President Mitt Romney

You have put into words, exactly how I feel about Mitt Romney. He is a conservative, he will do whatever it takes to do the bidding of Paul Ryan and those anti-tax, drown the government in a bathtub, Republicans.

I don't just vote for the Democrats because they are so fucking awesome.. hahahahaha... I vote for them because they aren't repulsive, vindictive, regressive, moralizing Elmer Gantry wannabes, who care nothing for the nation, but care deeply about amassing personal power and wealth, but who believe in destroying the government they want to run. And if GWB is any indication of what that belief does to a nation.. well, things can get worse. And yeah, I think he will try to lay everyone off too.

.....is that Republicans of this sort, no matter what they might say to appease the great red masses of flyover country, do not really care about social issues.

If any truly believe this, they either haven't been paying attention or are choosing to ignore the facts as the GOP fervently declares without end. 

.....a Romney win will destroy the Democrats governing power for a generation

And why is it that so many, who tout their liberal credentials, just don't get this?  This is more frightening and confounding than the GOP's blather.

Terrific post destor, appreciate.

Romney will stand mute as the GOP purges voters nationally. The demographics are trending against the GOP, so the GOP has to narrow the pool of voters to Conservative whites. Romney's DOJ will ignore any complaints.

This is the liberal intellectual equivalent of the irrational OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST redstate post.  Fearmongering at its worst.  Winning electoral strategy, I think not.  I generally find people vote for something rather than against something.

That is exactly how I see it!

In the first 100 days of a Willard Administration scores Executive Orders will ensue; all Executive Departments will be headed by Foxes; the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ will be filled with the same pricks appointed by Bush and racist jokes will abound; there will be no challenges to these state laws abridging the right to vote.....

Welcome to hell!

Destor, I think you're broadly right.

But I also think you give short shrift to the damage Romney could do with the economic issues he DOES care about.

Have we been talking about income inequality for nothing?

He also appears ready to trash a few agencies and make Education an afterthought.

Will he change the national security/foreign policy issues that animate Obama's leftwing opposition? Will he stop the drones, the detention, the prosecutions of people like Bradley. Not hardly. Especially if we have one or two close calls or even hits.

The bulk of his party is giving him a wait and see approval. If he wants two terms, he can't flip flop on all his campaign promises to be a severe conservative.

Then again, anything is possible!

All they really want is low taxes and minimal government regulation of business and the economy.

What bums me out is that you have a friend who thinks he can flip you if he can succeed in convincing you of that.

Obama has indeed dreadfully mishandled the economy.  He has mishandled it precisely because he is an economic "square" whose economic philosophy is not all that different from Romney's.

I would think the first Mormon president would govern as cautiously as the first black president and, yes, Obama has been very careful in his choices.   I would think being first raises the stakes and dampens risk taking.  Knowing that not just you but your culture will be judged by the success of your presidency has to add a level of weight to every decision.  

The more vicious of the opposition sure knows it.  I think that is why they have been so determined to discredit Obama's presidency.  Their Southern Strategy failed them in 2008.   If it fails again in 2012, they will lose their place of prominence in the GOP.  Good riddance.

That is why liberals, progressives, and lefties should all be as determined to give Obama a second term as they were to give him his first. whether he wants it or not.  

Other candidate squareness comparisons:

Candidates Have College, Spicy Chicken and ‘Star Trek’ in Common

It is interesting that upset Conservatives form the Tea Party. Some upset Progressives vow to vote for Romney or wish for Ron Paul. Occupy Wall Street seems to have opted out of the political process.

Would upset Conservatives ever vote for a Progressive to punish the GOP? Would they rather cross lines in an open primary to prop up a weaker Democratic candidate?

"It's all he knows how to do."

Well said. And all too true.

 What appears to be hopeless, is convincing people that neither party is serving the people.

A vote for either one continues to enslave us.

It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope and pride. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrick_Henry

If it had not been for the discontent of a few fellows who had not been satisfied with their conditions, you would still be living in caves. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization.
Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.

You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder. You need to know that you were not created to work and produce and impoverish yourself to enrich an idle exploiter. You need to know that you have a mind to improve, a soul to develop, and a manhood to sustain.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs

The constitutional underpinning of the New Deal, Great Society, and federal civil rights legislation rests on an interpretation of the Commerce Clause that is hanging by a thread.  This broad construction faces a real challenge by the current Court with respect to the pending challenge to healthcare legislation.  It all depends on what a conservative appointee named Kennedy decides.  And the way for a moderate Republican to appease a rabid right is to give 'em a Clarence Thomas or two.   Here's Chief Justice Scalia, on the meaning of the broad reading of the Commerce Clause that everything progressive in this country rests on:

“If the government can do this, what, what else can it not do?” asked Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia this week in arguments on the constitutionality of the requirement that nearly all Americans buy health care insurance or face a penalty.

That, my friends, is serious shit, and a slippery slope that I'd leave to blackboards in constitutional law classes.

Great blog des and I enjoy the comments too, and I wish I could be a better cheerleader--except in the end I ain't one.

I will add, however, that  I absolutely and unequivocally reject the notion that in urging a vote for the boring and disappointing Democrat, that is not the same as urging people to play see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.  That's just a false choice.  There are real reasons to rest on the better of two choices, but anyone who thinks the election of a Dennis Kucinich is all progressives need to change society needs to rethink things, and big time.

There's a whole friggin' world out there, lots of things to protest, lots of things to get our hands dirty with, and lots of things to do, whether we vote Democratic or not.  But we cannot change the composition of the United States Supreme Court, we cannot appoint the person who will head important federal agencies, and we cannot help that lots of everyday government is both important and like watching paint dry at the same time.

Hat Tip to Chez Pazienza, Mitt Romney promises a whiter America:

I'm responding down here, before the letters start spewing out the right side of my monitor.  FYI my "animus" toward the law is shared by 70% of Americans http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/new-poll-the-supreme-court.... Sure the Wisconsin recall election a stunning and stupid defeat by progressives who lost by less than 10% because we lost the battle for public opinion", yet Obama's healthcare reform is groundbreaking and brilliant despite the fact people really. really. hate. it.  Even though there was no Harry and Louise effort from the insurance companies who LOVE this bill since they wrote it, the vast majority of the American people despise it.  With good reason.  Because it serves the corporate interests and does not directly impact most Americans in a beneficial way.  So Democrats are left holding the bag on republican health care "reform" that is even worse than Romney's plan that people hate and is impossible to sell on it's merits.

There aren't going to be a lot of tears when it goes away. Obama/Romney care is almost the same deal, except if insurance is deemed "unaffordable" the penalty for the mandate is waived (more liberal than Obama!) I'm more in favor of Vermont-care :)  http://www.salon.com/2011/05/26/us_health_care_vermont/singleton/

And I've informed you before that Mitt Romney is not my man.  Sometimes you have to vote for people that are not your man but serve your purposes as you define them at the time.  I look forward to pressuring Romney to move leftward and depend on the Dems to pressure him to or become the progressive party of NO.  And I look forward to taking him down in 2016.