DemocratDad

Extra! Extra! Mitt Romney's Core Revealed!

As Romney looks to lock up the Republican nomination, the task before us is to figure out, once and for all, what lies at the core of Mitt Romney.

No, no, ambition and wealth-acquisition don't count. They are mere means to an end. The question is: What does this man really care about, deep down inside?

It occurred to me on Tuesday night, as I watched his speech following the results in New Hampshire, that Mitt Romney's core is right in front of our eyes -- and has been all along. It is consistent with his record. It is consistent with his rhetoric. It is consistent with his biography.

Mitt Romney has at his core a fervent belief in American exceptionalism, rooted in his religion. He is, above all, a good Mormon missionary.

When I say he is a good Mormon missionary I am not saying that he wants to convert all Americans or all of the citizens of the world to his religion (although of course he would not be opposed to such an outcome). What I am saying is that he is a good Mormon missionary in that he truly believes that America is the exceptional nation, the nation of destiny that, as Joseph Smith learned in 1832, will host Jesus when he returns to Jackson County, Missouri.

What I heard on Tuesday night in New Hampshire, is the deep-seated,  deeply felt, American exceptionalism that flows from this core belief. You hear it in Romney's frequent attacks on President Obama's "apology tour" (which of course never happened). You hear it in Romney's fear that America might borrow ideas from socialistic Europe. You hear it in his insistence that as President he will make America "America" again. We are the special nation. His religion tells him so.

This is more than the typical patriotic bromides you hear on a nightly basis from, say, Sean Hannity. Romney's American exceptionalism is rooted in the faith, inculcated in Mitt since he was a young boy, that America is the chosen nation of God, and the fate of the world rests on America's difference.

As we know, the Evangelical wing of the Republican Party has become increasingly fierce in its allegiance to Israel, partly because of its Biblical understanding that the Jews should live in the holy land. Well, for Mormons like Mitt Romney, America too has its Zion, and must be protected from all interference by outsiders. 

Despite the doubts about the "cult" of Mormonism among Chrisitanists in the South, this is where the America First rhetoric of the right, with its hyper-militarism and xenophobia, dovetails perfectly with Romney's religious-based American exceptionalism.

What does this all mean for President Obama's campaign? It strikes me that President Obama must counter this one genuine aspect of Romney -- the core of the man -- with a serious effort to define a different kind of patriotism. If Romney is to resonate with the voters, god forbid, it will be based on this shared sentiment that America is a chosen land. President Obama needs to define the ways that he believes America to be exceptional too -- as a land of opportunity, of rights, of fairness, not based on a tale of Gold Plates and Rapture but on real stakes for real people.

 

 

Emotional Release vs. Tangible Results

So I have begun volunteering for the Obama re-election campaign. I am what is called a "Fall Fellow" for Organizing for America. My "turf" is my own neighborhood in North Berkeley.

One of my tasks, as a Fall Fellow, is to defend the administration against its critics.

In most parts of the country this would mean defending President Obama against Republicans, Tea Partiers, Libertarians and reactionaries of all stripes. Not in Berkeley, though. Here it means defending this administration against the criticisms leveled at it by the Left.

I call potential volunteers and supporters on the phone. I nearly lose it. I have to pace the room, take some deep breaths, just to collect myself.

Our politics are very similar. Our perspectives are drastically different.

The common complaint on the left is that President Obama needs to be more forceful. That he compromises, or "caves," to the Republicans too early. I'm sorry, but this complaint pisses me off. Of course I can't say that over the phone, but it does.

Let's just review the facts. In the first year and a half of his term, President Obama passed the stimulus bill over Republican objections, fought for universal health care and achieved it with the Affordable Care Act, signed a new treaty with Russia reducing and securing nuclear stockpiles, signed financial reform, credit card reform, dealt with the BP oil spill, and generally demonstrated nerves of steel at every step of the way. Then the midterm elections, in November of 2010, sent many Democratic representatives in the House and Senate home; the ones who stayed ran for cover. He was forced to temporarily extend the Bush tax cuts in order to extend payroll tax cuts to the middle class and extend unemployment benefits. The winds have been against him ever since, with the Republicans playing with nothing less than the full faith and credit of the United States in order to score political points.

This is a President who is being pummeled by charlatans who want above all to see him defeated. And yet he has persisted, at every opportunity, to fight for the interests of the American people. He has refused to take the easy path and demonize and antagonize further his opponents. Instead he has spoken constantly, unceasingly, in the language of democracy, the language of civility and shared sacrifice and the common good. This takes enormous strength. To call President Obama weak is to fundamentally misread the situation.

What it really comes down to is that many of the people I speak with in Berkeley want him to pound the podium, call the Republicans on their imbecility and mendacity, announce to one and all that he will never waver, never buckle, never crack, never give an inch.

Well, I'm here to tell you, that kind of bluster would accomplish nothing. I would rather have a President who has the country in mind and does everything in his power to help his fellow Americans during this difficult time, including taking a beating and refusing to stoop as low as his opponents.

Faced with economic uncertainty and fear, many people want emotional release. Hell, I want emotional release. President Obama, though? He wants tangible results.

I'm In

This is the new slogan for the Obama for America campaign: I'm in.

And for me it is doubly true. I'm in as a volunteer on the campaign. I'm in, as in back in the game.

As anyone who has read this blog knows, the past four years have been strenuous for me and my family. But we are coming out of it. My wife Renee is doing well, her cancer's in remission (we believe it is gone forever), we are finally insured (through the Affordable Care Act -- thank you Mr. President! Thank you Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid!), and we are beginning to reenter the world again.

The kids are older (7,5 and 4), and they are perfect, beautiful. The demands on me as Dad are lightening every so slighly. So in addition to teaching a class on Shakespeare at their school, and while I'm still working on that memoir based on our road-trip to the childhood homes of Presidents, I have recently volunteered with the Obama campaign, building neighborhood teams.

My two-day training last weekend was truly inspiring. The stakes are so high, massive wealth and the control of nuclear warheads turn on the office in question, and yet the staff of the Oakland Obama for America office is down-to-earth, patient, smart, genuine. All through the training, they let us Fall Fellows ask questions, pursue tangents, to our hearts' content. They talked about respect, listening, including everybody -- in short, the values that the President himself demonstrates every day.

If this is how reentering the outside world feels, after 4 years away from it, let me just say: I'm in.

Let the Games Begin!

So Obama delivered his SOTU last night. "We do big things" was the message. The specifics were few but he touched on clean energy. Better schools. Tax code reform. Oh, and the state of the Union is... wait for it... strong.

Why this speech, filled with generalities? We know this President is capable of far more penetrating insight into the country and the policies needed to fix it. Why did he give us this pabulum instead?

The answer, I think, is that this was not a speech; it was an effort to get positioned well for the 2012 campaign. Forget the policy prescriptions last night. What Obama wanted to do was establish one thing, and one thing only: I AM THE PRESIDENT TO ALL AMERICANS.

For two years he has been demonized and "othered" by Fox and the Tea Partiers. Many of them, particularly in the South, a hard-core 20% in the polls, will detest him and question his legitimacy regardless (because he is in the "Democrat Party," because he is black, because he is "an elitist", etc.). But for the middle 40%, he needs to show that he shares the same concerns they do.

Details would get in the way of this effort. So he focused on the one thing that every living, breathing person cannot deny is in his or her interest: the future. "This is how we will win the future!" he exhorted us.

Win the future? Like a lottery ticket? Or a war? Or a new car? The phrase leaves me uneasy; it dredges up with it the same zero-sum, me-first outlook on life that got us into this mess in the first place.

Still, it gets us looking in the same direction, all Americans. And certainly President Obama will have the advantage over his divisive opponents anytime the country is looking the same direction.

Let the games begin.