Monday, September 13, 2010

My Chat with Mitt Romney - Another Republican That's Out of Touch?

“The young people, do you think they have any idea what (Obamunism, destruction of the country,  etc) is going on?”, I asked.

“They have no idea of what is going on”, replied Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, as he sat across from me this afternoon at the local Starbucks in San Antonio, Texas.

From the looks of things being on his way to some event in Nevada, he and his entourage, all with Blackberrys , had stopped in for a break from some activities in San Antonio. TX.

Looking as someone who just stepped out of a GQ magazine, he sat down in the overstuffed chair, and bantered with his posse, telling stories such as one normally tells when they are decompressing. At first, I thought that I was going to hear tales of intrigue and plotting to wrest control from those evil Obamunists, but such was not the case and the stories were of normal people talking about vacations and telling jokes about how people who want to live in a Socialist country are leaving the United States for France because the food is better there than here . (Followed by sincere guffaws all around.)



Looking around at all the people coming and going, none seemed to recognize him. Yet ,there he was, not 8 feet from the table where I was sitting.

Seeing as he was contender for the presidency in 2008, and thinking surely that he must still be on the go for the office, I figured that it was my chance to have direct contact with somebody who may be our future president. Thus it was that I ambled over, to see directly and in real-time, if someone high up in the Republican Party, as a candidate, instead of a mere functionary or talking head mouthpiece of the party administration, was in tune with the ground level state of things, and in particular, in tune with the population at large and how they felt about certain things of which any reader to this site can well imagine had to do with the growth of government - and the role that the Republican Party machine has had itself  in promoting such growth and expansion of the State.

Thus my question which is at the lead to this piece. Continuing, I asked if he thought they (the young people), or others, knew what was at stake for the country?

“Absolutely not” is my recollection of his reply “ they have no clue”. Continuing, Romney said, “Our generation will be OK, but they (the young generation) will be the ones that have to pay the price as all the costs later fall on them.”

Thinking “Wow, that is a great reason why no office holder would want to do anything about things”, I replied that it is really sad that so many people seem clueless. I continued, however, that many of us that have voted Republican in the past, do have a concern, and that concern is that there will be really no change in Washington - even if the Republicans take the 2010 or 2012 elections.

As example, I continued that my elected representative (Lamar Smith - a Republican ) voted FOR the TARP bailout - a program that was at about $785 billion and spreads itself at about  $3,000 a person for each man woman and child in the United States. (OK maybe I am off a bit but the point is made.)

Now, this mention of the TARP was intentional as I wanted to see if he, one of the standard-bearers for the Republican Party, was clued in to the fact that there are a good many Republicans that are no longer Republicans, instead calling ourselves simply conservatives or Constitutional Conservatives, and that indeed many of us voters feel sold out by the Republican Party and that some even sat out McCain’s run.

Of course, the hidden point that I was trying to broach with Mr. Romney was that the Republican Party may be in for a rude awakening if they think that they can appear to be “just be a little bit better than the Democrats, (i.e., be seen as the lesser of two evils”) and that the Republican voters will "fall in line" with party officialdom. Perhaps that happened in the past, but the voters are angry this time - and not just at the Democrats.

My take on Romney’s reply and reaction, is that he completely missed the point which was that the Republicans need to consider that they are to blame for their own loss in 2008, not having lost to Obama, but having lost all on their own by disaffecting enough voters by their mendacious acts such as shown by the TARP vote where, for example, the Texas Republican contingent of Sen. Cornyn, and Sen. Hutchison, and Rep Lamar Smith all voted in favor of the thing instead of letting the Democrats have the entire thing in their hands, and in doing so showing themselves to many as RINO’s,  despite the hue and cry of their constituents NOT to cave in.

My take on Romney’s reply and reaction, is that it is completely off his radar that that the Republicans need to consider that it ( losses at the polls) might be about to happen to them AGAIN. 


(Yes, it was a test to see if he, too, was a RINO. Results at the end of the article)

Also, a point that he apparently is NOT clued in on is that the disaffected, are NOT disaffected only because of Obama, but are disaffected because of the way government under either party, Republican Party included,  has become a government of intrusion, statism, handout and entitlement,  and are disaffected because the Republican Party is out of touch with the people. 

I mentioned to Mr Romney that, by design, everybody is on some kind of  "entitlement" these days and that accordingly, nobody seems to want to “give up theirs” as they grunt at the government trough. To his credit, he indicated that there are a host of "them" that are doing whatever they can to keep themselves in a (government) job (power) and then to his discredit , after telling him that I was an ordinary Joe, but not a plumber, and that I wrote a political blog and that I was concerned, as many of us are, about the Republican complicity in keeping the status quo, and how the Republican Party is not listening to the people, he changed the subject - which is a first thing one does when they do not want to listen.

Perhaps I should have asked,  “The Republican Party Machine (and you), do you think they have any idea what is going on in the mind of the people that used to call themselves Republicans. Do you think that the Party Machine (and you) knows that the people now feel un-listened to by the Republican Party, and that indeed they are NOT listened to. The Republican Party Machine, do they realize that these people have the power to bring the hammer down. The Republican Party, does it realize that it works for the rank-and-file and not the other way around., and that (not to beat a dead horse to death) that there is a growing slice of normal-folks voters that are pissed off that they are not listened to, and that all the Tea Party agitation is NOT just about evil Democrats, but about the business-as-usual big-government attitude in Washington by BOTH parties?

Perhaps I should have further asked - Does the Republican Party machine (and you) realize that the Tea Party attitude is:

"McCain reaching across the aisle??" - Give us a break.

"I create jobs, not the government - So get the hell out of every nook and cranny of my life"

 " Local Problems, Local Solutions"

"You, the Federal government are out of control, and we are angry that you have made us have to come out of our farms, and out of our fields, and our homes, and our factories to rein you in and curb you to your proper function."

"We're Coming .... and we're coming for YOU"


SCORECARD/Assessment

The Good
Romney knows that the younger folks are clueless.  (Props for that.)

Romney knows that they and many in the country do not know what is really at stake with the Obama policies. (Props for that)

Romney is personable. Good handshake, looks you in the eye, energetic and animated. Doesn't seem to be the type that would have a problem looking Putin in the eye either. (Props) 


The Bad
Romney, like the Republican machine, does not have a clue that there are a lot of folks out that are on to the fact that the Republicans are in it for big government and keeping their jobs and status as part of big government - just as the Democrats are in it for big government and back scratching and job security for themselves, and that to either party we, the people, don't really matter except as a vehicle  to get them elected.  (Uh, Oh)

Romney, even after his loss at getting the nomination, and even after McCain's loss, does not understand that many of us feel that we have not really heard anything that gives us an animating reason to get fired up about them (him), as opposed to getting fired up about the message of the Tea Parties, that message being that the people feel that the Republicans - and the Democrats - are both taking us in the same direction, and that a contingent of people, perhaps large enough to swing another election, would feel just fine if the slate was cleaned entirely so we, the people, can start over with a government that “does the right thing”, instead of persisting in the mindset that we are a people  - of the federal government, by the federal government, for the federal government. (Double Uh Oh)

Thus ended my conversation with another Republican that is out of touch with the people. And they wonder what it is that is animating the Tea Parties. Well, here is a clue Republican Party -  The Tea Party is composed of reasonable and rational people that are tired of being not listened to.


Dear Republican Party,

We are tired of listening to YOU. You need to be listening to US. If you do not, you will again feel it at the polls as more and more of us who have awakened and unplugged from the matrix find it in our power to keep YOU out of power until you do listen rather than phoo-phoo and patronize and put us to sleep with your trite platitudes.

And no Mr. Republican Party, we are NOT the message of Bill O’Riley, we are NOT the message of Sean Hannity, we are not the message of Michael Savage, we are NOT the message of Glenn Beck. Nor are they our messengers.

We are our own message. We are our own messenger. We are us, we are many, we are growing, and we are fed up not only with the Democrats - but with YOU.

Yours Truly,
One of the awakened

P.S. You saw what just happened in Delaware?? Have you considered that it will happen in other places. You treat us, and ignore us, as if we are little kids sitting in the back seat of the car yammering on about "when are we going to get there", when the truth of the matter is that what we are "yammering about" is that the lid of the trunk has just blown off and all the suitcases are on fire!

3 comments:

Claudius Valarium said...

Yep, I suspected as much from him. Not surprised.

Anonymous said...

About Romney - Our only hope is that come November we will "throw out the Trash" which will serve as a warning shot across the bow for the next go-roundin 2012! And our hop is that it will be the Tea Party bunch who is in control.

Wallace Hunter said...

So if none of those names dropped are the leader? Who is? I did a wiki search and I see the top 10 agenda points of the tea party. Is that what you are in line with? Just trying my best to understand what you would like to see achieved agenda wise. I did the research because I am honestly unsure of what you would like to see happen... and what "the young people are missing", cause that would be me right?