Romneyism: when a corrupt and disconnected party establishment recruits the rich and the super-rich to subsidize its non-performance

December 1, 2007 in 2008, analysis, campaign finance, campaign management, election 2008, GOP, mitt romney, republicans, romney, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: corrupt party establishment, corruption, eye, eyeon08.com, funds, money, New York Times, NYT, Raymond Herandez, Romneyism

… “It is undeniable that Mitt Romney flip-flopped on a whole bunch of things,” writes the all-seeing eye of eyeon08.com in a despairing post titled Romney’s IA immigration piece and his strange cynicism

And a number of people are comfortable with that. What I find so cynical about Romney is that he attacks people for formerly holding positions that he formerly held. Again, “flip-flopping for me, but not for thee.” Thompson, especially, no longer holds the views that he was advocating back in the day. Huckabee has shifted to the right, something that I have blasted him on.

But you know? Romney has more money, and has done better polling. My gut is that he is going to pull this off. Not because his ideas are better. Simply because he is running a better operation. (Hillary Clinton, of course, is doing the same thing) That makes me sad … etc.

That makes us sad too. What makes us doubly sad is that Romney—not Romney the person, but what Romney represents, i.e. Romneyism, where a corrupt and disconnected party establishment recruits the rich and the super-rich to subsidize its non-performance—is the future of Republican rule in whatever pockets it can survive post-Bush. Regard:

“WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 — Confronting an enormous fund-raising gap with Democrats, Republican Party officials are aggressively recruiting wealthy candidates who can spend large sums of their own money to finance their Congressional races, party officials say,” writes Raymond Hernandez in a NYT article titled Short of Funds, G.O.P. Recruits the Rich to Run

At this point, strategists for the National Republican Congressional Committee have enlisted wealthy candidates to run in at least a dozen competitive Congressional districts nationwide, particularly those where Democrats are finishing their first term and are thus considered most vulnerable. They say more are on the way.

These wealthy Republicans have each already invested $100,000 to $1 million of their own money to finance their campaigns, according to campaign finance disclosure reports and interviews with party strategists. Experts say that is a large amount for this early in the cycle … etc, etc.

At the point that a political organization’s messages and themes can no longer pay for themselves with the vigor and substance of that organization’s clients, activists, supporters etc., the party is over, in this case the Republican party. What’s left of it—congressional seats, prestigious appointments, even a shot at the presidency—is on the block and up for sale.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

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