And there's some irony for you. There is no doubt Santorum is the most conservative in the culture wars. The newt talks a big talk, but his walk is a little stumble-prone. Romney, upstanding family man that he is, and a really good guy, has had his waffling history on some of these touchstone issues and just doesn't measure up to the purist of standards in the culture war. I still don't see much relevance to Dr. Paul even with his Libertarian attempts to be neutral - his Southern constituency won't let him.
And who would have thought we would be this deep in the culture wars when we were supposed to be arguing about the economy? Oh yeah, the economy that is still improving slowly but surely which could be better, but it was the tortoise that won that other race.
The biggest problem I see with Romney is his idea that he has to get tougher to show he can beat not only these Republican challengers, but be tough on the President as well in the general. The only problem with Romney's "toughness" is that he just looks like a mean, rich bully. It was enough to make the newt really mad. (Not that it really took that much of a push to send him over the edge). We'll see how it goes with Santorum.
If only we had a leader who stood for the principle of working out our differences the best we can in a Constitutional system.
I've still got some Hope left.
"The biggest problem I see with Romney..."
ReplyDeleteWell, yes — in political terms. Morally/ethically, there's also the problem of his blatant lies, blatantly repeated, about President Obama's actual record, and Romney's unfair and wildly incorrect characterization of the president as somehow "un-American" and someone who doesn't believe in American exceptionalism (a subject that is itself worthy of debate, but not in terms of the president's repeated statements or actions).
Of course that's something not peculiar to Romney, but is shared to varying degrees by all the Republican candidates. The whole lot of them lack statesmanship to a horrifying degree; they act like petulant children.
I agree, SLK. I will get to his distortions of President Obama and his record eventually -- certainly if he is the party's candidate for the general as we expect. It seems like so much else about him that he is not as "genuine" in his criticisms of the President as are his Republican competitors - if that makes any sense at all.
ReplyDeleteMakes perfect sense to me. I would never vote for Gov. Romney, but I would certainly have more respect for him if I felt he weren't pandering to the most radical elements of the right wing, which is so obviously belied by his generally moderate record as governor.
ReplyDeleteIn the end I can't untangle the degree to which his inauthenticity reflects worse on him as an individual, or on the current state of what calls itself "conservatism," which seems to require such unhinged rhetoric.
p.s. I enjoyed your newer post as well. :-)