I'm amused at watching Romney try to reposition himself for the general electorate. It's ironic, because, as I've written before, Romney was only a little to Obama's right, politically -- Obama the 80s Republican masquerading as a Democrat, and Romney, the "What do I have to say to win?" candidate.
Obama's the most conservative Democrat to be in the White House in a generation -- he makes Bill "Third Way" Clinton look like a liberal by comparison. So, in theory, Romney was the most likely candidate to be able to bamboozle enough voters into voting for him, for failing to be able to see the difference between the two. And, in truth, that's how it was, at least before the primaries. For all the Right's hysterical howling and strident sermonizing, Obama and Romney were very, very close politically. And, in likelihood, they still are.
But, in order to navigate the GOP primaries, Romney had to drink the Kool-Aid. He had to quaff it to be able to squeak enough votes to secure the nomination. The GOP has butchered its brand by pandering to their reactionaries (sorry, should I say theocratic fascists?) who are hell-bent on pushing their moral and social agenda on the rest of the country. This, to the detriment of the GOP -- polls are showing that 58% of Americans view the GOP unfavorably, with only 36% viewing the GOP favorably. By way of comparison, 50% of Americans view the Democrats favorably (and I hasten to add that this isn't something the Dems should be proud of -- they've been sucking royally, too; they just are more in step with what the majority of Americans want than the GOP).
So, a candidate who should have been a real contender against Obama is forced to go into the general election with Kool-Aid stains on his teeth.
The GOP brand is so soured nowadays that I know plenty of people who were diehard Republicans a decade or more ago who are now claiming to be Libertarians! (the same folks who would have scoffed at that label if it had been thrown their way back then) These are folks who were generationally Republican, proudly so. Now they are hemming and hawing and backing away from the Republican label. Why? Because the brand is toxic. And it has been made so by the reactionaries.
The GOP is captive to the headless beast it has created, and it's going over a cliff. The wages of ideology, alas! What sucks, from my perspective, is that in their efforts to appease these right-wingdings, the Democrats of today have stepped to the Right, themselves, to the extent that they resemble Reagan Republicans -- which, of course, makes them seem like raging socialists to today's Kool-Aiders in the GOP.
So, it's going to be a "choice" between Republican Lite (Obama), or Friendly Fascism (Romney). There it is. Overall, it's not going to be good for the country -- the remaining GOP dead-enders will burn the whole place down if they can, rather than compromise, and they certainly have no intention to let America be more tolerant, compassionate, diverse, intellectual, scientific, just, fair, open-minded -- no, that's not what they're about.
It would be nice for the Democrats to grow some balls and say to these nutballs that it's okay for the GOP to be bigoted, cruel, provincial, anti-intellectual, unjust, corrupt, close-minded demagogues -- but that the rest of the country (and the world) isn't going to pay for their militant ignorance -- their their whacked out views deserve no place in public policy-making. But wishing for the Democrats to have some balls is like asking for the sun to rise in the west.
End result, Romney's going to be screwed going up against Obama, the GOP is going to try even harder to find their Fuhrer for the next presidential election, Obama will continue his Republican Lite politics, and the very real needed progress in American politics won't happen. The choice is treading water (Obama) or sinking (Romney); America will vote for treading water. But it's still not progress.
