Okay, so...Mitt Romney...I always see centrist types, even moderate democrats glaze the guy. A lot of people think he was a better candidate than Obama and dont understand why he lost. A lot of these people are young, and were kids when Romney ran in 2012. So let me break it down for you.
To put it simply, Mitt Romney was a rich #### who basically ran on trickle down economics in the middle of the great recession. Some will say "but but, the great recession wasnt still happening in 2012." Yes it was, at least by the indicators that mattered, like unemployment. Sure, the wealthy recovered, but WE weren't doing well. Unemployment was still 7.7% on election day. This is important, because we wanna understand what Mitt Romney was running on.
He basically ran on trickle down economics. He wanted to cut people off of their unemployment benefits that were keeping them afloat, in order to give the money to rich people in tax cuts. The logic was that the rich people were the glorious "job creators" and that they would create jobs with all of the money they got. Meanwhile in 2011-2012, corporations were reporting record profits. Heck, my dad was laid off in 2011 from his job after being called into the office, thanked for helping make the company record profits, and then being told that to preserve those profits, they had to lay him off. The layoff was supposed to be temporary, but it ended up NOT being so, and three months later they told him he was gone for good. Gee, thanks. You know, when you're on UC, you normally have 6 months to get a new job. If we had normal UC during this time period, my dad would've only had 3. So Obama's extensions were the only thing keeping us afloat. And then it took A LITERAL YEAR for him to find a new one. Because the job creators werent job creating and no one wanted to hire him.
That's the sick thing about capitalism, we expect everyone to work and look for jobs, but then employers dont wanna hire you. Even when the rich have more money than ever, they DON'T wanna create jobs. They wanna keep their money and throw you away like a disposible cog. And I couldnt find a job either during this time frame. I graduated grad school around this time and the economy was HORRIBLE. Seriously, if you wonder what radicalized me into my current views on work and jobs, it was the 2012 election cycle, the recession, and Mitt Fricking Romney.
And that dude had the gall to go on about the "46%" of Americans who didn't pay federal income taxes. And how he "liked to fire people." like, screw you mitt. This dude was a stereotypical rich guy who was the villain that ruined many peoples' lives around this time. And the only thing keeping us afloat were the expanded government services, and this guy wanted to take that away and give more to rich ghouls like him. Really? You're surprised THAT GUY didn't win the 2012 election? Like, bruh, I know the mid 2010s seems a distant memory at this point, but I really wanna emphasize that yeah, there's a logical reason we went from him in 2012 to Trump and Sanders in 2016. And then the democrats decided to go all in with clinton, who tried to APPEAL TO HIS VOTERS, and basically alienated the same working class voters who supported Obama. Like, you realize I was previously a lifelong republican and became democrat during the 2012 election cycle, right? You realize that my dad was a republican since the 1980s and this crap broke him and made him lean democrat too, right? We were on the verge of greatness on the left. We were one election away from a monumental realignment that would've reshaped politics in a far more positive away had we run sanders in 2016, and the democrats...threw it away.
Anyway, another thing about Romney. For as much as he's called a "moderate" he sure didnt run as one in 2012. He ran as a tea party conservative and fronted their BS. The same religious radicals we deal with in the 2020s were part of the coalition. And if he won in 2012, he would've replaced Scalia, and Roe v Wade probably would've been overturned anyway. And he would've enabled the religious crazies just like Trump did.
Let's face it, the guy only SEEMS moderate and principled now because Trump is a psychotic fascist and has a habit of doing that. Most pre Trump republicans either became Trump republicans, or they got out of politics. Romney exists as a thorn in his side, but let's face it, just because the dude occasionally checks Trump doesnt make him a good person, or a model for what politics should be. He wasn't moderate. I hate that brand of "moderate" that seems to exist between the neoliberals in the democratic party and the old school establishment reagan conservatives in the republican party. It's just attempting to make the democrats right wing, while the republicans are even more right wing. It's insane. There's a reason I sometimes sound like a radical leftist despite obviously condemning literal socialists. It's because relative to these guys, I might as well be a socialist because that's how right wing the spectrum is becoming. We're getting to the point of welcoming bush republicans into the democratic coalition. Sure, we can make a temporary alliance with them to get trump out, but long term, either they go, or I go. I refuse to be in a coalition with the romney types. The only thing they deserve credit for is being patriotic americans who arent fascists, but that doesnt mean their political views are great or a model to be aspired to. My own politics were literally designed as a counter to this guy's 2012 campaign.
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