The Pragmatist in Politics

 http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Rachel-Maddow-and-Romney-via-MSNBC-screenshot.jpg

Mitt Romney lies a lot as a presidential candidate and he seems to be entirely okay in doing so.  The really scary part is the fact that few are rebutting his blatant misnomers.  I have to wonder, as he becomes the Republican Party’s national leader by default, is his ethical standard on lying going to set the standard?  

While watching a political commentator on television last night, I witnessed one more slip up by the governor that had me wondering how American voters can honestly get behind this man. 

Romney’s past position on energy issues as a governor has sharply contrasted with those he’s now taking as a presidential candidate.  For example, as governor, Mitt Romney rejected a proposal that Massachusetts get rid of or suspend the state gas tax as a way of bringing gas prices down, because it was “a bad idea to encourage people to us less gasoline.” 

Instead, he raised gas taxes initially as part of the fund to clean up underground gas tanks at gas stations (though he eventually got rid of the fund and just applied it to the general coffers).

All of that stuff is totally contrary, totally opposite of what he is attacking President Obama for on gas prices.   

“Is that a case of selective amnesia?” asked Rachel Maddow on her show on March 22^nd.  It’s true—does Mitt Romney not remember what he has done, or is he simply hoping to God that people won’t bring up his past views?

Above being a politician, Mitt Romney is a pragmatist.  He looks at his campaigns and figures out what he has to do to succeed in that environment.  To him, it doesn’t matter if he needs to lie or flip-flop on his views and policies—he’s going to do whatever it takes to win the election. 

In terms of rhetoric, this makes him a very weak competitor.  His ethos is not strong because he never grounds his arguments and beliefs in logos or pathos.  He chooses to move around evasively on the current issues, and lie to the pubic outright even if he gets caught. 

Seeing as Romney refuses to acknowledge his lies, saying “look, you know, I wrote this book “No Apology,” all my views are in there,” I can’t imagine that we will hear any of the ‘real Romney’ any time soon.  I just hope that his method of winning does not, in fact, become the standard.