The main reason not to vote for Mr. Romney in my view is the global depression that would result from the Republican austerity vision to which he and the House Republicans are so deeply committed. They would out-Hoover Hoover at exactly the time we should be investing to rebuild our infrastructure — both because it’s crumbling and because that would jump start the economy — and at exactly the time we should be investing to make our nation energy efficient — both because there is a tremendous pay-off to be had in that (in energy savings and in national security and in confronting the climate crisis) and because, again, that, too, would jump start the economy.
So that’s the main reason. One way lies depression; the other, even with continued Republican obstructionism, too-slow-but-steady forward motion (which, if the Republicans start cooperating even a little bit, as after the election they might, could speed up considerably).
But there are other reasons. The Supreme Court. Do we really want the Court tilted even further right for the next 20 years? The Court that gave us Citizens United, allowing billionaires and corporations to spend unlimited sums to buy elections? And just threaten to spend unlimited amounts intimidate legislators into blocking anything they don’t like? All, or mostly, in secret? Without even having to disclose their involvement? Really? This is democracy as the founders envisioned it?
And then there are the more subjective reasons. MittGetsWorse (a play on the “It Gets Better” campaign) features brief video testimonies, the first of which — Julie Goodrich’s — tells the story of her meeting with then Governor Romney. “I have never before in my life stood before someone who had no capacity for empathy” — or even an interest in faking it, apparently. It’s a compelling four-minute video. Even if you oppose marriage equality, as nearly half of all Americans still do, I’d bet the story of Julie, Annie, and their 8-year-old daughter will strike you differently from the way it struck Mitt Romney.
