The Mitt Romney Two-Step
As the Republican nomination gears up, the most controversial Republican front runner is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He’s controversial for two reasons: his shifting beliefs and his faith. If Republican’s want a reason why they shouldn’t support Governor Romney, it’s not his religious beliefs that should bother them.
Governor Romney is the political equivalent of Senator Kerry, with one exception: Mr. Kerry has been a consistent liberal. Mr. Romney on the other hand has not been a consistent conservative. A conservative Republican wouldn’t donate to Democratic candidate running for office. A conservative Republican would never get on stage in a debate and enunciate his support for a women’s right to choose. A conservative Republican would never try to outflank the Ted Kennedy, the most liberal US Senator, by going to the extreme left on gay rights. A truly conservative Republican just doesn’t do these things.
Mitt on Gay Rights
If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern. My opponent cannot do this. I can and will.
-1994 US Senate DebateI opposed then, and do now, gay marriage and civil unions.
-January 2006
Mitt on Abortion
I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose.
-April 9, 2002[I’m] firmly pro-life.
-December 2006
Mr. Romney’s views on abortion should be particularly troubling to conservative Republicans. While Mr. Romney has never declared himself as pro-life or pro-choice, he has consistently maintained that he would uphold the laws of the land, including the controversial 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. As late as 2005, Mr. Romney has never fully backed the conservative agenda to outlaw the Roe decision:
“In considering the issue of embryo cloning and embryo farming, I saw where the harsh logic of abortion can lead–to the view of innocent new life as nothing more than research material or a commodity to be exploited,” Romney wrote in an opinion piece in Tuesday’s Boston Globe. He also said he believes each state should decide whether to allow abortion, rather than having the “one size fits all” precedent of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.
It is clear from the public record, that Mr. Romney won’t take up the conservative charge to outlaw abortion. Why should they vote for him if he won’t fight for their agenda?
To be fair, Mr. Romney is at least a consistent Republican, but he is not a consistent conservative. A more accurate assessment would be that Mr. Romney is conservative when he needs to be, pandering to the conservative wing of the Republican Party in order to get the nomination without truly taking up their cause. It’s reasonable to ask if he would he abandon their cause once in office? Hence, he’s a politician touting one set of ideas while downplaying his true intentions and beliefs.
So what does this mean for the conservative movement and the nation as a whole? If elected, there is no telling what a President Romney would do.
- Would he veto a law restricting abortion even though he believes that the states should handle the issue?
- Would he sign a law that would potentially send millions of American jobs overseas while publicly opposing the legislation?
- If another country threatened the United States, would Mr. Romney take all measures to protect the United States or hesitate because of other issues that could destabilize an already destabilized relationship?
These are important questions. His conversion on certain conservative values is the equivalent of voting for the $87 billion dollars before voting against it. Mr. Romney is a politician, not a conservative.
So why do the leaders of the conservative movement seem to be supporting a Romney bid for the White House? The answer is simple, rather than living up to their true values and beliefs, the conservative movement is doing what the Democrats did in the 2004 nomination process – supporting the candidate that has the best chance of winning regardless of political beliefs.
Conservative leaders are going out of their way to set aside their concerns about Mr. Romney’s shifting political views to support him. “Mr. Romney is the Republican candidate best able to carry their social conservative agenda to the White House” said some evangelical conservatives. Jay Sekulow, another evangelical further qualified that statement by saying, “There’s this growing acceptance of this idea that Mitt Romney may well be and is our best candidate.”
If conservatives want to avoid the Democratic nightmare of 2004 – with their candidate being called a “flip-flopper” on the issues, they ought to support the candidate that best represents their values and beliefs. The only candidate to emerge that represents true conservative values is Mr. Brownback, not Mr. Romney. He’s a politician that caters to the moment. And if that’s the case, what will the moment be in 2009, 2010, 2011, and beyond? Can you really take that chance?
Tony can be reached at TonyLnbv@Gmail.com
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