I’ve written here and pointed out to as many people as who will listen to me how Mitt Romney represents ALL that is wrong with America, and yet – it appears he’s going to be running for President of the United States with an enormous MONEY BELT thanks to “Citizens United,” a voter suppression drive focused on two or three key states, and a national media that is too timid to actually do the work to “discover” the Romney “offshore empire.”  This is a man who would be president, yet is unwilling to invest in the country he longs to “run.”  Well, all that being said, Romney – to very few people’s surprise – chose a running mate who might “one up” him on ALL that is wrong with this great nation.  Not only is Paul Ryan a right wing, “tea party” type republican member of the most unpopular Congress (maybe) in America’s history (approval rating approaching single digits – right down there with Dick Cheney), but he’s apparently the “poster child” for the members of Congress who manage to become MULTI MILLIONAIRES while “taking care of” the “people’s business.”  The last report I heard was that Ryan’s most recent reporting in regards to his “net worth” put it somewhere approaching the TEN MILLION dollar territory.  Now, ask yourself, how does a US Congress person with a salary of something around $200 THOUSAND per year, get to the $10 MILLION mark in just 13 years?  The numbers really don’t add up – and, to all my right wing friends out there who’ve been railing against congressional “leaders” who’ve become millionaires while in office – I fully expect you to do the normal republican “thing” – like you’ve done with Romney – and “look the other way” now that Ryan’s been proposed for the national “ticket.”

This would be a bad joke, if it wasn’t so serious.  Now, I can’t imagine that the Romney/Ryan “ticket” can win in November – but, as I realistically look at how much MONEY is being funneled through our “liberal media” by Romney and his “Super PAC’s” I don’t think for a minute that anyone except those small time “players” on the internet, etc. will actually vet these two money grubbers – Romney and Ryan.  Romney’s got the Swiss Bank accounts (generally used to launder money – or avoid taxes), he’s got the corporate subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands and  Bermuda’s which are also “tax havens” for the rich who don’t want to “pay their fair share” – you know, the “I’ve got mine, screw you” crowd, and who knows what else.  Romney’s got a record of raising money when he was at Bain Capital from sources that evidently anyone running for President would not want the general public to know about.  As his wife was quoted as saying “you people have seen all the tax returns you’re going to see.”  Will we have to wait until AFTER the election to find out what he’s hiding?

Then there’s Ryan with the apparent “cashing in” on inside information while serving on the banking committees in Congress – the most egregious example was selling his banking stocks just a couple days prior to the announcement of the TARP bailout (which he, by the way, vigorously defended and voted for – again, this will be another example of the “tea partiers” selective “hate” regarding those who voted for the bailouts – with Ryan it will be OK because he says he’s a conservative) after secret meetings with Hank Paulsen and other Treasury officials.  Forgive me Lars Larsen for saying this – but Romney/Ryan TOTALLY support my “low information voter” claims that I’ve been making since the days of George W Bush.  Their actions stand almost 180 degrees from their rhetoric and the traditional values of the republican party.  They’re thieves, not politicians!  Yet, they’re not Obama, so republicans will support them!

And, just a little aside here – one other reason I believe they even have a chance is due to the Obama administration’s lack of will to hold these “upper crust” people (not just Romney/Ryan) accountable for their greedy, selfish, un-American  personal policies.  I’ve written ad nauseum about my disappointment in President Obama’s “looking forward instead of back” stance regarding Bush/Cheney and their illegal activity while draining this nation of it’s greatest resources for eight miserable years.  That turned more people than I believe many understand TOTALLY away from politics.  Additionally, I’m not aware of a single “financier” (like Romney) who’s been sent to jail for the abominable behaviors on Wall Street that led to the so-called TARP bailout of the nation’s “too big to fail” banks – behavior which is continuing as I type.  (for example, the architect of the “bailout,” Hank Paulsen, stepped in just in time to save his former company [have you ever wondered what kind of financial interest he had in doing this? – I have many times] Goldman Sachs – who were prime instigators of all the “derivatives” and “swaps”and all the other creative mechanisms designed to make them EXTREMELY rich without producing ANYTHING and with not the slightest regard to all the “fallout” when their schemes went awry)  This lack of action on Obama’s part, I believe, is potentially his biggest obstacle going into the 2012 election.  Statistics I’ve seen show that a HUGE number of “unlikely voters” favor Obama – it’s just that his response to the republican “NO” machine has turned people off.  There are many like me who feel that when the leaders of the nation can feel comfort as they violate our laws we are in SERIOUS trouble.  The “tea party” took over the House of Representatives because LIBERALS stayed home in 2010 – it was predictable – I hope they come to their senses prior to this coming November because, despite the shortcomings of Obama, this republican “machine” is something that should be worth getting off the couch to vote against.  That’s right, I’m suggesting that if you read this and you’re disappointed in President Obama VOTE AGAINST THE REPUBLICANS!

I’ve been an independent voter my entire voting life (over 45 years) and I REFUSE to vote for another republican until that party is purged of people like Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Rush Limbaugh,  Mitch McConnell, Sean Hannity, John Boehner, Grover Norquist, and of course Romney/Ryan as their leaders.  Romney/Ryan are simply the mouthpieces of the moneyed interests who are spending the BILLION or so dollars to defeat President Obama – and, it doesn’t take a brain scientist to figure out there’s a “cost” to accepting all that corporate money.  But, lest I ask you to reread the beginning of this post, Romney/Ryan are part of the culture which is represented by the offshore accounts and subsidiaries in places outside the U.S.  What’s interesting to me is listening to voters complain about all the jobs being exported and then saying they’re going to vote for job exporters!  It’s comparable to the “tea party” haters who were so violently opposed to attempts to provide “universal healthcare” – because it was “socialist medicine” and then saying “don’t touch my medicare.”  And, now many of those same people apparently are planning to vote for two people (Romney/Ryan) who are dead set on “touching” their medicare.  All of this is so ridiculous that it only supports my contention that America is being run by “low information voters.”  (there are some estimates that the average intelligence of America’s voting public is 6th grade – I hope that’s wrong as I’m a sixth grade teacher and, at the minimum, I teach my students to get their information from AT LEAST two sources).

Begrudgingly, I have to give the republicans credit.  They’ve become experts at marketing and using their expertise along with a TOTAL willingness to LIE – plus they have a stranglehold on the medial outlets in America – this gives them a HUGE advantage in manipulating the voting public.  They leave no stones unturned – again, you have to give them credit – they’ve managed to get control of the Supreme Court, they’ve got the aforementioned voter suppression efforts going that by all the estimates I’ve seen should prevent upwards of 5 MILLION democrats from voting this year, PLUS they’ve got ownership in the corporations which provide the electronic voting machines that are used in WAY TOO MANY precincts across America and can be easily HACKED in a way that can swing an election illegally with no “paper trail.”  The republican creed and the Mormon creed go hand in hand – “The end justifies the means.”  Lying is OK, cheating is OK, if it gets you the desired result.  Republicans are attacking women, African Americans, Latinos, unions, public workers – well over half of America’s population, yet with all the lying and cheating they’ve got a reasonable chance to win.  The way that will happen, if it does, will be all the voters who would otherwise vote for Obama STAYING HOME on election day.  I truly hope I’m wrong on this one because, the consequences of Romney winning in November will be disastrous for America’s middle class  and finish the job of destroying the “New Deal” that was put into “high gear” in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan.  Worst yet, it will put a right wing stranglehold on the Supreme Court which will last for a generation – making it even harder to overcome the corporate/government partnership in the years to come!