From the Left: A Romney Presidency

Mitt Romney wants to be President of the United States (duh). He has been vague regarding the details of his plans. For the highly motivated; there are particulars that can be found, but we are a nation of the big picture. I want to show you Romney’s big picture. This can be hard, as the former governor is often on both sides of the same issue. For example, just weeks after saying he supported coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, he said he does not support a requirement that insurance companies cover such people. A whole book could be written listing and describing his various self contradictions, but unfortunately I’ve only got about 700 words (21 of which I just lost explaining that, and this could get recursive if I don’t shut up).

In a Romney presidency, we would no longer have the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). He’s made it as clear as he’s capable of that this act, which will lead to health coverage for 30 million more Americans, would be gone. This is even more interesting because, as you probably know, he put a similar health care law in place as governor of Massachusetts. Why is it wrong now? Why is healing the sick wrong? In President Obama’s world, it is right.

In a Romney presidency, we would somehow increase military spending by $ 2 trillion in the next decade, while lowering taxes. If the government is going to take less money in, yet shell out way more in defense, some important stuff is going to be cut. But we need that military spending. We’re due for a war, aren’t we? 

In a Romney presidency (am I now committed to starting every paragraph this way?), Planned Parenthood will be defunded. Public funding will no longer go to an organization that provides cancer screenings, STD testing and prevention of unintended pregnancies.  Only 3 percent of their services are abortions. The debate over the morality of abortions (which is all opinion) misses a major point of why they are legal in the first place. Some women will always find a way to get one if they want one, and back alley abortions are dangerous, sometimes fatal. That’s more lives lost than necessary. Gov. Romney says, “I’m a pro-life candidate.” But there is plenty of evidence that he is not a pro-life person.  He was pro-choice as a gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts. 

A Romney presidency will either feed the monster that is our deficit, or raise taxes on the middle class.  The wealthy will have tax cuts. Corporations will have tax cuts. And the people who need them most will not. But that sure doesn’t hurt Mitt Romney, or the Koch brothers, his billionaire campaign funders. On the social front, Romney would do his darndest to prevent equal rights for gays and lesbians.   

In a Mitt Romney presidency, we would have Paul Ryan as vice president, a heartbeat away. This is supposed to be a good thing, but we should remember his lie-filled speech at the Republican National Convention. And even worse, at least to runners such as myself, is that he would lie about something as trivial as a marathon time. Speaking for all runners, I can confidently say that we remember our times.  Ryan ran a 4-hour marathon.  He claimed to have run “under three, high twos.” There was the red flag in that the numbers guy couldn’t remember an exact time, but as a Republican, I figured that he didn’t want to look like an egg-head.  I believed him. The time he claimed was impressive yet plausible, the perfect lie. Long story short, he was caught and passed it off as a dumb and funny little mistake. But he lost this runner’s respect.

Would a Romney presidency be any worse than that of George Bush (either of them, really)? Probably not, but expect much of the same policies (and at least Bush was likable as far as baseball owners go). I don’t think we want anything even as close to as bad as Bush though. If Romney could drink beer, I really wouldn’t want to drink one with him. His public positions are often designed solely to get him elected. It has reached a point where we hear him talk and never know if he is being genuine. I have seen so much of him, but still feel like I don’t at all know him. To prevent a Romney presidency, you must vote, lots of you, and vote for someone else.  But please don’t vote for Mickey Mouse, or worse, Gary Johnson. Barack Obama wouldn’t be a bad choice.

Miles Brady is a junior English major. He is a running enthusiast, a sports fan and very liberal on most issues. He also likes to think that he is very rational.