling them exactly that.  He thinks he can talk differently to different groups of people without consequence, but as we can see, he tripped himself up regularly.

Romney isn't against government handouts at all. It's just that he's only in favor of the ones that Republicans like:  spending for the military industrial complex, for foreign wars, for tax breaks for the rich and the corporations.

In examing his base of support, we see that basically his appeal was to white men, the filthy rich elite, the extremist right wing fasicst elements in the country.  As the country's demographics have changed, Romeny and the Republican party find themselves up a creek without a paddle.  Non-white working people are becoming more and more a factor in the voting public.

Granted Obama is certainly not perfect.  Granted, he has yet to keep many campaign promises.  Granted he even acted directly opposite of some of his promises when he attacked Libya and now Syria, and continues with the policy of not meeting leaders the US doesn't like.

Such is the American political system, however.  No politician can survive without being beholden to the privileged elite, the military industrial complex, lobbies and special interest groups.  But Romney's overt fascism and old boy croneyism are so much worse. 

It will continue to be a matter of choosing which candidate is less dangerous, in other words whichever one stinks the least.  The system needs radical change since it is obvious it has nothing to do with "of the people, by the people or for the people."

It's time for the good old boys to hang up their hats.


Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru