Why Not Just Settle for Romney?

The lesser of two evils

By Zach Foster

Here are two quick insights I wrote on Facebook on why Ron Paul supporters such as myself will not support either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama this November.

The first was a response to a pen pal of mine and close friend of Mitt Romney, Don Huber, who invited me to “Feel free to reapply and rejoin this winning bandwagon for ‘my old but still younger friend of half a century, Tim Yenmor’... a.k.a. the Honorable W. Mitt Romney... when my other friend Dr. Ron and Carol Paul endorse MR!”

Don, I highly appreciate your generosity and your continued kindness, but there's no way I can support Romney. I can't support a candidate who's taken multiple contradictory positions on the sanctity of life, the individual mandate, TARP bailouts, and deficit spending. There are certain things I hold sacred which I cannot and will not sell out on in order to settle for the lesser of two evils.

If the situation was hypothetically reversed I'm sure Governor Romney would endorse my candidate, and you'd support him as well in order to elect anyone but Barack Obama. On my end, I'm not voting for a candidate per se, but rather a set of principles I can't compromise on and still walk tall afterwards.

The consistent Constitutionalist

The second, a general statement:

Dear Mitt Romney supporters, all the ad hominem attacks and false rumors in the world are not going to make us stop supporting Ron Paul. It's not just the man, but the ideals.

--The racist newsletters were NOT written by him. Period. His actual record has proven him a non-racist.

--He ran as a Libertarian in 1988. So what?! He never sold out on his IDEALS. It's about ideals and philosophy, not about having a D or an R next to your name.

--You all make a big stink about supporting our troops, when more than half of the troops (such as the one writing this letter) are tired of a decade of war and support Ron Paul.

--I'm sure Romney's a kind man and a wonderful father, but he's flip-flopped way too many times on key issues like abortion, deficit spending, bailouts, the individual mandate, and the Bill of Rights for us to take him seriously. He literally says one thing, does another, and says something else after that.

So this is not a challenge or an egging on in any way, but rather a brief but clear explanation of our position.

And I’d like to follow up with a reminder that the “lesser of two evils” is still evil.  The greater evil gives us all someone to rally against because we know that we’re united in opposing him.  The lesser of two evils is the one who makes us abandon our sacred principles, and instead of the people telling the elected officials what they will do, it becomes the elected official telling us what we must settle for.

No more.

Romney image courtesy of Gage Skidmore and Ron Paul image courtesy of Jamie Kelso. Both used via Wikimedia Commons and the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 Unported.

Ron Paul Campaign Statement on Morning Media Incident

CONCORD, N.H. – Jesse Benton, national campaign chairman for the Ron Paul campaign, released the following statement today in regards to the media incident in Manchester, NH this morning:

 

“Dr. Paul has been committed to meeting one on one with New Hampshire voters, and has aggressively campaigned at town halls, house parties, and meet and greets since early last spring.

 

“This morning, he attempted to hold an event at Moe Joe’s Diner in Manchester, to speak with patrons and supporters in the last push before the New Hampshire primary. Unfortunately, Dr. Paul and his family were forced to leave early after over 120 members of the press created a mob-like atmosphere that was deemed to be unsafe for the candidate, Moe Joe’s customers, and reporters themselves.

 

“The campaign had planned to cover our normal degree of media interest, which is always ample. However, a significant increase in the press corps, largely driven by an influx of foreign journalists, exceeded all expectations.

 

“Mrs. Paul herself, attempting to campaign alongside her husband, was shoved aside by one reporter and told to “get out of the way.”

 

“While we are very welcoming of media coverage and grateful for the interest in Dr. Paul and his campaign, basic safety simply must come first. On behalf of Dr. Paul and his campaign team, I would like to apologize to customers at Moe Joe’s who may have been distressed by this incident, and extend our gratitude and apologies to the owners, who were kind enough to have us.

 

“We ask the press, at all upcoming events over the next day and a half, to be respectful of both Dr. Paul and of New Hampshire voters, who are entitled to examine their candidates in a safe and responsible atmosphere.”