A moment of candor from your friendly Obama canvasser:
You know what I'd like? Honestly?
I'd like to have a choice in presidential elections. I don't think Democrats always have the best policy positions. I think the Republicans had some good ideas in the 80's and 90's, like Cap & Trade for greenhouse emissions - yes, that was a Republican idea. I think when one party dominates the conversation, it's inherently bad for us as a society. When it works, the two-party system is a perfect example of the benefits of competition in the marketplace - the competition of ideas.
Mitt Romney's candidacy makes me viscerally angry. Not because of the whole "vulture capitalism" thing, or his offshore bank accounts, or the 47% video. No, that stuff is ugly and it speaks to his character, but it doesn't make me angry and it really wouldn't affect my vote much anyway.
What makes me angry is the fact that this presidential election has not offered a choice between two candidates, two sets of ideas, two competing visions for how to move America forward. There has only ever been one serious candidate in this race.
What is Mitt Romney's tax plan? Can anyone tell me? Because his website says he's going to cut taxes by $4.8tn over ten years, but in the debates he said he'd only cut taxes if it could be done without increasing the deficit. There isn't $4.8tn to cut in the budget without taking an axe to defense or the social safety net, no way to reduce deductions enough to offset those kinds of tax decreases, and no evidence (despite 30 years of policy) that Reagan's argument about cutting taxes and growing the economy actually works when the tax cuts necessitate cuts in things like infrastructure spending. So is Romney going to cut taxes, or isn't he? Because what he says is frankly nonsense.
What is Mitt Romney's plan to stimulate the economy? The number he quotes on jobs his administration will create is just the baseline estimate most economists give for how many jobs we'll gain in the next four years anyway as we continue forward with the economic recovery we're already on. 32 straight months of job growth under Obama is nothing to sneeze at, especially given that we were losing about 800,000 jobs a month before Obama came into office. But Mitt Romney's prescription for job creation in the debates amounted to, "I'm a businessman. I know how to create jobs." Christ, Mitt, if you know how to create jobs, WHY DON'T YOU TELL US HOW SO WE CAN START DOING IT!? And at the end of the second debate, he closed by almost yelling at Candy Crowley, "Government does not create jobs." That seems like an odd statement, given that between the federal government, state and local governments, and the department of defense, government DIRECTLY employs over 20,000,000 people in this country. That's out of about 140,000,000 total jobs, and has nothing to do with government's ability to spur economic growth through its policies. The idea that government doesn't create jobs is complete nonsense.
What is Mitt Romney's plan on foreign policy? Well, apparently it's exactly the same as Barack Obama's, judging from the 3rd presidential debate. He had staked out a number of contrary positions earlier in the election, but when the time came to put up or shut up, he was shaking that etch-a-sketch for all it was worth. And while he sat there on national TV and echoed President Obama nearly point-for-point on what should be done and what he would do as president, he had the audacity to call Barack Obama a weak leader for doing just what Mitt Romney was suggesting. That's not just nonsense, that's rank hypocrisy.
What the hell happened this election?
This is why I can't understand how anyone can tell me with a straight face that they support Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney isn't a candidate in this presidential election. When you go into the voting booth on Tuesday, your options are "Barack Obama" and "Unspecified other candidate". That's not an election, that's a joke.
I was always going to vote for Obama in this election, but that's honestly beside the point. The American people deserve a choice. They deserve the chance to look at two competing visions for the country and choose whichever one they think is better. But nailing down ANYTHING Mitt Romney stands for is like trying to eat Jell-O with a pair of chopsticks. He's not a candidate, he's an empty suit, and he's spent the last six months doing everything in his power to REMAIN an empty suit.
So from the bottom of my heart, Mitt Romney, fuck you. Because I wanted an election this year, and all I got was you.