Well, I’ve got to say I liked the 2012 Presidential Election a
lot more when it was just some nebulous idea, a distant specter. Those were the
good times, when Rick Perry, stoned on painkillers, couldn’t remember what
departments he wanted to eliminate, when Herman Cain quoted the Pokemon movie,
and when Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were legitimate contenders. Remember
the fun we used to have? The Republicans were a freak show and their
milquetoast contender, Mitt Romney, seemed firmly unable to get just about
anyone to support him. This thing was in the bag for Obama, weak economy and
racist bigots be damned.
What hubris! This is America, where facts don’t really matter,
money trumps everything, and people are more than willing to be seduced by talk
of exceptionalism, by false promises and logical fallacies shrouded in ethereal
platitudes.
And now the election's less than 3 months away and I’m a scared.
Nervous about voter ID laws, nervous about the untold millions waiting to smear Obama, and nervous about an American public that just doesn’t seem to get it.
Of course, the big news is that Romney chose Paul Ryan as his
Vice-Presidential nominee. It’s an interesting choice, and one I don’t think
will turn out to well for Romney. Ryan is best known nationally for the
so-called “Ryan Budget.” The Ryan budget is an abomination. It's the culmination of
80 years of Republican policies. It's the total repeal of the New Deal, and it's a plan
that would thrust us back into the “gilded age.”
Of course, that by itself is
not a deal breaker for Americans. They are happy to be swept up by talk of
opportunity and social mobility that flies in the face of economic reality.
What’s different about the Ryan budget is the starkness with which it makes its
plans known. Gone are vague promises about reigning back entitlements and in
its place are hard numbers which make it clear that Medicare and Social
Security will be ended as we know them. The rich will get massive tax cuts, and
just about the only governmental spending will be for Defense. This isn’t a new
plan; it’s the same Ronald Reagan, George W Bush playbook that tripled and
doubled the national debt respectively. But at least those charlatans made us feel
good about it with optimistic language; there were no harsh realities in their
universe.
Ryan will end the Earned Income Tax Credit, so poor
people's rates will go up, while people like Mitt Romney will pay an effective
rate of less than 1%, as capital gains and other taxes are eliminated.
Republicans don't hate taxes, just poor people. The Orwellian hypocrisy of the
modern Republican party would make for funny satire, except it’s really what
they believe.
Paul Ryan’s ideas are popular when offered as abstract ideas,
but when the actual cutting begins, Americans are fairly uniformly against them.
They like their entitlements, just not the idea that someone else is living fat
off the government hog. Paul Ryan’s selection might just start to awaken
people about what they are really getting if they elect Romney. The selection
has given the Obama campaign a concrete plan to run against, and an unpopular
one at that.
In
classic Romney fashion, he backtracked on the day of the announcement and
reminded reporters that he has different budget plans than Paul Ryan, though he
won’t say where he differs. What the fuck is wrong with this guy? Similarly,
the Romney campaign was apoplectic when his press secretary said something
laudatory about Romneycare, something he’s been proud of in the past, before
providing people with healthcare became an original sin in the eyes of the GOP.
Can’t Romney show backbone about anything for once in his life? For a spoiled,
rich, bully who’s been handed every advantage in life, he sure is a pussy. Of
course, that trait is common in bullies, but it’s normally buried beneath
layers of false bravado.
