While The Green Miles consumes politics like a grizzly bear consumes salmon, my girlfriend is a normal human being who pays attention to politics only occasionally. When one day she asked why I don’t like Mitt Romney, I didn’t want to come off as only hating Romney because he’s on the Red Team and I’m on the Blue Team. Here’s a bit of what I said, and I’d be curious to hear your take – and what you’re saying in similar casual conversations – in the comments section.
First, the substance, which is pretty straightforward. Romney would raise taxes on the poor, slash taxes on the wealthy, do nothing for the middle class, and dramatically increase the national debt – and claims that would magically create jobs, an underpants gnome scheme if there ever was one. On energy, Romney’s plan would be Bush-Cheney on steroids, giving even more control to polluting oil & coal companies and making even lower investments in clean energy. from the poor to give to the rich.
What was harder to convey is just how much Romney & his campaign are built on lies. Steve Benen has been chronicling how often Romney lies and the list runs into the double digits every single week – lies about himself, lies about his past positions, lies about President Obama. “At this point, the pattern here is obvious, and it’s clearly not an accident,” wrote Greg Sargent. “And Romney and his team will remain secure in the knowledge that most of the media will politely look the other way as the Big Lies keep flowing, and will continue to treat them as just part of the game.”
I also shared this Rachel Maddow segment, an in-depth look at Romney’s lies and how they define his candidacy:
(If you don’t want to watch the Etch A Sketch intro, skip ahead to 6:25.)
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