The Case Against Romney

I recently heard a local radio host proclaim that he hadn't heard an intelligent reason for conservatives to oppose Romney. After asking myself what hole in the ground his head had been stuck in, I decided I would share the reasons this conservative opposes Romney. I'll try not to ramble on for too long since I could probably write a whole book about it.

To be fair, I'll actually start with what I like about Romney to show that I do give him credit. First of all, he's not Barack Obama. That's all that really needs to be said if you're a real conservative. Obama is so antithetical to the conservative viewpoint that any one of the Republicans would be a better President than him (notice I didn't say a good President, just better than Obama). I also think Mitt is a good speaker who people can see as President. He also has a better understanding of the economy and the importance of reducing spending. I think he truly believes in America's greatness and he would help restore our standing on the national stage. He believes in the free market and knows that too much government hinders the free market. He would be a formidable candidate this fall especially given that the economy isn't likely to be much better than it is now and people think he can fix it because of his business background.

I had to make those points to clarify that I intend to willingly support Romney if he is the Republican candidate this fall. It will take me a lot more space to explain my concerns about Romney and why I don't think he's the best choice for the Republicans and why I'm very concerned that he would lose if he's the nominee. Let me start with my first and biggest concern that I think gets to the heart of what most nags most conservatives about Romney. He's a panderer or perhaps a better word would be a chameleon. He tends to take on the ideals and rhetoric of whatever audience or electorate he's facing. Some people, such as Ann Coulter, have said that just makes him a smart politician. I say that makes him a liar. I don't trust that the conservative Mitt we hear today on the campaign trail is the real Romney any more than the liberal Mitt was when he was running for the Senate or the Progressive Mitt when running for governor. At least with Obama, you know you're getting a liberal. With Mitt, you have to hope you're getting a conservative.

The real fear that I think conservatives have about Romney is not that he's a liberal or even moderate. They fear that he's none of the above because he has no core principles. That's why he's able to so easily change his positions and so hard to nail down on where he really stands. We see this in the way he talks about economic policies. He's uses good conservative phrases like "unleashing the private sector", but then turns around and talks about the 1% versus the middle class and how the rich are doing just fine. He's learned the lingo but not the true conservative principles. He doesn't understand that tax cuts aren't about different classes and who's doing fine or not. It's about returning the power to the people by allowing them to keep more of their own money and distribute it as they see fit through spending or investing or employing people. If I actually thought Romney understood conservatism and meant what he says in his stump speeches, I would be all for him. However, I fully expect a different candidate in the general election who tries to appeal to "the middle". If he does that, I fear he will lose. (See my post "The Myth of Electability" for more about this.)

Another argument that Romney supporters make is that his experience as a businessman proves that he's conservative and makes him strong on the economy. I think this myth spawns from the criticism against Obama for never having a real job in a business or ever running anything. It is definitely true that Obama has no clue how a business works and perhaps having been involved in the business world would have given him a better perspective on the economy. However, to twist that into thinking that everyone in the business world must be a conservative is just plain stupid. A perfect illustration of this is another businessman who reminds me a lot of Romney for the way he has made his fortune through capital investment. In fact, by the reasoning people give to support Romney, this man would be a much better president than Romney because he's been much more successful than Romney. That person is Warren Buffett. I'm guessing there aren't too many of you who have been hoping Warren Buffett would jump in the race. And now that I think about it, Buffett's comments about how the rich should be paying more don't sound too much different from Romney saying the rich are doing fine. This doesn't prove that all businessmen are liberals, but it does show that pointing out Romney's business background has very little to do with any discussions about him being a conservative either.

If Romney's business background doesn't convince his experience with the Olympics or as governor should, right? Frankly, I don't see his experience with Olympics shows anything more than his time at Bain Capital did and the fact that he used federal earmarks to cover the cost of the security further weakens the case for making this out to be anything particularly brilliant. As for his time as governor, this just further illustrates my point earlier that he has no real core principles. He can talk about the things he did to illustrate his conservatism, which is great. But that all pales in comparison to Romneycare. There is not one thing that is conservative about Romneycare. Even his point about advocating "personal responsibility" falls flat because that is not the type of personal responsibility conservatives believe in. We don't believe in enforcing by adding more government. We believe in forcing it by reducing government so that people are responsible for there own actions and own care. He might be able to say that it was more conservative than Obamacare, but that's like saying Hillary Clinton is more conservative Obama.

But Romney's going to appeal Obamacare, right? Not according to Romney advisor and former Senator Norm Coleman. Checkout this article http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/01/25/romney-advisor-no-obamacare-repeal/ or many other places online discussing this. But let's say Romney does repeal Obamacare (as will all of the other candidates, so he really doesn't stand out on this matter). He still clearly doesn't get the point. In a debate earlier this year, he told Rick Santorum that it wasn't worth getting angry about. However, that's exactly what drove the Tea Party and the election in 2010. People were mad as you know what over Obamacare. In the debate this week, Romney listed his reasons for opposing Obamacare. He mentioned that it was too expensive, cut medicare and raised taxes. Those are all definite problems. However, he missed the biggest reason conservatives oppose it, which is it that it is a massive overreach of government intervention in our lives. He may have just forgotten to mention that, but I think someone speaking from true conviction and not just memorized talking points wouldn't forget that.

I think if you really want to know what Romney would be like as president, I think both President Bush's would give you a pretty good idea. They both did some good things and were a lot better than Obama but they abandoned conservatism when things got tough and in the end that cost US dearly. The first time they gave us Bill Clinton after Bush 41 raised taxes. The second time we got Barack Obama because Bush 43 signed TARP (supported by Romney). Of course Romney knows that he can't convince people he's a real conservative. That's why he spends most of his money trashing his opponents to make people thi.k they're not conservative either. It's an interesting tango watching him criticize his opponents (except Ron Paul, of course) from the right while trying to appeal to moderates a sprinkling of class warfare rhetoric. Maybe that's why he has to team up with Ron Paul to attack his opponents since Paul seems more sincere hitting them from the right. (Checkout the various stories online discussing Ron Paul and Romney's relationship if you're not familiar with that already.)

Hopefully this will help convince our local host that there are intelligent reasons for opposing Romney. If not, perhaps he should try listening to another host on his own station, Mark Levin.