The Tragedy of Mitt Romney

My political "what if" thought as we enter the year 2012:

What if Mitt Romney had switched parties in 2006 to 2008, and then ran in a Democratic Party primary challenge against Obama?

Had Romney done so, he would have been free to find his Inner George Romney, his Dad, whose economic views are now to the left of Obama. And even Ol' George knew the Vietnam War was something to stop--and stop quickly. Plus, George Romney was a "can do" businessman who saved American Motors and added jobs, unlike his financier son whose fortune was enhanced through laying off workers.

As for the Romneys' religious preference, let's just say that a secular oriented pro-science Mormon is still secular oriented and pro-science. It would not have bothered me in the least that he is nominally Mormon. Plus, on a personal level, I think I'd like Mitt Romney quite a bit.

The problem we have as a nation is that Mitt Romney is running as a Republican in a Republican Party that demands and receives an institutional fealty that, even if Romney was successful in winning the Republican Party nomination and then defeating Obama, would have him do things we Democrats would vehemently oppose. He would sign MORE legislation for income and corporate tax cuts disproportionately benefiting the top levels of our economic pyramid. He would NOT push for more infrastructure spending, but would foster more imperial wars. He would continue to curtail civil liberties as Bush II and Obama have done (and in the event of significant "domestic disturbances," use drone technology to attack cities or buildings on American soil). He would more affirmatively pull away economic ladders for poor and discriminated minority youth to ensure their continued serfdom. He might let some science money get spent on climate change, but much less than even Obama has so far.

But the biggest irony of all is that Mitt Romney is institutionally blocked from winning the Republican primary in the first place. The winner take all system is not sufficiently rigged in his favor since it requires 50% of the vote to trigger the winner takes all delegates in a particular state with such a system. Right now, poor Mitt is stuck at a seemingly permanent 15-30% support level that shows no current sign of increasing anywhere near 50%. When Republican Party primary voters start to look at clowns like Santorum, they are saying "Anyone But Romney. Anyone." The only saving grace for MItt Romney is that the elite in the Republican Party want him--and want him badly enough to lavish money for propaganda and to have Romney triple down on pandering to the irrational right wing that has come to dominate Republican Party primary voting patterns.

If Romney wins the nomination, it will be the most elite driven nomination in the Republican Party since Wendell Wilkie, Wall Street lawyer, surprised most observers at the time by winning that party's nomination in 1940. Romney, however, should realize this is not 1940 and the Republican elite cannot simply walk into a convention and crown a candidate. The delegate process is now much more open and hence sloppy. Should Romney win the Iowa Caucus, the immediate goal of the Republican elite would be to create an "inevitability of Romney" aura. This may work, but only with wealthier and less religiously driven Republicans. Longer term, meaning through this spring of 2012, REGARDLESS of whether Romney wins the Iowa Caucus, the Plan B goal of the Republican Party elite is "Nobody, Especially Ron Paul." This means spending money to keep at least three candidates in the race besides Mitt Romney and Ron Paul--which means three of the four remaining candidates, Perry, Gingrich, Bachmann or Santorum, have a chance to audition for that trio of the "Not Romneys and Not Pauls."

This is also why I keep saying Jeb Bush is the guy to watch this summer if no current candidate receives a majority of delegates through the primary.

Meanwhile, we who are economic New Dealers can only hope the Occupy movement continues to grow, and continues to indirectly and perhaps directly pressure Democratic Party leaders into finding their Inner FDR. Now that is a delusional wish if ever I've heard one...And what I mean by delusion is not that the Occupy movement can't grow. It can and likely will. What I mean is that the Democratic Party deserves to go the way of the Whig Party, and the Occupy movement has a better chance of fostering a new party than truly galvanizing Obama, Reid, Pelosi et al to be responsive to workers' interests. Fat chance either way, the way our national discourse is filtered through corporate owned media. So I sit in front of a computer this morning cobbling together this post...and now it is time to do some work for my boss.

(Edited)