Is Mitt Romney Brainwashing Us?

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

According to the headline on an AP story, Mitt Romney claims that his Iowa "straw poll victory" wasn’t "hollow," which would distinguish a turnout so low that it wouldn’t fill a megachurch from the hollow candidate himself.

As the AP notes, "Eight years ago, about 23,600 people voted in the straw poll. On Saturday, only about 14,000 did. Romney attributed the turnout to heat and the expectation that he would be a runaway victor."

If I were a Republican, I’d think from the Titanic size decrease of Republicans participating in Iowa, it would mean that "none of the above" was the winner in the Midwestern state.

Of course, the "Mittster" may owe his "victory" to spending lavishly on all those "straws" – or it may be due to his five sons who traveled the state on his behalf.

Much has been made of the fact that the five Romney brothers are avidly supporting their father who is vigorously supporting the Iraq War, resulting in the continued death and injury of our GIs.

But like almost all Republican leaders, Romney never served in combat and not one of his five sons has volunteered to serve in the military, let alone Iraq or Afghanistan. They are a perfect match for the Bush twins and Cheney’s extended family.

It appears no one in the elite leadership of the Republican Party had any interest in serving in combat (with the exception of McCain, who is already basically out of the race) – or has any desire to see their children fighting in the war that they so enthusiastically support.

Romney created a bit of a major hypocrisy dust-up when he was asked why none of his strapping young sons are putting their lives at risk for the war the "Mittster" wants to continue to wage.

At an Iowa event last week he responded, "The good news is that we have a volunteer Army, and that's the way we're going to keep it," Romney told about 200 people gathered in an abbey-turned-hotel. "My sons are all adults and they've made decisions about their careers, and they've chosen not to serve in the military and active duty, and I respect their decision in that regard."

He added: "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president."

Romney’s consultants (and Jeb Bush is rumored to be firmly in his camp) did some typical GOP hypocrisy damage control, and after the Iowa "straw poll" Romney issued the usual vague "I misspoke" non-apology apology for his cavalier, selfish attitude toward America’s volunteer army, consisting mostly of the economic needy, minorities, rural youth and immigrants seeking a quick passage to citizenship. Mitt apparently has narrowly avoided his "brainwashed" moment.

You see, Mitt’s father, George Romney, ran for president in the Republican primary of 1968 against Richard Nixon. His campaign was effectively sunk when he changed his position on the Vietnam War, claiming that he had been "brainwashed."

George Romney’s Wikipedia entry provides an accurate account of the defining moment that doomed the Mittster’s father’s presidential aspirations:

On 31 August 1967, Governor Romney made a statement that ruined his chances for getting the nomination. In a taped interview with Lou Gordon of WKBD-TV in Detroit, Romney stated, "When I came back from Vietnam [in November 1965], I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get." He then shifted to opposing the war: "I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in South Vietnam to stop Communist aggression in Southeast Asia," he declared. Decrying the "tragic" conflict, he urged "a sound peace in South Vietnam at an early time." Thus Romney disavowed the war and reversed himself from his earlier stated belief that the war was "morally right and necessary." The connotations of brainwashing following the experiences of the American prisoners of war (highlighted by the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate) made Romney's comments devastating to his status as the GOP front-runner. Republican Congressman Robert Stafford of Vermont sounded a common concern: "If you're running for the presidency," he asserted, "you are supposed to have too much on the ball to be brainwashed." Romney announced on 18 November 1967, that he had "decided to fight for and win the Republican nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States." He announced his withdrawal as a presidential candidate on 28 February 1968. At his party's national convention in Miami Beach, Romney finished a weak sixth with only fifty votes on the first ballot (44 of Michigan's 48, plus six from Utah).

Clearly Mitt Romney is not going to make the same mistake of candor that his father made – and so don’t expect Mitt to start telling the truth about the doomed conflict in Iraq, and the GIs whom we are continuing to send to their meaningless deaths.

But the "Mittster" is now trying to brainwash us in attempting to explain away why it is okay for the children of less wealthy and elitist Americans to die for a lie, while his hearty sons ride around Iowa in a Winnebago.

The fortunes of George Romney sank because he told the truth. Mitt Romney’s public relations "victory" in Iowa says a lot about American Republicans. They are more attracted to a candidate who nurtures lies than one who awakens to reality.

Mitt Romney won’t say that he’s been brainwashed, because he is too busy brainwashing us with the delusional fictional narrative of the "victory culture" that Dick Cheney and George Bush are peddling.

Meanwhile, his five sons will move on to another state as the most recent death count among GIs in Iraq, ironically, rises by another five deaths: "5 U.S. soldiers killed south of Baghdad."

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL