Why I'm voting against Mitt Romney

I haven’t used this blog since the 2008 election. I just haven’t had the time to write like I did then. Plus I use Facebook a lot more and I’m able to just find things and post them up there instead of gathering them up into blog entries every day. But since the election is ending tomorrow, I wanted to take a chance to summarize everything I’ve seen and been sharing into one post. I’ll do my best to keep it short but I want to make sure I share all I can remember. Also it might not be as well written as I would like as I’m limited on time and want to get this out quickly so forgive me if this seems disjointed or my writing is a bit skittish. I think my points are clear and my reasoning is here.




I’m very anti-Republican these days. And I’m someone who used to vote Republican pretty consistently. But the Republican Party has changed drastically over the last decade and I cannot support them with their current policies. So I’m obviously against Mitt Romney. I just think he’d be bad for the country. REALLY bad. And that’s not to say that I think Obama’s been everything I hoped he would be. But I still don’t get how people can compare the two and get the idea that what Romney is proposing would be better for us. I get why people are upset with Obama and consider him somewhat of a disappointment. He hasn’t united people like I thought he would. If anything things are more partisan than ever. The national debt has gone up a lot. The economy hasn’t recovered as quickly as everyone would like.  But the truth is the guy has actually done a pretty good job. Not great, not that he couldn’t do things better, but pretty good. We’ll get to that shortly. But first I want to talk about why I think Romney would be bad.



I don’t understand how anyone could look back at Romney’s Republican primary campaign and then think he’d be a good President or good for America (unless you are just a deep conservative... or rich.). But I think that’s part of the problem. People have forgotten (or weren’t paying attention) to what Romney said for the past 6 years before he got the Republican nomination. I mean, again, I get that people are not happy with Obama because the economy hasn’t improved as quickly as we’d all like. I get there are people who are just conservatives and are going to vote for Romney no matter what (even if it truly is against their own self-interest). And I know there are people who just want change because they hear through smear campaigns and dishonest commercials that Obama’s doing a bad job. But if you really take a look at what Romney has been saying before he started to filter himself it’s some pretty scary and extreme stuff. I wish I could recount it all for the uninformed, but I don’t have that time. This post will have to suffice.  I'll just give you my reasons for why I think Romney would be bad and hope that's enough.



The truth is this election, for me, this comes down to I just can’t vote for Mitt Romney. The Republicans aren’t giving me a choice! And the reasons are multitude. I’m going to do my best to summarize them as precisely as possible below but if I have something to say about it, it might be a bit longer (I'm writing this paragraph before I get to my points). But here it is: Why I’m voting against Mitt Romney.



Here we go.



• Romney’s business experience is not helpful for the Presidency. Romney’s business experience is given as his number one qualification for being President. He says he knows how to create jobs. But his business experience was as a private equity manager. His job was to make money, not jobs. If jobs happened to be created as a happenstance of his business dealings that was fine but that was NOT his primary purpose. His job was to make money any way possible, regardless of the human costs. Read this article about his time at Bain Capital: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829. It’s scary to think of this man making decisions that would affect people’s lives. If it comes down to a financial decision or a people decision, I have no doubt he would choose money over people.  That's what business people do.



• Republicans want to do things that would hurt the less fortunate. Republicans talk about class warfare on the rich. But Romney’s plan is to cut taxes on the rich (and eliminate some taxes) to free up capital for the supposed purpose of creating jobs while simultaneous cutting services and programs that the poor, children, the elderly, and the middle class rely on. Things like education, health services, medical care, support programs for the poor, regulations and departments that protect the common man from malfeasance by the people with money (2008? Wall Street/Banking meltdown?), and other policies that would directly affect the non-rich. What is more class warfare than taking from the poor to give to the rich? But the truth is it’s not class warfare at all. I hate that term. It’s just two different points of view of how things could be done. There’s always going to be taxes and it’s just a matter of who pays how much and where the money goes. But I disagree with a system that would harm a large group of people who don’t have much to begin with so people who already have a lot can get more.  Giving more money to rich people is not going to create jobs.  They already have enough money that they could create millions of jobs tomorrow.  But they don't.


• Republicans and Romney want to cut departments that non-rich people rely on. Romney talked during the Republican debates about cutting FEMA. With Hurricane Sandy having just blown through last week, does anyone think that would be a good idea? But this is the way the man thinks. He doesn’t think about the results of his ideas, just that they are ways to save money (just as he did as a businessman). Of course now, since this disaster just happened and we’ve seen the results of it and how FEMA has helped, he says he wouldn’t eliminate it (flip flop). This is the type of person you’d be getting with Romney: Someone who looks at the bottom line, not how his choices affect people. He also has talked about eliminating the department of education and HUD. Why would you want to eliminate departments that help educate our children and provide housing to people? And, of course, he’s said he’ll eliminate other Departments, but won’t say which ones. Maybe it would be one you care about.



• The Republicans want to change Medicare to a voucher program. This would place incredible financial burdens on people who already are limited financially. This would really hurt a lot of people.



• The Republicans are constantly looking for ways to make cuts in education funding. As someone with young children, this is a big deal to me. My kids go to public school and I don’t want to see their education messed with. With the cost of college constantly going up I don’t know how my kids will be able to afford an advanced education some day. It’s scary! And the Republicans are only making it worse by cutting education funding.



• I can’t trust him. He’s flipped on so many positions back and forth over the years that I don’t know what he really believes. Here’s a nearly 20 minute video showing all his flips and flops: http://youtu.be/2x2W4GhSLlQ. The man has no core values. It’s whatever is maybe going to get him elected with the crowd he’s speaking to. That’s what comes out of his mouth. During the primaries he was a true-red Conservative. They during the Presidential campaign he’s a moderate. If you weren’t watching the primaries and didn’t know the things he said then you’d think he was a great guy now, walking right down the middle. But I have been paying attention. And he’s dishonest with what he said then and what he’s saying now. Make no mistake: The man is a hard-right conservative. At least, I think so. With all his changes in positions, it’s hard to tell.



• He’s completely out of touch to the everyday person’s problems and realities. He grew up privileged to wealthy parents. He lived in a different side of life to the rest of us. But even the fact that he grew up wealthy is not what turns me off to him. I could vote for a rich guy if I felt that he had some understanding and empathy for those not as fortunate has him. More than that are just the things he says makes me feel like he doesn’t understand the common people.



a. He joked with a group of people that he’s unemployed. It’s easier to be unemployed when you have hundreds of millions of dollars. He has no idea what it’s like to really be unemployed.



b. He talked about how he made a little bit of money doing lectures. Turns out it was over $300 thousand. Is that a little bit of money to most people? He doesn’t understand that is a LOT of money to most people.



c. Talked about how his wife has a couple of Cadillacs like it was no big deal.



d. When he visited a Wawa he was amazed by the touch screen to order sandwiches. Probably the first time he’s been in a convenience store.



e. He does a photo op at a hardware store. When asked what he bought he says “hardware stuff”. Does he even know what he bought? And why did he buy it? Am I to believe he went home to do some carpentry? Fix a sink? You don’t think he has people that do that for him?



f. He does a photo op at a grocery store. When asked what he bought he says “groceries”. Does he even know what was in the bags?



g. When asked about sports, he didn’t discuss teams or players or a game. He talked about how he has friends who own NASCAR and NFL teams. And he called sports “sport”… which is unforgiveable to me. ;)



h. Tried to bet Rick Perry $10,000 at a debate, … as if that was a small amount.



i. Just last week he compared the recovery from Hurricane Sandy to cleaning up a football field that had trash on it when he was younger. Just walk between the yard lines. Doesn’t he have any understanding, compassion, or feelings to know what the people who were victims of that storm are going through? It’s NOTHING like cleaning up a football field. Again, just out of touch. (http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/10/31/romney-compares-sandy-relief-to-cleaning-up-after-high-school-football-game/)



j. He also staged a rally to support Sandy victims. Did you read about this? His OWN TEAM bought supplies from Walmart then handed them to supporters to give to Romney for a photo op. Just disgusting. (http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/10/31/1115011/romney-campaign-staged-donations-in-storm-relief-event/?mobile=nc)



Those are just the few examples I could think of.



• He won’t show his tax returns. He says trust him, there’s nothing wrong there. Maybe you think this isn’t a big deal but it is. For some reason this issue has just disappeared but it shouldn’t have. He was dishonest about his taxes when running for Governor and there’s no reason for anyone to trust him about them now. I can’t believe the Obama campaign hasn’t kept this alive.



• The general dishonesty coming from the Republican campaign. You can do a simple Google search and find evidence that the Republicans are being misleading and flat out lying about Obama’s policies and positions (his quotes, welfare, etc).



• Romney’s 47% comments. Am I to believe what he said in an unguarded moment to a room full of supporters or what he said in carefully considered comments to try to defuse the situation? Sorry, but I believe that HE believes what he initially said. Those were his uninhibited remarks. That’s what he really believes.



• Social issues. Let’s just say when it comes to social issues I believe in the rights of people to decide for themselves how to live their lives without government interference. I don’t believe the Republicans believe that unless it comes to guns and money.



• Military spending. We spend more on defense than the next 30 countries combined. Couldn’t we maybe take $200 billion of that and use it at home instead of blowing up other parts of the world? Maybe rely on our allies a little more? But Mitt Romney wants to increase spending by $200 billion a year! We can’t afford that and it’s unnecessary. It’s scary to think, with all the problems this country has and all the things that need to be done here and how that money could be used to help our own citizens that Romney wants to spend it to blow up other countries.



• He wants to eliminate Obamacare. (Even though it was modeled after Romneycare in MA.) While this program isn’t perfect and needs tinkering it’s helping millions of families and will prevent people from going broke. It’s a step in the right direction. And since it’s modeled after Romney’s program I don’t know how he can say it’s a bad thing. I just don’t get it.



• The man’s dishonest with his positions. To the point, he’s a liar. Here’s a link that shows 533 documented lies he’s told in 30 weeks: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/08/29/mitt-romney-tells-533-lies-in-30-weeks-steve-benen-documents-them/. If a man says this many dishonest things how can he be worthy of the presidency?



• He won’t give his policy ideas or positions. When asked about them he says he’ll work with Congress on their ideas. Wouldn’t it be useful to know what the man’s ideas are for the nation’s issues before we vote him in to be President? How can anyone vote for the man if you don’t know what his plans are?



• The Republicans believe in the ‘theory’ of trickle-down economics. Trickle-down economics have not worked for anyone for over 30 years other than the wealthy, who have used this system to greatly enrich themselves while everyone else is getting nowhere. It’s a system that gives more to the haves while the have-nots never get anywhere. It’s a system of all-for-one, all-for-me. To me that’s not the American way.



• Romney has been posturing on Iran. He’s talking about military strikes there. Do we really want ANOTHER long war? Because don’t think attacking Iran would be easy. I agree we need to use our military when necessary but we need to use it wisely. Attacking Iran would not be wise.



• Romney has ZERO foreign policy experience. You could say that about Obama four years ago, too, but at least his running mate was Joe Biden, who had tons of foreign policy experience. Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, also has none. This is one of the least experienced tickets ever when it comes to foreign policy. The thought of this guy dealing with foreign nations scares me!



• I don’t want to go back to where we were four years ago. The George W. Bush/Republican policies drove us into the economic situation we are in so why would I want to go back to that? Why would anyone? It seems like that would only make things worse. It’s amazing how short people’s memories are. Anyone remember the economy tanking under Bush? Wall Street crash, housing mortgage crisis, car companies failing, banking failing, jobs disappearing, etc.? The policies Romney is espousing are the same ones Bush used. I don’t want to go back to that.



On the other side, we have Obama. If you listened to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, or other conservative sources, it would seem we’re on the highway to hell. Nothing could be further from the truth. In truth, and supporting Obama, is the fact that we’re doing pretty darn well.

• The economy is improving. Maybe not as fast as everyone would like but it is improving.  Conservatives would have you think otherwise but don't listen to them.  It IS improving.

• We’ve had positive job growth for 30 consecutive months.

• House prices are rising.

• Wall Street has recovered from the 2008 crash and is really doing better than ever.

• Unemployment is going down. It’s still high but people seem to want to ignore that it went up to its worst levels during Bush’s final months and spiked early in Obama’s first term, before he had a chance to implement his policies. Since then it’s been coming down. Things got bad but it’s not because of anything Obama did. If anything, he’s worked to make things better. And they are.

• Obama helped save the auto industry. It GM and Chrysler had been left to fail we’d have millions more people out of work and those companies would have shuttered. Romney would have let that happen. Obama didn’t and now those companies are doing phenomenally well and we’re better off as a country because of that.

• Obamacare. I talked about this a little bit above but let me reiterate again: This is helping millions of people.

• Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq is done, Afghanistan will be in two years. This is crucial for the American people. And he did it.

• Working through tough circumstances. He’s accomplished these things while working with an obstructionist Congress and members whose only goal was to prevent him from getting anything done to make him a one term President. Imagine what he might accomplish with some assistance and compromise. And I don’t think Republicans should be rewarded for intentionally working against him.

• People all over the world have a higher opinion of America since Obama took office.

• The Congressional Budget Office says we’re on pace to add 12 million jobs over the next 4 years. Why vote in a new President whose changes might doom that? If that comes to pass, Obama deserves the credit.

• Obama is for the middle-class. I believe that the middle-class is the foundation of our country. If the middle-class is taken care of, everyone will be. I truly believe Obama is someone who cares about the middle class and helping the less fortunate with actions. Romney is someone who’s worried about the rich. His ideas say so.

• Women’s rights. Obama is in a favor of women being able to decide for themselves when and how they have a baby. The government shouldn’t be controlling this.

• Social issues. Obama is liberal on social issues, wanting to allow people to live their lives as they see fit. I want that freedom. I want others to have that freedom. I don’t want the government telling people how they can live their lives.

• He killed Osama Bin Laden. Conservatives want to minimize Obama's contribution to this and somehow even make it controversial.  But it was Obama's call to go forward with the mission and if it had gone bad he would have been criticized relentlessly.  But it didn't go bad and he deserves credit for it's success and the courage to go forward with it. 


• We've been protected from terrorists. No terrorism incidents in the past four years.  If anything he's set forth policies that have decimated terrorist organisations and made the world a safer place.

 
  So, that’s it. My reasons for voting against Mitt Romney and for Barack Obama. All I can do is tell you why I feel like I do. Maybe you’ll read this and learn something that will help you make a decision. Maybe you’ll think I’m an idiot. But just know I didn’t make any of this stuff up. I’ve been following what’s been going on for the past six years very closely and do my best to get confirmation for all my information.



I hope you’ll share this with others. Thanks for reading.