The Most Dangerous Man In the World

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(Above) History's Greatest Monster

People often ask me why I am so desperately fearful of a Mitt Romney Presidency.  What is it about this particular Republican that has me so deeply concerned?  After all, it is generally accepted that he is actually fairly moderate, and that his "severe conservative" persona is an act, nothing but a political pander to the extreme views of the far-right segment of his constituency.  Once in the White House, the argument goes, he will certainly implement conservative policies, but he will not be willing to take actions he knows with certainty will make him a failure as President.  If he knows nothing else, he would be deadset against leaving himself open to the kind of relentless economic argument he has used relentlessly against President Obama.

That is the conventional wisdom, and it is not just a myth, it is a dangerous myth.  Oh, I'm fairly certain that there was some truth to it much earlier in the campaign, before the Republican primaries, when Romney could envision himself as winning over the far right and then, later, in the general election campaign, tacking to the center and establishing his moderate technocratic bona fides to win over the independents in the center.  The biggest obstacle he faced in accomplishing this common electoral strategy would be finding a way to differentiate his moderate technocratic agenda from the moderate technocratic agenda of Barack Obama.  But something happened on the way to the White House.  Romney discovered that the extreme right wing of the Republican party now owned him outright, and he would not be permitted to shift a single inch to the left.

Now, at this point in the narrative, it's important to acknowledge the intellectual and personality characteristics that establish Mitt Romney's ability to transform himself from the politically moderate, pro-life governor of a very liberal Northeast state to a borderline fascist "severe conservative" in a matter of a few months.  To put it simply, Romney is nothing but an empty suit, a man whose only principles are shaped by his craven ambition, a candidate, it is widely and often said, who will say anything to become President.  And certainly, throughout his campaign we have seen this dynamic play out again and again, from nonsensical distortions to blatant contradictions to outright lies.

Historically, it has been a party's Presidential nominee that is considered the leader of the party, and is the one who defines and shapes the party's policy agenda.  But in this entirely unprecedented case, it is the extremists in the party who are imposing their agenda on the nominee, and enforcing his unwavering ideological purity.  And should Mitt Romney be elected, we can expect nothing less.  There are those who say that once elected, he would finally have the freedom to back away from the darkest right-wing vision, but that is nothing but wishful thinking.  More than ever, he would need the political infrastructure of the Republican base, from policy advisers to legislators.  And those legislators who would provide him with his operative ideological agenda will be led by Paul Ryan.  It is Paul Ryan who has the fully formed legislative vision that finally kills Medicare, eliminates Social Security, and eliminates funding for US government programs except the military and law enforcement.  And after destroying the Federal government, crippling the States and turning the US into a third world nation with an exploding deficit and a flatlined economy, the ultimate Republican vision of a small class of wealthy landowners presiding over a destitute population will be fulfilled.  America will be a land of disease and death, collapsing infrastructure and vacant cities, maintaining its wealth with giant factory farms and unfettered resource extraction.

And it's important to realize that if we look around after Mitt Romney's second term and discover that it has all slipped away, that what was once the United States of America is now a huge toxic open pit mine supporting a marauding army that steals and intimidates, it won't really be Mitt Romney who is at fault.  It will be Paul Ryan.  He's the most dangerous man in the world.
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