New Polity

I’m honestly sick of hearing so much negativity from the left. If you’re a frequent viewer of this website, I apologize if you’re offended that the GOP candidates don’t have the same sense of self-righteousness that leftists carry. They still care about repairing the economy, restoring jobs, and making the American system work again, they just plan to do it with wiser spending instead of more spending. The one major issue within the Republican party is that there is no single candidate that appeals to all branches of the GOP. Although Mitt Romney is the clear front runner for the party, CNN once compared the conservative base/Romney relationship as an arranged marriage rather than a love affair. I honestly have no idea what makes someone the perfect conservative, but the one quality in the candidates the that the party needs to focus on when they’re facing an incumbent is electability. Whether or not you agree with all of the Republican candidate’s views, your interests are best suited by any Republican candidate over Obama. Let’s take a look at how the candidates compare against Obama:

1. Mitt Romney: Mitt Romney is the Candidate most likely to beat Obama because of two words: Independent voters. The majority of Americans have moderate views on both sides and he is the only candidate whose views match those of most independent voters. Of course, some candidates like Newt Gingrich use this as a point of attack, claiming that Romney isn’t a true enough conservative, or the “Massachusetts moderate” but this will help Romney battle for the independent vote with Obama, possibly winning it as well.

2. Ron Paul: Paul would be able to win a great deal of independent support as well because of his Libertarian views and social liberalism, but he appears to be unelectable because of some of his extreme views. If you’re a conservative who thinks Obama’s actions are too extreme, Paul is much more extreme in the opposite direction. In addition to abolishing numerous federal departments, he would end all U.S. over seas military presence. Considering the fact that we play a strong deterring role in many areas of the world like East Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, etc. This could become bad news for our allies and their defense, but Paul sees it as too wasteful and too much power to the government, so he’ll have a a harder time winning over moderates who are frustrated with Obama.

3. Everyone else: Other than the two above, no other candidates will be able to win the independent vote over Obama because they’re focusing too much on issues like social conservatism that continues to distance themselves from social moderates/liberals that have otherwise right wing perspectives. Rick Santorum only talks in depth about social issues and seems timid compared to Obama. Newt Gingrich is on a purist Republican on a witch hunt against Romney, claiming that he isn’t a “true Reagan conservative,” and seems more concerned about ending the use of negative ads than talking about his proposed policies (on a side note, Newt would be the biggest winner if everyone stopped negative campaigning because he has the most political & personal baggage). Rick Perry destroyed his electability during numerous debate gaffes and his never-ending desire to appeal exclusively to social conservatives and evangelical Christians. And then, there’s Jon Huntsman. I actually like Huntsman and he has a very logical approach to restoring America. Like most of the other Republican candidates, he wants tax reform that closes loopholes and benefits the middle class and small businesses, pursue energy independence and free trade, and regulate departments that have too many job-killing restrictions (most notably the EPA). Since he’s spent the last 2 years in China, he was out of the limelight and never received that much attention from his party base. If Romney wins the nomination, I think there is a good chance that he’ll have Huntsman on board as either his vice president or his secretary of state because of his experience as an ambassador.

The extreme right wing ideologies of some candidates compels the left to pass off the GOP as a joke, but they’re not so perfect themselves. Obama’s biggest fault is that he tries to make everyone happy by pushing measures that can be perceived as “too much government” (Obamacare as the case in point) lighting the Republican base on fire, and then watering it down to complete ineffectiveness, annoying the Democratic base. As far as I’m concerned, Obama has practically served George W. Bush’s third term by continuing many of Bush’s policies. Obama has driven himself into a ditch, and I honestly don’t see how the partisan bickering will ever end until he leaves the White House. Sure, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Mitch McConnell hate Obama at this point, but Washington isn’t going to get much better unless Obama stops introducing measures that can be interpreted as quasi-socialist.

I was once told that the best way to decide who you should vote for is by asking yourself whether or not you’re better off now than you were 4 years ago. I’ll leave this up to you to decide.