Saving Privatizing Ryan…As A Last Desperate Resort

Usually secretive Mitt Romney has now publicly revealed so much about his campaign being in desperate trouble. He announced Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential choice. As some have already noted, this signals among other things, that Romney’s internal polling shows he is on track to lose to Obama in November.

The MSM has tried their best to muddle up the reality that Mitt Romney is headed to lose in a big way, clinging to the occasional outlier poll that shows the race close or tied. However, the electoral map, which is the only thing that matters (which is why the MSM primarily promotes national polling to support their case for it being a close race…and thus convincing people to watch their networks for each twist and turn) has always shown Obama far ahead of Romney, with many paths to victory while Romney has a very unlikely narrow path.

So, the public may have been inundated by the MSM with the propaganda of a close race but the choice of Paul Ryan is a clear and unambiguous statement that the Romney campaign knows they are losing in a big way and needed to make a Hail Mormon pass to have even a miniscule chance of winning. It had to be clear to Romney’s camp that their base is not enthusiastic about him and in a race that should be greatly favoring Republicans, they can’t afford a depressed GOP turnout to both bring about a humiliating loss to Obama and a Democratic sweep of Senate and House seats.

The central part of this is an admission that Romney remains disliked and generates little enthusiasm when it comes to core Republicans, let alone independent voters. So, the actual Republican Presidential nominee is bringing on a Tea Party, Ayn Rand right winger to step in front of him and be the “real” face of Mitt Romney’s campaign.

First off, most people do not vote for Vice President so though some of the GOP base will be excited about Ryan being on the ticket, this changes nothing for most voters. And as the initial excitement for Tea Partiers over Ryan’s joining the ticket wanes, the realization will grow on what it means about who Romney is and why he should be disliked even more.

Romney’s choice of Ryan is a confession of weakness, a confession of being a failure and a confession of having no vision. As is typical for Romney, who has only made money by hiring others to do his thinking for him (while taking full credit for it), he has once again used his position to “buy” someone to be his “character”. Put simply, Romney is performing a political version of Hannibal Lecter, taking the face of Paul Ryan and putting it over his own to deceive others and sneak into the White House.

However, the real kicker to this is that Ryan is a double edged sword that raises some enthusiasm on the far right but alienates indies and…some of the elderly vote on the right.  Remember how Romney’s plan was to only hammer Obama on poor economic numbers and simply get elected as a result of the election being a referendum on Obama? Well…that one and only hope for Romney has proven to be a failure in the eyes of his campaign, as Obama’s winning the Summer has proven.

So, with the choice of Ryan, the Romney campaign is declaring that they can’t beat Obama based on the economy’s performance alone (I remember Chris Matthews and other MSM pundits declaring many months ago that Obama will lose the election if unemployment is above 7%…why does anyone listen to these blabber factories?). Instead, the new game plan seems to be a concoction of exciting the Right Wing, voter suppression and tons of SuperPAC money to spread hateful and dishonest propaganda against Obama. It is a desperate, cynical and fatally flawed strategy but at this point, it’s all they’ve got.

Paul Ryan represents the vindictive, extortion-minded Republican House which has a 10% approval rating in the country. He is the face of killing Social Security and Medicare as we know it. Slashing public services and harming the 99% to benefit the top 1%. Ryan’s budget zeroes out taxes on inheritances, interest, dividends and capital gains. Yep, if elected and able to pass this plan, Romney, who receives most if not all of his income as capital gains, would cut his own taxes to zero while 99% of Americans would pay around the same or more in taxes. Even the most loyal Romney supporters will have a hard time convincing anyone but the top 1% that this is ethical and fair.

The class warfare that the 1% has been waging on the 99% will only become more of an issue that obviously cuts against the Republicans and Romney/Ryan. But the most devastating aspect of Ryan being on the ticket may be his stand on ending Social Security and Medicare as entitlements and in essence, making growing old and having an income and health insurance a crap shoot.

Remember what happened after House Republicans passed Ryan’s budget the first time? Kathy Hochul won a House seat in a very solid Republican district in Erie County, New York, beating Republican Jane Corwin who supported Ryan’s plan. What happened there is the model for what can happen across the country in November.

The Obama campaign is too smart not to make it a central issue about the Romney/Ryan ticket to say, “If you vote for them and Republicans win the Senate and keep the House, it will be the end of Social Security and Medicare as we know it.”

This is such a primal issue for all Americans, especially those who are elderly and those who are heading towards and depending on these social programs. Senior Citizens who are already on Social Security and Medicare are not the greedy bastards that Paul Ryan and the Republicans are, they projected their selfishness onto seniors and it won’t stick. Ryan’s trick was to only take away SS and Medicare as entitlements from the next generation, assuring seniors, “Don’t worry, you’ll get to keep what you have, we’re just going to take it away from your kids and grandkids!”

Despite being surprised and disappointed in seniors actually caring about the future welfare of their families, this is the only propaganda they have to promote their agenda of impoverishing the 99%.

At this point in time, Romney is losing in a big way to Obama when it comes to women and Latinos. As Ryan’s presence on the ticket scares and alienates seniors, this VP choice could end up yielding a much greater loss for Romney than he would have otherwise had. Seniors typically skew Republican but if that margin was to be reduced or even dissolved, it would be a catastrophe for the GOP. And that could absolutely happen this year, thanks to that human set of safety net scissors being on the GOP ticket, Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan is a career politician, he has little professional experience before becoming a Congressman. Romney’s campaign has made some ridiculous statements previously such as wanting a requirement that to run for President, you’d have to have run a business first. Whoops! Paul Ryan drove an Oscar Meyer Weinermobile before joining The House, does that count? So, as a potential President, someone with far less professional experience than Obama is hunky dory? Lost another avenue of attack there.

Though I doubt it will be as powerful as his budget’s class warfare and killing of Medicare and Social Security as entitlements, Ryan’s public loyalty to the lunacy and greed of Ayn Rand sure won’t help his image. Yes, the ignorant Tea Party types might applaud the 1%ers and their “right” to be sociopathic but that’s offensive to most Americans.

Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans believe in fairness, they want the wealthy just to pay their fair share. They want the poor helped so that they and their children won’t go homeless and hungry and have a chance for a good education and career. They simply don’t support America becoming a wealthy dog eat poor dog society. The Ayn Rand concept of everyone in a society being selfish and eschewing any concern of others in pursuit of becoming wealthier and more powerful as an individual just isn’t American. Americans do believe in the American Dream of anyone being able to succeed and become a millionaire through their own efforts, they don’t resent the wealthy for being wealthy, they just see all of us as part of the same society.

That doesn’t fit in well with Ayn Rand devotee, Paul Ryan:

 “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand. I give out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well… I try to make my interns read it.”

Many will now discover what the philosophy of Ayn Rand is and be repelled by it as most folks who aren’t sociopaths are.

So, looking at Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan, it is hard to see it as anything other than the desperate act of a desperate man. To voluntarily damage his chances with indie voters, who will decide the election, in order to keep Republicans from staying at home in November, seems more like Romney’s focus is on minimizing his loss while going for a one chance in a million gamble than appealing to the most voters as possible by abandoning extremism.

This isn’t to say that Romney’s campaign and supporters don’t also harbor excitement over what would happen if they won. It’s like people buying lottery tickets, part of their mind may know that their odds of winning are 0ne in 40 million and they can’t possibly win but that logic is easily overridden by the fantasy and wish fulfillment of winning so much.

We should be prepared for the MSM propaganda campaign on this that will hold up Ryan as a “brave” and “brilliant” gamble by Romney, praising Ryan for his being “pragmatic” and “substantial” when it comes to the economy. These media corporations profit from a close race stirring up higher viewership but they also salivate at the financial windfall that would come to them if Ryan’s slashing of corporate taxes, capital gains, etc. could be made into law.

Even so, in the end, neither Romney nor Ryan come off as likeable or looking out for the 99% and that will be their downfall. Ryan’s joining the ticket only turbo-charges the argument against Romney as an elitist plutocrat, a man who like Ayn Rand, only cares about serving himself and his elitist class. With Ryan on the ticket and a focus on the GOP extremists, the Republican convention may actually become a liability to Romney and provide a very flattering contrast and bounce for Obama at the Democratic convention.

President Obama has so much going for him as a human being but it never hurts to have a bit of luck as well. In each of his elections, he has had the good luck to run against very flawed candidates. This time is no exception. Had a much more skilled Republican politician run against Obama this year, it could have been a very worrisome time for him and the nation.

Fortunately for Obama and the majority in this country, this GOP ticket’s cocktail of Ayn Rand  heartlessness and selfishness and the out of touch elitism of the very wealthy should give only the Republicans a hangover this November.

That said, nothing is over until it is over and the threat of Ryan/Romney (the order of their names that most Repubs will prefer) and the prospects for a big year for Dems and Obama should motivate all people of conscience to work and donate as much as they would if it was indeed a neck and neck race.

In the Olympics this year, Michael Phelps lost a race because instead of taking half a stroke more, he cruised to the wall. There’s a big lesson there, never stop or take anything for granted until the race is over…because despite appearances, you still could lose.