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The Core Values of a President Romney

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STEVEN JONAS MD, MPH  

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Mitt Romney will win the Presidency. He appears to be ahead in the popular vote. Whether he will actually also finish ahead of the President in the electoral vote count seems to be becoming immaterial. First, there seems to be on the GOP side a campaign getting underway to challenge any Obama electoral vote victory (given that Romney indeed would have a substantial lead in the popular vote). It would bring pressure, both public and private, on the electors to not vote as they were chosen to do, but rather to "recognize the popular will" (as if Republicans do that in any other circumstance).

Second, there is increasing evidence that a massive vote-count cheating operation has already been organized in some of the key "battleground" states (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) like Ohio, which Bush won in 2004 by cheating. (The Ohio Secretary of State, in charge of the ballot counting, just happened to be the Chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.) If this strategy were to be successful, and could withstand the challenges that the Obama Campaign might or might not mount against it, that would make the first plan superfluous.

And so, my advice is to begin to prepare ourselves for a Romney Presidency. Considering just those elements that pertain to Romney and the Executive Branch, what it might look like?   At this point, not knowing what the Congress will look like, it makes sense to consider just what his core values are, rather than to try to figure just what policy initiatives requiring Congressional action he would be taking beyond "cut taxes/repeal Obamneycare."   If he is to be dealt with successfully, it is vital that we understand that, yes indeed, as hard that may be to see on the surface, Romney does have a set of core values. He may shift position on questions of policy and politics on a regular basis, but his core values don't change, and he likely sees what others describe as "flip-flopping" simply as doing what is necessary in order to get to the Presidency so that he can use the office to set his true values in place in the US government.

And so, what might those values be? I have discussed them at some length previously, with references   (7). See also an important brief history of the Mormon Church, written by a Mormon historian and contemporary of Romney's (8), for those values are largely based in Mormonism. (One of the greatest achievements of his campaign has been to make any discussion of his religion taboo. If it weren't, he would have had a lot of explaining to do.) They would set the pattern for his Presidency. In summary they are: 1. The United States is an "exceptional nation," in the sense that it should be the unchallenged leader of the world and able to carry out international policy as it sees fit. Any military force to support that role that would be needed should be provided.  

2. Mormonism is the distinctly "American" religion, and it arose from "American exceptionalism." (It must be remembered that Romney is a Mormon Bishop, a position that he has never given up, even when he was Governor of Massachusetts. He has certainly not said that he would give it up should he become President of the United States, either.) And for Romney it is the "true" religion, in all of its detail (see the Book of Mormon, [that is the book, not the musical]).

3. The capitalist "market" is the only acceptable economic model. The only justifiable goal of the market is to produce profit for its owners/operators. As for specific policies related to his essential support for unfettered capitalist development (which interestingly enough goes against one earlier wing of Mormonism which adhered to what Gilmore, a Mormon himself, tells us has been described as "Christian Communism"), they are pretty straight-forward. Romney has made no effort to hide them. For example, in the wake of Frankenstorm Sandy, we have been reminded that he has advocated having the "private sector," rather than government at any level, but certainly not the Federal one, provide disaster aid. (Just who would pay such profit-making companies for their efforts, he didn't say.) He would use his executive power to the greatest extent possible to reduce Federal government regulation of: industrial and farm safety; the use of public lands; fossil fuels exploration and use; potential environmental degradation; and the financial markets.

4. Following the model laid down by his church's first two leaders, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, for Romney there is no such thing as separation of church and state, regardless of what the Constitution has to say on the matter. In this regard, it is important to note that whenever Romney talks about the Constitution, in which the word "God" does not appear, he always starts off with quoting the one line in the Declaration of Independence in which that word does appear, referring to "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God." For his listeners, he thus conflates the Declaration and the Constitution so as to make it appear that the God concept (which for Jefferson almost certainly connotes the Deist conception of God, not a presently active one) is indeed part of the Constitution.

5. Homophobia is imbedded in historical Mormon doctrine (8). Polygamy was originally encouraged as a way to grow the church flock as quickly as possible. Since homosexual couples don't procreate, it became unacceptable.

6. Romney's position on abortion is that life begins at the moment of conception (see his support for the so-called "human Life" amendment that was up for a vote last fall in Mississippi and most surprisingly went down to defeat there). Again, following the Mormon tradition, Gilmore (a Mormon himself, remember) tells us (8), you do what you have to do to gain a larger end. And so we have Romney's short-lived pro-choice position when he was in Massachusetts. Romney sees no contradictions here.

7. As far as Romney's attitude towards women and their place in society is concerned, once again one need only look to original Mormon doctrine. They are to be seen, not heard, and are really there to grow the Mormon population. Romney himself had at least one grandmother who was one of five wives of one of his grandfathers. Recall that the Utah Mormons gave up polygamy only because that was the only way that they could gain admission to the Union, and the benefits of rapidly expanding capitalism that would come to their state by doing so.

8.  Finally, he really doesn't think the "47%" are worth his time.  And of course, he doesn't have the foggiest notion of exactly who the "47%" are.

For anyone who truly cares about the future of this country and all of its people a Romney Presidency is going to provide a very bumpy ride.   

 

References:

1. Bello, G., Fitrakis, B., and Wasserman , H., " Does the Romney Family Now Own Your e-Vote?" Friday, 19 October 2012 The Free Press , http://truth-out.org/news/item/12204-does-the-romney-family-now-own-your-e-vote .

2. Campbell, D.G. and James, C., " NSA Analyst Proves GOP Is Stealing Elections ,"
http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/breaking-retired-nsa-analyst-proves-gop-is-stealing-elections/article20598.html

3. Charnin, R., "Updated Daily: Presidential True Vote/Election Fraud Forecast Model,
Oct. 31, 2012, http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/update-daily-presidential-true-voteelection-fraud-forecast-model/


4. itobin53 , "Romney family buys voting machines through Bain Capital investment," Oct 19, 2012, Select Media, http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13221476-romney-family-buys-voting-machines-through-bain-capital-investment .

5. Daily Kos, " Anonymous gives warning to Karl Rove ," Oct. 28, 2012, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/28/1151819/-Anonymous-gives-warning-to-Karl-Rove .

  

6. Chin, L., " Has the Election already been Stolen for Romney/Ryan?" Global Research, October 30, 2012, h ttp://www.globalresearch.ca/has-the-election-already-been-stolen-for-romneyryan/5310166

7. Jonas, S., "Mitt Romney's Issues (that He Doesn't Want Discussed),"   

BuzzFlash@Truthout, 05/24/2012, http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13515 .

8. Gilmore, M., "Mitt Romney and the Ghosts of Mormon History," Rolling Stone, October 25, 2012, p. 62.

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Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 30 books. In addition to being a columnist for BuzzFlash/Truthout ( http://www.buzzflash.com , http://www.truth-out.org/ ), he is the Managing Editor of and a Contributing Author to TPJmagazine.net.

 

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Steven Jonas, MD, MPH, MS is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at StonyBrookMedicine (NY). As well as having been a regular political columnist on several national websites for over 20 years, he is the author/co-author/editor/co-editor of 37 books Currently, on the columns side, in addition to his position on OpEdNews as a Trusted Author, he is a regular contributor to From The G-Man.  In the past he has been a contributor to, among other publications, The Greanville PostThe Planetary Movement, and Buzzflash.com.  He was also a triathlete for 37 seasons, doing over 250 multi-sport races.  Among his 37 books (from the late 1970s, mainly in the health, sports, and health care organization fields) are, on politics: The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022; A Futuristic Novel (originally published 1996; the 3rd version was published by Trepper & Katz Impact Books, Punto Press Publishing, 2013, Brewster, NY, sadly beginning to come true, advertised on OpEdNews and available on  (more...)
 

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