A colleague of mine, a very smart man but not in sync with me politically, told me a few weeks ago that he believes that I will come to my senses before the election and pull the lever for Mitt Romney.  I will make this decision, he assures me, based solely on Obama's mishandling of the economy and I will realize that the various issues that I have with the Republican party, Tea Party crazies and the religious right, do not apply to Romney.

Romney is, my friend assures me, a traditional northeastern Republican in the mold of Lincoln Chafee who, I failed to point out, isn't even a Republican anymore.  My friend knows that I spent a good part of my career working for another typical northeastern Republican who owns a business magazine and believes that we should have a flat tax.

The takeaway that Republicans like my friend would like east coast liberals like me to embrace 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.  All they really want is low taxes and minimal government regulation of business and the economy.  They will not seek the overturn of Roe vs. Wade because, when it comes down to it, they cannot be bothered.  They will not expend a great deal of energy defending the Defense of Marriage Act because they really don't care.  Republicans of this sort are not like Rand and Ron Paul, eager to roll back the civil rights movement.  Nor are they religious zealots like Rick Santorum, looking to put sodomy laws back on the books.  Life under President Romney will, for most Americans, not be much different than life under Obama, at least in terms of social issues.

I don't know if any of you buy this.  I certainly do hear from a lot of Democrats who don't find Romney "scary," no matter how many times the guy tells us that he's a "severe conservative."

I don't agree with this assessment.  I look at Romney and I see a real square.  I see a man whose vision for America and what being an American means, is extremely milquetoast.  You cut your hair short, you put on a suit and tie.  You carry a briefcase.  If you're not the boss, you do what your bosses tell you to do.  You know your role.  This is a guy who, as far back as high school, has shown disdain and hostility for the freaks and geeks of American society.

Now, maybe it's true that Romney's priorities in office will not involve hot button social issues.  But if he really doesn't care, do you think he'd step in as a moderating force in his own party, which has several prominent social conservative extremists in its Congressional ranks?  If he wants to appoint Supreme Court justices who think that corporations have the same rights as people, what's it to him if that nominee also thinks that fetuses enjoy those rights?

Then, of course, there is this bit about lax government regulation.  For the most part, it's not the government that intrudes on people's private lives.  It's corporations.  It's employers and creditors and service providers who gather information about us, which they trade and who create and enforce policies that affect people's lives.  President Romney would leave a whole lot up to your employer.  Like whether or not same sex couples can use family benefits like health insurance or whether or not you can be fired for expressing a political opinion on line.  It's not that Romney is going to get involved in such matters, it's that he isn't.  He will let your employers treat you however they want and will invite you to find another job if you don't like it.  He will support tort reform to keep people from using class action lawsuits against large corporations who may have sold them harmful and defective products.  Buyer beware will be the law of the land.

Will he start new wars?  Yes, he will probably start some new wars.

Will he seek to partially privatize Social Security and Medicare.  Yes.  He will try to do those things, as explained in Paul Ryan's budget, which he has adopted.  Will he succeed?  I don't know, but we'd be better off with him not trying. I agree with Doctor Cleveland that the commentariat will tell America, in the event of a Romney win, that Obama's "liberalism" was soundly rejected by the American people.

I would take it a step further and say that a Romney win will destroy the Democrats governing power for a generation, at least so far as the White House is concerned.  Did you notice that after 8 years of Bush, that Obama had to staff his administration with a lot of Clinton administration veterans?  This is because, after twelve years of Reagan/Bush and then another eight for George W., the Clinton Administration was the only proving ground for contemporary Democrats.  Obama needs a second term in order to continue building the party's base of capable governance.  Let's face it, the Democrats need 2016 and 2020 just to get back to an even playing field.  Losing now is not an option.

Also, Romney will probably try to fix the economy by laying off a bunch of citizens.  Don't think he won't.  It's all he knows how to do.