This is by far the best piece I've read on Mitt Romney to date.

[reflection]

It describes him and the state of his party perfectly.

http://prospect.org/article/staring-void-mitt-romney

(The whole thing is just 4 paragraphs, so I could have excerpted the entire thing, I suppose, but that would deny the author some clicks, so I'll just show one paragraph.)

Actually, by now the base knows what Governor Romney believes, too. By now we all know what Governor Romney believes; by now his beliefs are more manifest and less mysterious than that of any candidate who’s ever run. Governor Romney believes nothing. Politically speaking, Governor Romney is nothing. Mustering up outrage over this nothingness makes as much sense as mustering up outrage over a galactic black hole. What’s happening in and to the Republican Party this past week isn’t an aberration; it’s happening because of what the party has become and whom it’s nominating, which is someone caught between the base that he so rapaciously rushed to appease with the Ryan nomination and the other 65 percent of the country that looks at a Rorschach inkblot without seeing a splattered fetus. One of the great modern political organizations of the last century and a half, the party of not only Reagan but Dwight Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt and the greatest president the country ever had, is in the grip of a collective psychosis. Like its nominee, the party itself is caught between two political irreconcilables: its own super-conscience, with its barbaric view of human nature that calls itself moral and its hostile regard of empirical fact that calls itself spiritual; and the 2012 model of its embodiment, the nominee who has no view—of fact or humanity or anything else—that doesn’t serve the ends of his own success. When a party is as deeply stricken as the Republicans in terms of who they are, such a nominee can only be the void that stares back.

[RKP5637]

1. I found the first comment on the article interesting ...

Republicans believe in "property rights". Including the right to view women as "property" which is really a lot about what the anti-abortion people happen to view women as... In Republican eyes you "own" your woman, and the "fruit of her womb" is also yours too. Then of course Republicans want to cut taxes to the point that the "defense budget" (sacred to Republicans like nothing else is) will be the only portion of government revenue that will be "affordable". Then of course Republican multimillionaires like Mitt Romney won't be paying taxes at all except for the property tax on their estates. No capital gains tax means the rich will no longer pay federal income tax because their income is all "capital gains" or "carried interest". Neither will the millions they leave behind at their deaths be "taxable" any more. Instead there will be an economic aristocracy that will rule the country forever. At least until the rest of the American people exercise their Second Amendment rights and rid themselves of these economic parasites who only produce "jobs" in countries most people will need Google Earth to find.

Excerpted comment from: http://prospect.org/article/staring-void-mitt-romney

[reflection]

2. Agreed. I found that comment a nice complement to the piece.

I scanned through the (then 7) comments to find one that tried to argue against the substance of the article, and just as I suspected, it ignored the article and resorted to namecalling.

Akin did not speak for Romney but OweBlameA did spend 20 years worshiping with Rev. Wright, hobnobbing with the Pentagon-bombing Bill Ayers and doing drugs enthusiastically. Those are not American family values the majority of Americans support.

The fact is, this piece is spot on and brutal in its honesty. The Republican party is in serious trouble, whether or not they win this election. They are a house divided and their candidate is indeed an etch-a-sketch. I take cold comfort in knowing that if Romney wins this thing, the Republicans will be driven from the White House in a virtual tar-and-feathering in four years.

I'm still shocked that the vacuous and benighted Romney even has a chance. I can see memories fading after 8 years, but we're only 4 years removed from the alcohol-soaked disaster that was W.

[democrat_patriot]

9. "The Republican party is in serious trouble, whether or not they win this election."

That sentence scares me. That this party of hate and destruction may actually run the country.

They have put up Romney, Ryan and Akin and they still may win. And they will view it as a mandate to do as they please.

Oh we had GW - he was a kitten. Wolfowitz, Rumsfield? Amateurs. These guys scare Cheney - who is fortifying his Wyoming estate and stocking it with game so he will survive the coming meltdown. The super-rich will go underground and raze the earth - coming forth in 50 years to rule as the Pharoahs of old. That's why Rove is still active - he needs their protection.

Opening Yosemite to oil drilling
Gutting the EPA and the USDA
De-regulating Wall Street to the point of implosion
No abortions. Ever. Forced Government Pregnancy.
Climate change, drought, fires, famine.

But it'll be OK - reality TV will keep us placated.

I am tempted to start visiting survivalist sites.....stocking food.

[siligut]

16. I have to agree, the people we never see or hear about have just been biding their time

Last edited Fri Aug 24, 2012, 02:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Maybe it started before WWII, but that is when I can identify the greatest shift.

Glad I am old and have no children.

[HopeHoops]

3. Yep - that nailed it.

[barbtries]

4. good read.

go to the link.

[flor-de-jasmim]

5. The only thing I object to in the article is...

...continuing to refer to the GOP as the "party of Lincoln". I know why people do it, but I wonder how many low-information voters hear that and feel comforted by their insistence on voting R.

But it is a GREAT article otherwise!

[reflection]

7. Maybe I missed it...

where did anyone in the article or comments make that reference? I don't see it.

[XemaSab]

10. "One of the great modern political organizations of the last century and a half...

...the party of not only Reagan but Dwight Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt and the greatest president the country ever had, is in the grip of a collective psychosis."

[reflection]

11. Ah. My literal mind couldn't see it.

Thanks!

[vlyons]

6. The Republican party is totally bankrupt

without moral authority, economic credability, or scientific respect.

[rox63]

8. Best analysis of Romney I've seen in a while

K&R!

[wiggs]

12. Romney = corporation. Corporation = sociopath. Therefore,

Rpmney = sociopath.

[EnviroBat]

13. The cream of the republican base is rising to the top.

With each passing year the republican base becomes more filtered down to it's structural components. The bigots, racists, homophobes, the christian-fundamentalists, the arm-chair warmongers, the un-educated anti-intellectuals, the fake-patriot anti-government blowhards. No one with a modicum of sanity can represent these people. This is why the GOP is floundering on the rocks like a rudderless ship. Trying to keep all of these proles satisfied and contributing to their party. Even with all of the corporate backing they have, they simply can not govern or represent the irrational. They are this nations biggest embarrassment, and they know it.

[annabanana]

14. EXCELLENT. . Both about the Party and about the Man., , , ,n/t

[southernyankeebelle]

15. Great article. I see 2 factions of the republican party and until they fight it out they

will lose because they lie so much.

[Ian_rd]

17. The Christian Right gave them great power, but now that Frankenstein Monster is tearing up their lab

For the past half-century, the Republican Party has manipulated the Christian Right into voting for them, but never really giving them anything in return for their votes like a ban on abortion or gay marriage.

The wealthy despise them so much - their useful idiots - even while knowing that their votes are what make it possible to transform the apparatus of the United States government into increasing their already copious wealth. But for the past couple decades or so, unsatisfied with the lack of Old Testament legislation, this base of voters started occupying the halls of the Republican Party itself. Useful idiots no more, now they are the ones in charge. And you can see it in the Party Platform and voting records of high office holders.

These people are bat-shit-fucking-crazy, better suited to hiding in caves with the Taliban than pulling the levers of a world superpower. We can thank Karl Rove and others for sending 10,000 volts of electricity through this monster that has now taken them over and controls half of the nation's political apparatus.

[reflection]

18. Excellent post, sir/madam.

I love the way you paint that picture.

[Timbuk3]

19. "the void that stares back"

Seems like that could be applied to the GOP in general, or life for all of us if the GOP ever succeeds in taking real power again, too.

Because if the GOP is ever able to end EVERY aspect of the Federal Government other than the MIC and forcing women to carry the babies their rapists implanted in them, which is what they want to do (no matter how much they lie about it, or how wrong they are on how "it's what the Constitution says&quot , life is going to be pretty empty in this once-great country.

[eShirl]

20. Yikes!

Disturbingly true.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

21. Romney is NOT an empty suit

He shits his pants in fear every time Karl Rove, Sheldon Adelson, or David Koch call him on the phone to express their displeasure over the incompetent way he's running his campaign for their White House.