As political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson describe in a Washington Post op-ed, George Romney “dismissed the ‘rugged individualism’ touted by conservative as ‘nothing but a political banner to cover up greed.’” They note that, as governor, George Romney established a minimum wage, introduced an income tax, granted collective bargaining rights to public employees and created social safety net programs for the poor. These were not the liberal convulsions of a Republican who’d lost his way; these were mainstream conservative ideas at the time.
Yet Mitt Romney has rejected of them. He dismisses government’s role in just about every aspect of the American economy. He supports the repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, and the weakening of the Environmental Protection Agency. He calls regulations “the invisible boot of the state.” He would slash Medicaid and food stamps, along with Pell Grants and Head Start. His policies are designed to prop up the wealthy on the backs of the rest. Where the father had a desire for consensus and a sense of economic morality, the son has neither.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and publisher of the Nation magazine, vanden Heuvel writes a weekly column for The Post.
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Rick Santorum and the separation of church and state
Media attention has focused less on Romney in recent days than it has on Santorum. The possibility of a major party nominating, for the first time in American history, a candidate who rejects the separation of church and state is, indeed, a colorful, if terrifying story. But the truth is, Santorum and Romney are equally extreme, just focused on different issues.
On the issues that are central to economic life in America — the notion of fundamental fairness, the idea that everyone should have the opportunity of social mobility, the basic premise that government has a role to play, in partnership with the private sector — Romney is as extreme as they come. More extreme than either President Bush. More extreme than Reagan and Ford and Nixon. More extreme, even, than Barry Goldwater, the father of Republican extremism.
And so tonight, a small percentage of Michigan voters will decide whether to anoint the economic extremist or the religious one as their standard bearer going forward. But for the rest of the voters, for that larger population, the decision will be much easier: choose neither.
Katrina vanden Heuvel is the author of the book “The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama.”
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