That is the type of thinking that the current brand of Right Wing Republicans is banking on. After doing my sit-ups I started thinking about how best to reach people who continue voting against their own interest. I believe it is a twofold process and I think if we look at the current polls it is exactly what is happening.
President Obama has been hammering Mitt Romney in ads for months. Mitt Romney has been hammering the President for months yet the polls seemed to remain static. Not until Americans heard a statement out of Mitt Romney’s mouth that showed his inability to care, not necessarily for them but for others did the polls move.
Even when my friend said math did not matter, I could hear in his voice and in his conversation that he was trying to find something to hang on to. Voting against one’s own party can feel like cultural abandonment or heresy. I think for many Republicans that now view the direction of their party as flawed, there is one important and truthful card that must be played.
Every examination of Mitt Romney’s policies by organizations that are reputable make it clear that even with draconian cuts to the social safety net and discretionary spending that the Mitt Romney’s budget will increase the deficit. It is also true that studies show that the Romney-Ryan economic plans would increase unemployment and deepen the recession. We all know that Mitt Romney wants to gut regulations and as such we know under his administration EPA regulations will be lax thus putting our environment at risk. We know regulations to discourage offshoring and outsourcing American jobs will not be enacted. We know there will be cuts in our education aid budgets thus not only limiting access to the middle class but effectively moving us further down educationally when compared with other industrialized nations.
These are policies that will cause the further decline of the middle class. A decline of the middle class is effectively the decline of America. Anyone instituting policies that will effect the decline of America must be considered a traitor to American values.
Most Americans love this country. Most Americans want to do good by this country. As such we must be frank. If you knowingly vote for someone who telegraphs to you policies that others prove to you will cause the decline of America, then you must accept the label of being unpatriotic. Willful ignorance cannot be used as an excuse. It is imperative that these terms are used, civilly of course. It may not be accepted at this time, however when that person is in that voting booth between their ballot and their God, we must trust that their inner patriot will emerge.