manchicken here…

Mitt Romney is bad for America. I will explain this one in a little more matter-of-fact terms than I did when I talked about Ron Paul.

The War in Iraq
On his own website (see here), Mitt Romney states that he believes that he “think[s] the surge is the best course we have at this stage.” Mr. Romney then supports this by citing a report by the Brookings Institute, and says that he looks forward to Gen. Patraeus’ report. It is this blogger’s opinion that the war in Iraq is seriously damaging the United States and the rest of the world… let alone the folks in Iraq who’re trying to rebuild their lives.

As a rich man, Romney and his family are rather far removed from the reality of this war–as most of us are (removed from the war, not rich). Mr. Romney, however, makes the big mistake of equating the support for the flawed war with the support for the troops who are being wrongfully abused overseas. This really does nothing but allow this candidate to then turn and say things like galvanize the far-right into claiming that all criticism of the war is anti-American… because you know, that’s bad, and stuff… and nobody thinks you’re cool if you’re anti-American… and it makes you a terrorist and stuff… and it’s just… it’s not good Brian, it’s not good.

The Greater War on “Terror”
Mitt Romney also likes to use words like Jihadists and Islamic Terrorists a lot, and he uses it to describe a wide variety of people. So when Mitt Romney gets to generalizing so many people in so little time, it’s easy to see why he wants to double Gitmo, as he said in a Republican debate on June 5th, 2007. Romney doesn’t want to afford these people any rights either, we just want to hold them indefinitely. I suppose we shouldn’t let the Jihadists out or they might eat a baby or something.

Mitt Romney would also know all of this, because he’s evidently been studying Islam and its factions for a while. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised to find his findings on his website. Mitt Romney finds that “Jihadists are not an ‘armed group of crazed maniacs in the hills of Afghanistan.’ Rather, Romney says the United States is facing a ‘far more sinister and broad-based extremist faction’ with a ‘very 8th century view of the world.’” (as quoted on his website, coincidentally the same as what was aired on ABC News on April 30th of 2007). Not to defend Islamic Terrorists or anything, but I don’t think that Mitt Romney has a firm grasp on the situation. He’s over-simplifying it and its obvious that he just doesn’t really get it. I don’t claim to get it either, but I’m not running for President either. I just have an uncanny knack for detecting bullshit when it’s presented so plainly in front of me.

Healthcare, Social Security, and Taxes
Mitt Romney supports health care… if you provide it for yourself. On July 5th of 2005, Mitt Romney said (according to USA Today and Romney’s own site) “It’s a conservative idea,” says Romney, “insisting that individuals have responsibility for their own health care. I think it appeals to people on both sides of the aisle: insurance for everyone without a tax increase.” I find that a little hard to swallow. Romney wants to tell everybody that they need to pay for their own health insurance.

Well, here’s the problem with that Mitt… according to eHealthInsurance.com, a health care policy for a 25-year-old man, his 23-year-old wife, and his 6-month-old son living in central Illinois, ranges from (USD) $115.00 to $780.00 per month. For the most part it looked like you could find decent insurance for $300 per month without much trouble. The problem here is that according to city-data.com , the per-capita personal income is $32,990.00 per annum. Well, if you take a conservative estimate of 30% taken in taxes (more is taken, trust me), you only bring home $23,093, or $1,924.42 per month. (WARNING: I’m making my own guestimates on some of these) If you throw in a conservative $600 per month, that leaves $1,324.42. Then take out utilities–which are on the rise–at $150 for electric (it is August), $30 for water, $40 for telephone, $30 for trash removal, and then a very conservative $100 per month for gasoline, you have $974.42. Then, go ahead and take out grocery at $250 per month (sounds like a reasonable number to me) and you come down to $724.42. Pull out $200 for a car payment and you get $524.42. Then let’s not forget diapers at (3 diapers a day, 30 days, 90 diapers) $40/month and you get $680.42. Now, if you follow what your teachers told you in school, you’re also putting 10% of your earnings into savings, so that’s $274.42, leaving you with $250. If you then spend $115 on health care you might be able to afford to take your kid to get his shots and still be able to afford your allergy medicines.

Immigration, Culture, and Privacy
Mitt Romney’s policy on immigration is, plainly, disgusting. The call for a mandatory national biometrically-enabled, tamper-proof ID and employment-verification system is an abomination to freedom and privacy of Americans. I understand that Mitt Romney is trying to correct what he sees is a problem, but my freedom and privacy are not and acceptable trade for his immigration policy. Mitt Romney’s position on culture also, according to his site, is founded with the goal of remaining a global super-power. I sure hope that I’m not the only American that thinks that’s a dangerous motivation.

Environment and Energy
Mitt Romney is also stunningly and dangerously incorrect on environmental and energy policy ideas, too. Mitt Romney wants to destroy the Gulf of Mexico by drilling in oil from the outer-continental shelf. He gives a lot of lip service to alternative energy, but he’s spending way too much time talking about finding more oil and not enough time talking about how to reduce our need for the oil in the first place.

Final Opinion
When it all comes down to it, Mitt Romney’s Mormon “family values” and conservative rhetoric are all he really has to offer… and I’m not interested in either of them. Mitt Romney claims that he has a love for freedom, but his ideas on immigration contradict that. He claims that he wants to protect the environment, but his energy policy would result in irreversible destruction to the ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. He claims to respect human life as sacred, but his pro-death-penalty stance (link here) says otherwise.

No matter how many tours his five sons go on or how many “home videos” (produced by highly paid directors and production companies) he releases, nothing will change the fact that Mitt Romney is bad for America, and bad for the world.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 22:10 and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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