RoR: Forum

Hard to believe he is a republican.

Post 1

Friday, January 6, 2012 - 7:27pm

This is a wild election year. It will most likely be the biggest circus of an election year that we've ever seen in our lifetimes. We might see contested conventions - both for the Republicans (if there are enough people at that late date that are not happy with the presumptive nominee), and for the Democrats if things look really bad for Obama. (I have no doubt that Hillary has lots of supporters - including Bill, who would get a kick out being the First Gentleman - and the supporters will push to have her nominated. And we will have third party activities and maybe even The Donald running as an independent (not to win, in my opinion, but to enhance his brand). Herman Cain is going to be out running around in a bus touting the 9-9-9 plan and attempting to get commitments from everyone who is running. Sarah Palin will be active in some way... doing who knows what. And Freedom Watch, on the Fox Business Channel has announced that it will be actively supporting Ron Paul for the entire season. And the Fox News Channel is taking on the main stream media, which is deeply in the tank for Obama. It is going to be an interesting season.
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Mit Romney is the Establishment Conservative (that is a conservative only in name, except that he will always be on the side of reduced tax rates, and not many changes to anything, and the rest will be just talk). His primary focus is to protect the power of those who are part of the established GOP structure and it is a big government.

Rick Santorum is the Social Conservative. They put bible above constitution. Santorum is one of the worst and like many of the NeoCons who are also deeply religious - they want a crusade in the middle-east. His agenda is attack Godlessness and use big government to implement the very strange goals of stopping gays from getting married, making people give up the use of contraceptives, and ending abortion.

I like it that Ron Paul, despite the dirt thrown at him during the last week before the Iowa Caucuses, and despite his own actual weaknesses, he still came so close to the nearly tie vote between Mr. Establishment, and Mr. Faith. And with Obama in the wings, as Mr. Socialist, it is certainly getting to be a clearer choice.

Santorum only has the small number of Evangelicals as his base. It might make a difference in Iowa, but in the nation as a whole it isn't enough. The only other thing giving him wings is the dislike for Romney by conservative primary voters and not having anyone else they like.

Strangely enough, Romney is the hardest for Obama to beat because Obama has trouble finding things to attack him on. He can't attack RomneyCare without opening himself to counter attacks on ObamaCare. Same with flip-flopping. It is the bland, edgeless nature of Romney that makes it hard for Obama to go after him. Anyone else lets Obama try to make the election about them being to extreme to the right. Romney on the other hand can attack Obama as to extreme to the left.

Ron Paul is the only one who can argue against military interventionism, big government, fiat money, and for free enterprise and individual rights.

Post 2

Friday, January 6, 2012 - 7:40pm

I think that Romney, while not a principled conservative or libertarian, knows his party base and knows the bad reputations of Bush 1 and 2 among most Republicans. Thus I think he'd hold down taxes and spending. Most important, he knows he needs to get the economy going so he'll focus on deregulation and undoing the restrictions that Obama has been placing on the economy. Occasionally, pragmatists actually try to do what works!

Of course, Romney is a politician so I could be wrong!

Post 3

Friday, January 6, 2012 - 9:00pm

Ed,

You are probably right. But in his case, pragmatism is practically a religion, and he has NO passion for small government. If there is a sea change in the Senate, and the Republicans get a majority, then he can feel safe in leading the country towards lower taxes, lower spending, less regulations. He will see a combined house and senate as a parade that he must get in front of. But if the majority of the elected Republicans share a strong bias towards protecting the power of the GOP - of the Establishment, then Romney will side with them and against the Tea-Party/Constitutional-Conservatives/Libertarians.

It can be very dangerous to have a man willing, if need be, to go in the right direction, but with small, meek steps when the magnitude of the problem is such that only bold solutions can save the day.

Post 4

Monday, January 9, 2012 - 2:45pm

I believe that Santorum believes in his economic analysis of behavior-- that, doing a few simple things correlates to avoiding poverty(and conversely, not doing the, correlates with embracing poverty)

1] Graduating from HS
2] Getting and holding a job
3] Having kids after marriage, not before.

...and that part of his agenda is encouraging those behaviors as part of national policy, based on his economic argument, that it is in the state's interest to promote behaviors conducive to avoiding poverty.

But, I think he goes too far with his seemingly focused antagonism towards gays on the topic of 'marriage.' Marriage should be an issue of a church(not 'the' church), and certainly not the federal government, and the federal government should modify its interests to be based on 'civil unions,' not the concept of marriage. If we have muddied federal law with the concept of marriage, then it is the federal law that needs fixing, not the church by church or even state by state definition of marriage.

Life is too short for the federal government to be inserting itself on this issue, and that is one of the things that holds me back from supporting Santorum. As well, his candidacy will make this an all consuming issue in the national election, and although it is important to a minority of folks, the nation is in so much trouble as a nation that this shouldn't be the number one( or even, number seventeen)issue of this coming election.

Post 5

Monday, January 9, 2012 - 2:58pm