It’s an important question. Personally, I had a similar feeling when George W. Bush was elected: is he strong enough to say no to DIck Cheney? In his case it was split into thirds: sometimes yes, sometimes no, and they agreed the rest of the time.
With Mitt Romney – more so than any other Presidential candidate in my memory – we’re not casting a vote for him directly… we’re voting for the people to whom he will cave: the republican base and Congress. Grover Norquist hit that point home.
Is he the kind of person who will stand up and say no to all of the more extreme social policies that America has been discovering lately about the Republican platform? Trust your gut on this one… AND trust what Romney has demonstrated in the past: he will do ANYTHING to get and/or stay in favor of the base.
Salesmen don’t take a stand; they never take a stand because their job is to make the sale. That’s what Mitt Romney does.
One quote I like the best about Mitt Romney’s ability to sway with the political wind was from the the “I’m not a witch” candidate, paraphrasing, she liked Mitt Romney because whenever he changes his mind, he sticks with his new position that he changed to… yeah. When running for Governor of MA, Mitt Romney was pro choice, and ‘to the left” of Kennedy on gay rights.
Now that’s he’s running for the vote of the base… where does he stand on those issues, again?
Has he been able to take a stand about his own religion? One would think his own religion would be at the very top of his “this is who I am and for what I stand” list, and yet…. silent. Only what the evangelical base wants.
Today, with the 2012 Republican Party platform adopted that includes the “injection of religion into government” abortion and civil rights policies, the chairman of the Republican Party said that “Mitt Romney’s platform is not the Republican Party platform.” When does the Republican tap-dancing-soul-train finally come of its rails? Has it already? At this point I can’t tell anymore who is running away or towards which policy… can you?
Even the republicans concede that Mitt Romney has flip-flopped on virtually every issue ever posited to a politician… so now that we’re all learning more about the Republican Party platform… now that it is hitting the general news cycle and getting outside of the bubble… what about Mitt Romney makes you think he won’t cower to the republican base?
I’m mostly a liberal, but don’t vote exclusively on the left. When it comes to politicians like Mitt Romney I look not so much at him, but at how he’s changed, why he’s changed, and what the policies are of the people who are BEHIND the politician, not what he says depending on which TV network, newspaper, or radio program on which he’s being interviewed.
Will Mitt Romney say no to the Republican Base on important issues like: Roe v. Wade, personhood, tax cuts or extensions, civil rights… I don’t think so.
With Mitt Romney more so than any other Presidential candidate in my memory, you’re not voting for him… you’re voting for the people to whom he will cave: the republican base.
Independents and Moderates: can you live with that?
Published: by | Updated: 03-15-2013 19:14:31
