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Is Mitt Romney “Captive” Of Grover Norquist, Paul Ryan, And Bill Kristol?

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Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee, is a man with very few interests, other than making money, along with caring about his family and his Mormon Church.

He has really no background or great knowledge in foreign policy, and has very little interest in improving the lives of average Americans.

Many are starting to wonder if he the “captive” of Grover Norquist, Paul Ryan, and Bill Kristol.

Grover Norquist, the head of Americans For Tax Reform, has been able to convince almost all Republicans in Congress to agree NEVER to raise taxes on ANYONE, and in fact, lower them ever more. Mitt Romney has committed himself to this insanity, and of course, he personally benefits from such a policy.

Paul Ryan, the House Budget Chairman from Wisconsin, promotes the idea of destroying Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as we know it, and has been even criticized by leaders of his own Catholic Church for his harsh view and attitude towards the poor. Romney has also expressed the thought that nothing more needs to be done for those less fortunate.

Bill Kristol is the publisher of the conservative weekly, The Weekly Standard, since its inception in 1994, and he is infamous as one of the “neocons”, the so called neo conservatives, who call for use of force overseas, and advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Mitt Romney has pushed for the idea of bombing Iran, rather than diplomacy first being pursued over their nuclear program.

So one has to wonder if Mitt Romney, having no interest in issues other than what will elect him, is allowing himself now, and later as President, were he to be elected, to enact policies favored by these three men and others, which many would call “radical” ideas.

It is truly ironic that Barack Obama is often called a “radical” President, when if one examines Mitt Romney and who has influence or power over him, we should instead be concerned that Mitt Romney is the true “radical” in the race, ready to reverse progress and change under Barack Obama, and go back to the failed policies of George W. Bush!

Mitt Romney: Total Opportunist, Totally Unprincipled!

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So now Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor, has what he has wanted all of his life: to be the nominee of the Republican Party for the Presidency of the United States!

Now the problem is to WIN the Presidency from a man who is one of the great orators and political “animals” of the modern Presidency, right up there with Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

Each of the above had his shortcomings and weaknesses, but each knew how to inspire and motivate people, and have people believe in them and their principles.

Mitt Romney has no such problem, no such oratorical gift, no such ability to inspire and motivate people, and no principles he will not abandon in his mad dash to be President!

Mitt Romney offers himself as a chameleon who will change his views on a moment’s notice if he believes it will help promote his desire to be President!

But by being so inconsistent, so changeable, so lacking in embarrassment that he has totally changed his views and repudiated his record as Governor of Massachusetts, he makes it difficult for anyone to feel a commitment to go out there and vote for Mitt as a principled political leader who one can know how he would conduct himself as President.

Mitt Romney is phony even when he laughs, even when he tells a joke, even when he attempts to sing. One finds himself embarrassed for him, that he cannot look at tapes of himself and wince at how he appears to the American people.

This is a man of unknown quality, an intelligent man for sure, a good family man for sure, probably a lot of fun to be around in private according to his wife’s testimony, a man of strong religious principle for sure, and a man who if he was not running for President might come across as genuine if he was not seeking your vote.

But he is asking us to vote for him without having any clue as to whether he will go back to being a moderate, or remain on the right wing of the Republican Party. We do not know if he would be willing to gut the social safety network that even George W. Bush expanded. We do not know if he would be able to get along with right wing Republicans in Congress, or would be his own man and break with the extremism that they represent.

We do not know how he would shape the Supreme Court, whether he would pick moderates or make the Court so right wing that it would set us back for two generations of time.

We do not know how he would communicate with the media, and through them, with the American people on a daily basis. He certainly would have a tough act to follow, lacking the charisma and personality of Barack Obama.

Would Mitt Romney be willing to preside over the dissolution of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as we know it? Would he be unwilling to work with our European allies, and be ready to commit troops to ever continuous war in the Middle East? Would he be someone who would resist religious influence to promote an intrusion in government beyond the wishes of the Founding Fathers? Would the Mormon Church gain a special foothold in government, and be able to promote its backward, resistance to change, mentality with a Mormon in the White House, or would Romney, like John F. Kennedy, make clear that he happens to be a Mormon, but is not the Mormon President, not dedicated to the church’s advancement in a nation that is a country of all religions and also, no religious beliefs?

What it comes down to is that Mitt Romney as President would be a total “blank slate”, an unknown, who we would have no idea of what kind of President he would turn out to be.

The question is whether the American people want to gamble on a man who is so much an unknown quantity, due primarily to his chameleon nature!

The betting is clearly that the answer will be NO!

Rick Santorum Reveals His True Self: Moral, Religious Zealot Out To Promote Social Controls!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has now thrown down the gauntlet, and only dimwitted Americans, or those who totally agree with him, could back him for President.

Santorum has now said he does not wish to deal with the issue of jobs, inflation, gasoline prices, and other economic issues!

Why? Because, according to him, the issue is morality, overcoming contraception, abortion, gay rights, and pornography!

Rick wants to control the social, private lives of all of us, and force Puritanical standards on all Americans, all through his devoutly Catholic religious beliefs, and with the backing of evangelical Christians who only care about Santorum’s “social agenda”!

Santorum comes the closest to being a theocrat of any modern Presidential candidate, with the closest to him being William Jennings Bryan, who ran as the Democratic nominee in 1896, 1900, and 1908. But even Bryan, although a convinced evangelical Christian, advocated political, social and economic reforms that became the Progressive movement, ushering in ideas that became part of the agenda of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt over time.

Santorum has no such desires, as he wants government out of our lives, EXCEPT for social and privacy areas.

Santorum wants to shape all of us in the name of his brand of morality and religious fanaticism!

This makes Santorum a very dangerous man, a totalitarian minded person, who would interfere with the personal rights of those who disagree with him, putting the heavy hand of government on the people, even though he condemns big government in theory.

Santorum makes other Republicans cringe, as well as Democrats, and every effort must be made to prevent his nomination, as one can never be certain if times get difficult in the next seven months, that this moral censor might not be elected President in November!

Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Characterization Of The Republican Presidential Field: Priceless!

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Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser to President Jimmy Carter, was on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS today, and was asked, as part of the interview, his feelings about the final four contenders for the GOP Presidential nomination.

His response, in one paragraph, was absolutely priceless, the best characterization yet heard about them.

Rick Santorum—sounds like a medieval Savonarola, referring to medieval Catholic monk Girolamo Savonarola, who lived in Florence, Italy, and condemned what he considered immoral art, promoted book burning, and attacked the Catholic Church leadership and the Pope for being corrupt and immoral. For a while, he ran a personal theocracy in Florence, but was then excommunicated, tortured and executed by order of Church authorities.

Mitt Romney—spends his time explaining why some of his wealth is in the Cayman Islands, rather than in American banks.

Ron Paul—wants to take America back to the 1780s and the Founding Fathers.

Newt Gingrich—using his credentials as a repudiated Speaker of the House (by his own party) to claim he should be President.

Brzezinski said all four are embarrassing as candidates for the Presidency, and progressives will certainly agree with this assessment!

The Ten Most Important Presidential Elections In American History

Ronald 6 Comments

With Presidents Day coming on Monday, this is a good time to reflect on the 56 Presidential elections that this country has had, and to judge which ten are the most significant, path breaking elections.

Of course, there can be debate and disputes as to the judgment of this author and blogger, but here goes, in chronological order.

Presidential Election of 1789–the selection by the Electoral College of our first President, George Washington, the absolutely right choice for the beginning of our nation under the Constitution, as Washington set important precedents for the future, and had no ambition to grab power long term.

Presidential Election Of 1800–the first time we had an opposition party come to power with grace, and without violence, setting a standard for the future, as Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams, and the dispute between him and Vice President Aaron Burr, who claimed a tie in the Electoral College, was settled peacefully as well, and caused a modifying of the Electoral College process.

The Presidential Election of 1828–the first one decided by popular vote synchronizing with the electoral vote, and giving the country a so called “Common Man” in the Presidency, Andrew Jackson, representing city workers and frontiersmen alike.

Presidential Election of 1860–leading to the election of Abraham Lincoln, who set out to preserve the Union at all costs, and wielded power in a controversial, but thoughtfully considered way, through four years of the Civil War.

Presidential Election Of 1912–the triumph of progressivism, the recognition that government’s role had been changed irrevocably in a country that had been transformed from an agricultural to an industrial nation, had tripled in population since the Civil War, had become a multi ethnic nation, and had recognized the need for the regulation of capitalism in the public good, as well as political reforms and social justice. And it was the most exciting election, as three Presidents, past (Teddy Roosevelt), present (William Howard Taft), and future (Woodrow Wilson) competed against each other.

Presidential Election Of 1932–the triumph of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the worst moments of the Great Depression, offering hope and action (the New Deal) to revive the spirits of the nation, and have the American people believe in the future. Without his victory, there might have been social revolution and bloodshed on a large scale.

Presidential Election of 1960–witnessing the first Catholic President elected (John F. Kennedy) and the promotion of idealism and a new beginning in the advancement of social justice and political reform.

Presidential Election Of 1964–the victory of liberalism with the election of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the defeat of Barry Goldwater and conservatism, therefore insuring the continuation of the New Deal, and the evolution of the Great Society.

Presidential Election Of 1980–seeing the triumph of conservatism under Ronald Reagan, with some modifications of the New Deal and Great Society, and great speeches, but not the conservative “heaven” that many imagine it was, but making Reagan a national icon like Washington, Lincoln and FDR.

Presidential Election Of 2008–witnessing the first African American President (Barack Obama), and his work to provide health care reform, preserve the New Deal and Great Society, and overcome the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The author welcomes discussion and debate on this post!

An Acceptable Compromise: Contraceptive Services For Women Of Religiously Based Employers To Be Offered Gratis By Insurance Companies

Ronald 1 Comment

President Barack Obama has announced that contraceptive services for women who work for religiously based employers, such as universities and hospitals, will not have to be paid by the religious group as part of their health care plan, but instead will be a requirement for insurance companies to cover without charge.

This takes away the issue of religious liberty, which has been promoted incessantly by supporters of the Catholic Church and other religious groups, and exploited by the Republican Party and its Presidential candidates. Our belief in freedom of religion made it necessary for the administration to reconsider its handling of this part of the Obama Health Care legislation, which itself will be considered as to its constitutionality in the next few months by the US Supreme Court.

One can be assured, however, that politics will be utilized, and that this controversy will not disappear from the Presidential campaign, but it seems a win for women’s rights, as well as religious liberty!

Rick Santorum, Religion And The French Revolution: Reckless Fanaticism!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is acting irresponsibly when he compares Barack Obama and his stand on contraception and other women’s services being provided by religiously based hospitals and universities to their workers, many of whom are not of that religious group, as an attack on religion.

Claiming that Obama is warring on religion, which is totally preposterous, instead what Rick Santorum offers is promotion of theocracy, by his failure to accept what another fellow Catholic, President John F. Kennedy, advocated–separation of church and state.

When Santorum is calling what Obama is doing the first stage toward the French Revolution, emphasizing the secularism and attack on organized Christianity (Catholicism) in that famous decade of the 1790s, he is being reckless and also inaccurate historically about one of the key events of modern times, an event which moved Europe toward the goals of freedom and the basic rights of man.

Anyone who wishes to be honest about history knows that NO Christian group, whether Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, or others came about with any less violence and persecution against non believers, than the terrible bloodshed of the French Revolution. The level of violence of the French Revolution was horrific, but no less in the entire history of Christianity. And no one can say that any traditional Christian group has ever promoted democracy and the rights of man, when instead they have promoted obedience and lack of tolerance toward non believers throughout their history. Instead, all of the groups have endorsed, at one point or another, racism, anti semitism, denial of women’s rights, and the endorsement of slaughtering native Americans to conquer the North American continent, as well as South America.

This does not mean that there have not been outspoken religious people who have fought to bring open mindedness and tolerance to their faith, but they have fought this fight with great stress, and much discrimination visited upon them, and often been expelled for their challenges to the religious establishment.

We do not want a religious fanatic in the White House; instead we want a person who, like John F. Kennedy, did not promote his faith, and believed in total religious tolerance. Rick Santorum is such a fanatic, and is dangerous in that he would promote government endorsement of religion, which is NOT its role in our history, and not promoted by the Founding Fathers.

Despite vicious attacks by critics, many of whom claim to be “good Christians”, Barack Obama and his vision of Social Justice is the only kind of Christianity, or really any religious group, that makes any sense for a society in which there is too much worship of the almighty dollar, and not enough for human beings of all backgrounds who are being left in the dust as the nation moves inexorably toward a stratified society that bodes ill for the future stability of America!

Health Care, Women’s Health Rights, And Churches And Synagogues

Ronald 2 Comments

The Obama Health Care legislation has come under attack on a new front: that hospitals and universities and other institutions connected to religious groups, other than actual church or synagogue properties, are being required to provide contraceptive and abortion services to women who work for those institutions, outraging the Catholic Church, Orthodox Jews, Mormons, and Evangelical Christian groups that oppose such practices.

An exemption for churches and synagogues has not been enough to appease these religious groups, and it threatens the support of these groups for the Obama re-election campaign, but if the Obama Administration abandons the rights of women of all religious persuasions and denies them such services, they could also lose support among women who want these services covered.

It is clear that a majority of Catholic women ignore the teachings of their own church, while it is not clear that the same is true for Orthodox Jews, Mormons, and Evangelical Christians.

So this presents a quandary for Obama, and is being called an attack on religion, rather than an issue of an attack on women’s health and basic human rights to control their own bodies. Rather than have to follow the teachings of groups that are dominated by men, many millions of women want to determine their own futures, and not be controlled by their employers as to what health coverage they have.

The likelihood is that Obama will cave in on this to the religious groups, but a true profile in courage would be to make it clear there is religious freedom in this country, but it should not dictate health services available to women in the name of religious liberty.

One does not have to accept contraceptives or pursue abortion, but women should have the freedom, no matter what their religion or no religion, to pursue their own freedom, separate from organized religious institutions trying to control their destiny. They should not be required to quit their employment to have freedom of choice.

Newt Gingrich, The Hypocrite: The Nerve To Condemn “Occupy Wall Street” As People Who “Need To Bathe And Get A Job”

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Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, and front runner for the GOP nomination in many polls, has often said he regrets actions and statements he has made in his past.

Well known for his lack of ethics and no morals at all, Gingrich claimed by becoming a Catholic that he had reformed, and that has turned out to be a lie!

Gingrich, now that he is surging in the polls, is showing his ugly, hypocritical side again and again, reminding us that a “leopard does not change its spots!”

He says liberals, progressives and the left have lost their “moral compass”, an ironic thing for a man to say who has been an adulterer multiple times, and has been shown to have been involved in ethical violations in the House of Representatives leadership, and to have lied incessantly!

He also, as stated earlier in another entry, suggests that young children who are poor should clean their schools, in place of janitors, advocating a return to child labor.

And he has the nerve to state that the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators in New York City and elsewhere “need a bath and to get a job”, as if these people are not facing the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, and the fact that there are not anywhere near enough jobs with millions of layoffs since 2008!

This man sounds like Scrooge in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, but even more hardhearted and nasty and mean and vindictive!

The nerve of Newt Gingrich who has lived off the public dole as a government employee for so long, and then as a lobbyist and propagandist ever since, to condemn principled people who are being labeled as “losers” by the privileged and those fortunate enough not to face the horrors of long term unemployment!

Even if one is NOT religious, one should never forget the saying” “There but for the grace of God go I!”

The Loss Of Trust In Institutions On Sexual Abuse And The Alarming Reaction Of Many!

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So now we have another institution, organized sports, joining the ranks of the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America, in losing the trust and respect of many Americans, all due to sexual abuse.

It is impossible to fathom why evidence of sexual abuse of minors was not reported promptly to the authorities, whether it was Penn State, the Catholic Church, or the Boy Scouts of America.

But it is even more shocking when many people react in an alarming way, as thousands of Penn State students rioted last night after their icon, coach Joe Paterno, was summarily dismissed for not doling more when he learned of sexual abuse by an assistant football coach nearly ten years ago.

These college students, who were children a short time ago, seemed more concerned about their college football team’s prospects than the harm done to young children by the sexual abuse visited upon them over a period of more than a decade!

What is it that makes young people, and really people of all ages, such sports fanatics that they worship coaches and managers, and see no limits to their maniacal support of sports, which after all, are supposed to be a diversion, not a religion?

There is a severe lack of morality and ethics being displayed, and the Penn State students who marched, demonstrated, and did property damage, should be condemned for their juvenile behavior and inappropriate actions.

College is for academics primarily, but college sports has become too dominant, and the idea that coaches are paid more than the university president is obscene on its face!

If Penn State really cared about this tragedy, they should forfeit the remaining three games and refuse to participate in any post season Bowl games, as an appropriate reaction to the horrific tragedy visited on children by their institution while they stood by and only cared about what is basically a game, not real life!