“He’s not Obama!” “He’s the lesser of two evils!” “He may not be great, but he’s no socialist!”
The pleas are endless from those who support the former Massachusetts governor. The discussion of his policies, principles, or background are lacking. Instead, the conversation frequently shifts to the agenda of stopping President Barack Obama at all costs. To be sure, Obama has been a terrible president. With the rising debt, increased drone strikes, maintaining and expanding the occupations overseas, among many other harmful policies, it’s difficult to make the case otherwise. But many already are aware of this.
Republicans will tell you the media is a liberal machine and is unfairly biased against conservatives, or even libertarians. This may be true. But if one accepts the premise that the media is biased and thus will do everything within it’s power to dirty the Mitt Romney name, then why spend so little time clearing up his name? Focus less on what we know about President Obama, and focus more on what we don’t about Romney.
Libertarians are skeptical, Ron Paul supporters are as well. Even many traditional conservatives have their doubts about the idea of a Romney presidency, voicing concerns since it became clear he would win the Republican nomination. These people can be welcomed or they can be ignored. In 2008, Senator John McCain failed to secure the votes of many of these people and lost them to third party candidates. While they could not have saved his chances in November, as he got demolished by then-Senator Obama in the general election, it would have helped to have convinced your own party you can be a leader. Soul searching within the party began after that massive election failure and it led to the rise of the tea party movement.
The socialist agenda is coming to America and Karl Marx is going to replace Thomas Jefferson in our country. The Kenyan is going to crush America. Everyone has heard all about it. The scare tactics are endless. Whether or not President Obama is a socialist or not, this argument is unproductive. Those who believe he is a socialist will go on believing such, and those who do not, will continue on in disbelief. Even if President Obama fits the definition of a “socialist”, it is irrelevant, because the term, like many others in modern political discourse, has become a mere vulgarity rather than a defined economic or political term.
Thus, the next alternative to the grassroots’ efforts should be Romney himself. Evidently enough Republicans feel that he has enough capabilities to lead to make him their nominee. What are these things that President Romney will do? What has he done in the past that makes him inspire confidence? He’s been a governor, businessman, and a family man, so tell people about this. The scare tactics are an insult to the intelligence of voters and only serve to degrade the maturity of our political discourse. We’re all adults, right? If Romney is good enough to become the nominee over Ron Paul or anyone else, then he obviously must have some likable points. Why not discuss them? Because if these strong points aren’t there, and there isn’t a part of Romney that Republicans can relate to, then the party has a very serious crisis on their hands. A crisis that will lead to party-wide soul searching starting on November 7th.