“People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.” -- Plato
After watching the Republican and Democratic conventions I was wondering how much I really knew about the candidates. Other than ones political ideologies, what is it about each candidate that makes us want to vote for them? Myself, not a Republican, do not understand the attraction to Mitt Romney. From everything I know about him or have recently learned, he is one of the last people I would choose to run the country. Trying to understand what it is people see in him, I have spent the last week reading as many articles about him as I could but instead of learning what it was people admired him for, I learned that he is a walking contradiction that wants to criticize Obama and the government for acts he has performed throughout his own career.
Many of us have no idea how Romney has actually made his fortune over the years, as the media tends to focus instead on how much he is worth. I know Romney is not the only person to work for a private equity firm, but when he could potentially be the next president I think it is important to understand what it is he did exactly. Matt Taibbi explains in his latest piece in Rolling Stone Magazine, that the policies and debt Romney is ridiculing now, played a large part in his own success. A man that explicitly says it is “entirely legal and fair” to exploit tax code is not the type of man I am looking for to run the country in which I live.
Maybe I am too naive, but I am quite alarmed to think that people have completely bought into the bs that is spewing out of his mouth. Do I trust every politician? Of course not, but running for president sets you on a stage in which you should be held to a higher standard. I do not understand how people go nuts for a man that uses American debt to strike fear in his followers, when he has created some of the largest amounts of debt of all time. Imaging debt as a fire that is going to burn our children alive....a bit excessive if you ask me. Okay, so maybe he has produced some jobs in his time at Bain Capital, but most likely, he negated this by destroying thousands of jobs when he burdened small businesses with millions of dollars in debt which then forced them to fire their hard working employees or file bankruptcy. On the brink of his own firms bankruptcy, he cashed in on government bailout that he publicly opposed when it come to helping out the auto industry;an industry that has provided millions of jobs for Americans. How can he now claim that it is his moral duty to insure the government does not spend more than it has? Apparently his campaign will not be concerned with contradictions either.
While I tend to identify with the Democratic party, I don't think that either candidate is the right man for President. But despite this fact, I completely agree with you that Romney's time at Bain Capital was rather sketchy. How can Romney run on a platform of not raising taxes while Bain was under investigation for tax evasion during his time there? That surely doesn't set a good example for the rest of American taxpayers. In my opinion presidents and presidential candidates with a political or law background are better suited for the oval office. Plus in the business world, especially the conservative business world, under the table deals and unethical actions happen more frequently. Now why would we want someone like this running our country?
ReplyDeleteRepublican candidates frequently have a past that includes time spent working in business. Often this is portraryed in a negative, scandalous light through numerous television advertisement and new programs. While there is certainly much to be said about not wanting a person with a sketchy business background to run your country, there are also far worse scandals that could plague the future president. In the quest to find some drop of negativity in a candidates past we often make assumptions or draw conclusions. I think it would be interesting to look at the reality of Romney's role at Bain in comparison to the role of others who had his position at other companies who are not candidate for present. What may seem "sketchy" to us could actually be quite ordinary in the business world and simply a part of life in that community
ReplyDeleteThe Republican party has always been known as the business man's party, ever since it separated from the Democratic Republicans (Lincoln being the first Republican to hold office). But their entire party has become focused on stubbornly pushing for those things that make the world hate us (Gun control, oil abuse, war, etc). It's no wonder that analysts are speculating that this could be the end of the Republican party in the two party system. It will never die, but they have shown themselves incapable of adapting to the new America, the one that Obama has exploited in the past two elections. Unless the Republicans can divert their political fanbase towards more liberal stances they can kiss their chances at President goodbye.
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