BMORENEWS.com

Monica Vieira Tuck

By Monica Vieira Tuck

(HOUSTON - September 28, 2012) - This election is going to be close; I will never understand why.

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and politician who is the nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–07).

The son of Lenore and George W. Romney (Governor of Michigan, 1963–69), he was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Beginning in 1966, he spent thirty months in France as a Mormon missionary. In 1969, he married Ann Davies, and the couple had five children together. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University and, in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. Romney entered the management consulting industry, and in 1977 secured a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as its Chief Executive Officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded and led the spin-off company Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation. His net worth is estimated at $190–250 million, wealth that helped fund his political campaigns prior to 2012.

In reality, Mitt Romney is not the conservative prick he portrays himself to be. During his campaigns in Massachusetts, he famously said, “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country” but now he says “I am completely against it.” His positions are taken according to the circumstances, and he doesn’t keep changing his mind; he keeps on adjusting and recreating a character to please the Republican Party.

In 1997, Mitt Romney joined Bill Bain at a firm called Bain & Company and six years later he created a new firm within the firm: Bain Capital. To sum it up, they are an equity company that buys dying businesses, they invest relatively small amounts of money and banks finance the big cash, then they bribe the management of those companies with big bonuses, fire most of the employees, pay themselves more bonus and management fees and then leave them out to pay the loan made to save them. Thinking carefully, it is a genius math, after all he is a Harvard Business school graduate, and numbers are his passion. Here is the real life example of a Bain deal: Indiana-based American pad and paper was bought for $5 million. By financing the deal with borrowed cash, within 3 years Ampad was paying $60 million in annual debt payments plus an additional $7 million in management fees. One year later, Bain made the company go public, cashed out about $50 million dollars in stock for itself and its investors, charged the firm $2 million for IPO and another $5 million in management fees. Ampad went bankrupt and all jobs were lost, but Bain and Romney were happy; they made over $100 million out of a $5 million investment.

Religion should never be a factor in an election, as separation of state and church is fundamental for democracies; but, after living in this country for so many years, it would be naive on my part to not acknowledge that religion will play a huge part in this election. Mitt Romney is Mormon, but still white evangelicals will overwhelmingly vote for him; the social dynamic of this country led me to understand that certain people would rather have a Mormon in the White House than an African-American even if he shares the same beliefs; this election is all about restoring the white power and removing those “negroes” out of the main house. After all, slavery is long gone, but the Confederate flag still rises in the Deep South and the self-imposed segregation is not an illusion.

I am sure that Mitt Romney and his family are very honorable people who got incredibly rich with several legal businesses (morally questionable ….but legal), I am also sure they all are very good people, with strong family values: a man who raised 5 boys and has an apparently strong and loving marriage to a woman who dedicated her life to it, and did a great job while trying to remain healthy. The problem is not the Romney’s as individuals. The problem is deeper than that, and at this point - America and Americans can’t afford a Republican president.

Many Republicans have a complete misconception of the world and social politics; they believe that everybody needs to pay their own way, even when there is no way. Not wanting universal healthcare under the excuse of the huge cost is the perfect example of that lack of solidarity. Not understanding higher taxes for the higher earners is very disturbing, as it is pretty much common sense; not doing it is following the Chinese policy of a flat tax, keeping in mind that they only can do it because they are overpopulated. Wanting to make abortion illegal and preventing women from having access to birth control and women related care is regressing over 50 years of fighting for rights and freedoms. Having compassion and understanding that not everybody lives by the same means, its bottom line is the big difference between the two parties!

”All right! There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. And it’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax”: This Romney remark describes to perfection the mentality that I am talking about. The idea that people with less means are trying to get over and make an easy way out is absurd. Not understanding the basics of social help has been the big American problem for a long time.

Looking at the campaign ahead, I can honestly say that Mitt Romney is going to be “murdered” at the debates. It’s not even fair: the fact that President Barack Obama is a master debater, a man with a singular ability to connect with his peers and who has the attitude of a born leader. President Obama understands the struggles of the middle class, the fears of the rich and the panic of the poor. He knows that America needs to step up to the plate and get universal healthcare on the way, stop the student debt (he had students loans so he can relate to it), and work on getting America closer to the ones in need.

He will forever remain in history as the man who had the courage of speaking freely and truthfully about so many sensitive subjects like gay marriage; he understands like no other that the Constitution is to be followed and it saddens me when I observe religious leaders worried about who is marrying who while their community is dying of AIDS and STD's, when single mothers struggle to feed their kids on the way back from visiting their 'babys' daddies in prison. If those tithe receivers put the same effort on the real subjects as they do on the gay issue, some problems would be solved. With the economy dying and the country falling apart, they should concentrate their efforts on restoring and healing, instead of heavy hating and boycotting the only hope for a relief.

The difference in this election is the same as all the others: A Republican that wants to protect the rich and make them richer and a Democrat that wants to fix the unfixable social gap, and have the government helping the ones in need. We all are free to choose our path. What we can’t do is choose in what environment we are born in. We all want to succeed and provide a good future for our children that includes being able to go to an emergency room and not have to think about the bill, or being afraid of not saving enough money to pay their tuition. The gap is always going to be economical, and either we like it or not. However, somebody as wealthy as Mitt Romney can’t understand how it fell having to scramble two jobs or to repay students loans. It is easy to talk. It’s not easy to live it!

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” - JFK

Tags: COMMENTARY: THIS ELECTION (This election is going to be close; I will never understand why.)