US Election: Romney Against Romney

Besides being stupid and troglodytes, the extreme right in the U.S. is foolish, absurd and intolerant. In politics one can be conservative, let’s say it is not hateful; having a conservative position should be respected. There is no reason to think that only those who are on the left or in the center of the political spectrum hold the truth in their hands and are the only ones who can solve all the problems that arise in modern society. Only a political ignorant would see himself as the owner of the absolute truth. As human beings, we cannot define ourselves only between black and white; there are definitely other shades, other colors.

The American extreme right thinks that only a part of the population of the country is good and acceptable; the rest is garbage. The poor, the disadvantaged, those who are discriminated against by gender, race or sexual preference, are an epidemic that sickens the idyllic society that it [extreme right] yearns for and that is beyond its fevered minds.

The statements of the presidential candidate for the Republican Party, Mitt Romney, that 47 percent of Americans will vote for Barack Obama in the next election and that, therefore, he [Romney] will not spend a single minute on them, are statements that not only demonstrate an enormous political stupidity, but also the contempt that the ultra-right Republican candidate has for half the country’s population.

Romney says that 47 percent of Americans do not pay taxes and believe that they are victims of society and therefore deserve to be supported by the government, receiving the benefits of social programs that have been approved through the years. To this gentleman, the government does not have to help the destitute. For him, everyone has a responsibility to care for themself, regardless of whether a person is sick and cannot afford treatment, or an old person is left to die because of his age. The government should not demonstrate compassion for those kinds of people, says the candidate. He stopped short of calling that 47 percent idle and shameless.

Romney commits a big political mistake when he refers negatively to that group of people who, according to him, do not pay federal taxes. It actually discourages nearly half of the voters who are going to the polls in the next election. How does this man think he can win by making these kinds of statements? They are so absurd that even the most moderate of his party are criticizing him and are anticipating an inevitable loss in November. In a newspaper column that appeared in the Wall Street Journal, journalist Peggy Noonan said: “There is a broad and growing feeling now, among Republicans, that this thing is slipping out of Romney’s hands” and actually, if we rely on recent comments that are now coming to light from different Republican politicians, what that journalist says is true.

In fact, even within Romney’s campaign team there are well-known differences on how to manage their candidate’s campaign, apart from the fact that not a day goes by without having them come out to the media to make amends for their boss’s constant absurd statements or lies. When the ambassador was killed in Libya, before having any information about what happened, he started politicizing the tragedy, accusing the president of being soft on terrorists and tolerant of them. These statements were unwelcome by national public opinion.

It’s still a long way to the election and, although experts and analysts are already saying that the trend of voting for the current president is irreversible, it seems premature to say that Romney has no chance of winning. As I have always said, the American electorate is rapidly changing; it can change its opinion very easily at the last minute. In addition, there are still three presidential debates, and either candidate could slip, costing the win.

After these debates, who the next president will be will be accurately known. I hope that for the best interests of all, and more precisely for the 47 percent of citizens that Romney despises, the winner is the current president, who is not the best, but the least bad.