Rants and Raves

Thursday, May 10, 2012 4:38 pm

By Leslie Schultz

I’ve been thinking a lot about Mitt Romney’s shame-based presidential campaign. As a resident of Massachusetts, I cannot be duped by our former governor’s revisionist interpretation of his time here. I know who he is and I saw what he did. He reformed our state healthcare system to resemble a socialist plot, let stand a law granting gays the right to marry, and raised revenue through licensing fees to help pay down the state’s debt. The guy was a nightmare—the kind of nightmare only a conservative could have.

Today, of course, Mr. Romney is ashamed to admit he took pity on the poor and uninsured; has couched his fiscally responsible budget fix in Tea Party language (Look, ma! I can balance a budget without raising taxes!), and buries his head in the sand when one of his trusted advisors is marginalized for his homosexuality. (The 2012 version of Mitt selfishly wants the sanctity of marriage reserved for heterosexuals so only they can have the right to divorce).

Yes, sir—Mr. Romney is lugging around a lot of filthy baggage from his Bay State days. Take our health insurance mandate. Because of it, my 24-year-old daughter’s right to break a bone and let someone else’s higher premiums pick up the tab has been squashed like a spent cigarette. Now she has to pay $89 per month (the sliding scale fee that was set based on her income level) to participate in a public health plan. For that sum, all she gets is access to some of the best research hospitals and medical professionals in the world (Lahey Clinic, Beth Israel Deaconess, Dana Farber Cancer Institute—the list is too long to type).

In part because Massachusetts was more flush than some other states when the recession hit, we now boast an unemployment rate of 6.5%—the lowest in the nation. That’s right, Mr. Romney, I have a job. If you hadn’t held down taxes while hiking fees on licenses to close a budget gap, companies might have fled the state and I could be telling a different story. It’s on the record, Mitt—you can run but you can’t hide.

So now that Mitt Romney wants to be president, he’s cozying up to extreme right-wingers with tall tales of how vehemently he opposes coupling for same-sex couples, how deftly he can reduce a deficit without increasing revenue streams, and how ridiculously unlawful federally mandated healthcare is in our free and unfettered land.

I say, “Shame on you, indeed, Mr. Romney.” It is shameful to disavow your propensity to listen and respond to the public’s concerns; your record of compromise with members of the opposite party when logic trumps politics; your propensity to honor your financial responsibilities as an elected official; and your inclination to protect the rights of individuals to pursue happiness peacefully, even when those pursuits are anathema to your faith.

 You are ashamed of things you know you should be proud of – and that is the mark of a shameless politician if I ever saw one. I’m looking at you, Mitt.

Leslie Schultz is the founding editor of New Paris Press. She can be reached at newparispressfb@gmail.com.