Saturday, August 11, 2012

If you can’t beat ‘em, cheat ‘em.


Well, Romney picked Paul Ryan for his running mate today.  Whoop-de-do.  

Actually, I am somewhat interested in the pick, because I think the man does not bring votes in from where he’ll really need them - the undecided 6-8% in the middle who haven’t made up their minds.

Which brings up Romney’s biggest problem in my mind:  Once you’ve locked in the base, how do you attract the folks in the middle to get you over the top to win?

It goes like this.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have enough votes, by themselves, even if every possible member of either party got out and voted, to win the Presidency in the General Election.  They need the swingers in the middle, the Independents.  So every Presidential election in recent memory has been about those swing votes in the swing States.

Here, it gets complicated, because of the voter demographics, different State rules on elections, etc.  But the Republicans have decided, this election, to cut to the chase.

In recent years it has become plain for all to see that the country's demographics for the future, in the persons of the younger generation, are moving in the direction of progressive policies and away from conservatism.  Fewer and fewer younger folks are voting Republican.

So, the Republican leadership has thought, how do we offset that new demographic?

The answer they’ve come up with should scare you silly.  They’ve decided not to offset the larger numbers of progressive voters, they’ve just decided to simply keep them away from the polls.

I mean, geez, if the other side can’t even cast a vote, you don’t need the swing voters, you can win on your own and claim victory on your own terms!  The pollsters will obviously point to the lower number of Democratic voters, the higher number of Republican voters, and let the viewer take away the obvious in-between-the-lines answer they want you to make, that Democratic policies are less popular!

Be afraid, folks, be very afraid!  The Republicans have decided to take a page from the past - if you can’t win on equal terms, cheat.

If there is any one thing which defines the modern Republican Party, it has been their willingness to lie and cheat to win elections.  In 2010 it was all about the jobs, but once they got into power, it was all about social issues and keeping the economy down so Obama would lose in 2012.

My advice for voters in general this election?  Whatever the Republicans say, start looking for what they’ve got hidden behind their backs, because they ain’t speakin’ the truth.

I would ask you, any one of you, whatever your political persuasion, to ask yourself one question:

Do I, if my side wins this election, want to be able to say they just won?  Or do I want to be able to say they won because they actually won the votes?

Think about that before you pull the lever.  Do you want to support a party which is willing to violate the very American value of fair play?   If they’ll violate that, what else will they do?

Can you trust a party which will cheat to win power?  Don’t sit there and tell me they didn’t break any laws.  Changing the laws to suit yourself isn’t fair and you know it.  Not at this level and this widespread a manner.

I wouldn’t want the Democrats to win that way, and I don’t want the Republicans to do it that way either, it is a direct violation of every value I was taught growing up and it is a violation of every value the Republican Party has supported in the past.  You know damn well that if the Democrats were doing this, the Republicans would be standing up and squealing like stuck pigs, and rightfully so!

The leadership of that party frighten me.  Seriously frighten me, I say.

And they should frighten the whole country.



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