The Republican Dilemma

Super Tuesday did not decide the race for the Republican presidential candidates in the U.S. Mitt Romney has indeed won six of 10 primary elections but nevertheless, no one can claim that his strongest rival, Rick Santorum, is down and out.

However, it would be wrong to describe him as “alive and kickin’.” No, both of the Republican frontrunners are currently pursuing something that can only be a source of great satisfaction for all the liberals (in the American sense of the word): They are battling — and therefore neutralizing — each other. Both of them are investing a lot of money in calling each other fundamentally unsuitable for the highest office in the nation. The positive about that is this: Both of them might well be right. As Santorum has rightly said many times, the super-rich Romney is not a friend of the working masses. He laid the foundation for his millions with the investment firm Bain Capital, one of those corporate sharks which buys into companies with borrowed money, resells the most profitable parts of the company for the highest possible profit, puts the remaining parts of the company back together, burdens the remaining company with the previously mentioned taxes and then lets the company go belly-up without blinking an eye.

Hypocritical Charity

The career path of an investment capitalist of Romney’s caliber is typically lined with thousands of destroyed jobs. People like this tend to live according to the motto “One man’s bread is another man’s poison.” At the same time, the deeply religious Mormon regularly and deeply regrets the fact that his political career constantly prevents him from dedicating himself to the needy.

That is, of course, the height of religious hypocrisy: First I will make sure that the number of starving people continues to grow, and then I will give them my charity. For this reason alone, Santorum is more likeable for a “liberal” because he would barely have a chance in a direct duel with Obama.

Right now many swing voters (relatively politically moderate citizens who sometimes vote for one party’s candidate and sometimes for the other) think the zealous ultra-Catholic is a bit too strange sometimes. On the other hand, a certain minimum amount of wackiness is almost to be expected among the mainstream of the Republican Party these days, a little bit in each of the candidates who wants to become the party leader.

And these are the people whom Santorum is serving: For example, his radical rejection of abortion is currently impressing proletarian redneck Republicans greatly.

The Republican Party will have to continue to struggle with their dilemma: The party has to decide between one candidate who certainly does not offer ultraconservatives a guarantee, but who could possibly beat Obama, and another who has become a favorite of the religious right, but who would guarantee the Democrats four more years in the White House.