Mitt Romney--Flip Flopper

George Romney, father of Mitt Romney, and former governor of Michigan, was too honest. He admitted that when he visited Vietnam he was “brainwashed” by the generals. For this candor he lost his bid to be Republican nominee for president. His son Mitt learned the lesson well. He decided that the last thing you need in politics is honesty and integrity. With his abundant fortune, and vulpine character, he is now the Republican candidate in the race to get the prize that escaped his father.

In 2006, when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he supported and signed a health care law that became the model for the federal health care law, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) signed by President Obama. The Massachusetts health care insurance reform law mandates that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a state-government-regulated minimum level of healthcare insurance coverage. It provides free health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level (FPL) who are not eligible for Medicaid. The law also subsidizes health care insurance for those earning up to 300% of the FPL.

Now that he is again running for President, Romney has condemned the federal health care law that was based on his state law. His most fervent distinction is that his was a state law and that the law signed by President Obama is an excessive exertion of federal power. This is not the first time Romney has had to explain his many flip-flops on political questions. Like all of his other flip-flops, however, the explanations he provides are little more than nit-picking and quibbling.

In 1994, when Mitt was running against Ted Kennedy for senator from Massachusetts, he said: “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.” During the 2002 governor's race in Massachusetts, Romney said: "The choice to have an abortion is a deeply personal one. Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not the government's." Yet, when he first began campaigning for president, Romney came out in support of state laws forbidding abortion and criticized the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. He said: “I am firmly pro-life.”

In his 1994 senate run, Romney indicated that he opposed prayer in the schools. In 2007, he called for allowing prayer in school ceremonies.

When he ran for governor in 2002, Romney strongly advocated stem-cell research and promised to lobby President Bush to provide federal funding for such research. During his presidential campaign, however, Romney renounced his 2002 position and said that he now agreed with Bush's decision to ban federal funding for stem-cell research.

In Romney's 2002 race for governor, he said: "We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them. I won't chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety.” But just before declaring his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president, Romney joined the National Rifle Association. He said: "I have a gun of my own. I go hunting myself. I'm a member of the NRA and believe firmly in the right to bear arms.” The Associated Press reported in April 2007 that Romney never sought a hunting license in any of the four states where he has resided.

In 2002 Romney supported the right of homosexuals to form civil unions and said he would support domestic partnership benefits. He said: "All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual orientation." During his first campaign for president, however, Romney stated that he is opposed to such civil unions as well as same-sex marriages.

These are just a few of the issues on which Slick Mitt has changed positions since he started running for president. Romney has calculated that the base of the Republican Party is far more conservative than the electorate in Massachusetts. He simply could not get nominated with the positions which he embraced during his races for senator and governor of Massachusetts. He appears to have calculated correctly. Republican voters do not care that this man is a total fraud and liar. They like him now that he is speaking like a true conservative. What does this say about the values of the “values” Party? Is honesty not one of the Republican values?

In an editorial, The New York Times said of Mitt Romney: “It is hard to find an issue on which he has not repositioned himself to the right since he was governor of Massachusetts. It is impossible to figure out where he stands or where he would lead the country.”

Romney called himself the candidate of “change.” What did he mean? During the 2008 run for the presidency John McCain made a good point when he said that sure, Romney was the candidate of change because had changed his position so many times.

What this country needs is not the small change of an imposter like Mitt Romney. It still needs a man of integrity like Barack Obama. Romney has frequently and unapologetically reversed his position on many issues when he thought it politically convenient to do so. Perhaps I am too idealistic, but I would like our presidents to be men of strength, integrity, and honor. I feel that Mitt Romney is a spineless fraud who looks which way the wind is blowing before stating his positions.

Unafraid of Aging?

The New York Times recently did a profile of Dr. Linda P. Fried, Dean of the Medical School at Columbia University and an expert on aging. The article, titled “Unafraid of Aging,” described how Dr. Fried’s work had opened all the wonderful possibilities of aging. I wrote the following letter to Dr. Fried:

“ Dear Dr. Fried:

I read the Times article about you today, and I wonder if you have ever considered aging for what it really is. Aging is an incurable disease. It is a terrible, horrible, wasting-away of what was once a healthy and beautiful body. I am 73 and I know. They talk about the "Golden Years," and that sounds to me like Disney nonsense. I think that aging should be looked upon by intelligent people as a tragic fact of life, one of the things that makes life miserable. While some people may be able to deal with aging through our genetic tendency to optimism, a realistic look at aging would necessarily cause deep depression.

If it were not for aging at least half, maybe more, of the medical profession would not exist. In most specialties the job is to diagnose and treat the illnesses of aging. The older you get, the more medical problems you face. You lose your ability to do many things. You lose your sexual ability. Your skin sags, your eyes, ears, and teeth go bad. Your hair turns white and falls out. You lose all energy. I'm not just talking about myself. I am talking about everybody.

The older you get, the more medications you must take. After a while you have to keep your medications in special boxes for each day. Your body gets more and more feeble. You face a multitude of problems and you keep the doctors busy. You may even lose control of your mind through one of the horrible diseases and syndromes that cause dementia. There is no cure for this. It is part of life. Eventually, you develop some problem that leads to death. By the time you die, it is almost a relief for you and your family.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but there is no good side of aging. It is a human tragedy.”

What explains our ability to go on living, even happily, while our bodies deteriorate year-after-year? Why does this disintegration of our bodies not cause every one of us terrible disgust, anger, and discouragement? The answer probably lies in our genes. In an article by Tali Sharot in the June 6, 2011, issue of Time Magazine entitled: “The Optimism Bias,” the author, a cognitive scientist, finds that we are all genetically programmed with optimism. She says that without a neural mechanism generating optimism, all humans would be mildly depressed. In other words, even though the events of life should make us depressed, we tend to look for a silver lining because of an evolutionary adaptation of our brain which makes us optimistic even in the face of horror and tragedy. This is a tremendously important finding about human nature. It is actually this genetic tendency toward optimism that keeps the human species alive. Without it we might all commit suicide.

I do not suggest that we should all become terribly depressed by our aging, but I would prefer not to hear the absurd claims that old age is the best part of life, the “Golden Years,” the last of life for which the first was made. Old age sucks.