Binders of BS...

BINDERS OF BS...
Could Create Blessings from BS

The election is behind us, I can, along with millions of others, breathe a long sigh of relief. Granted, I am far left of center politically. Therefore, I will disagree with nearly everyone else since nearly everyone else is to the right of me. I accept that reality. While I am used to disagreeing with many differing viewpoints of my family, friends, students, and colleagues, what bothers me with Romney was that there was an ethical disconnect beyond his political persuasion. Ethics or honesty wasn't in his Weltanschauung. It wasn't just that I disagreed with most of all that he stood for during the election. My inherent disagreement with him was that he lied, and it didn't matter to him.

Romney personified the negative stereotype that we have of a used car salesman. I'm so far to the left that there are few with whom I totally agree. I get that many people disagree with me on many issues. However, I can't tolerate blatant lies...especially from a pedantically arrogant politician. The fact that he is in the top 1% economically doesn't make him right or honest. That isn't an entitlement for a wealthy person. Being filthy rich doesn't negate being honest. I don't care whether we disagreed about some topics; what rattled me was that he didn't care about being honest.

Aside from blatant lying, it is also equally annoying that many people seemed to buy Romney's pack of lies. Now, there can be two reasons for that. One reason could have been that some just bought what he said as the gospel. This is the ignorance is bliss notion. The second reason is that they knew that he was lying, and they just didn't want Obama elected again.

An example of this is Romney's binders full of women comment in the second debate:

At first glance, it looks like Romney might have been truly interested in employing more women in the state government. After all, he said that he went out looking for women to fill staff positions. He created binders full of women. However, several women's groups said that they came to him advocating more women in the state government. There seems to be a discrepancy about who went to who to get more women employed. It seems to me that beyond being dishonest, Romney merely created binders full of his BS.

This is a question of ethics and honesty in our democracy. Our democracy depends upon an educated electorate and political leaders that are honest. However, Neil Newhouse of Romney's campaign said about honesty, "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers." Really?

Ferhnstrom, another aide to Romney, furthers the dishonesty issue by his Etch-a-Sketch comment, "Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch-a-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again."

YouTube came upon the computer scene in 2005. One would think that during those nearly 8-years that someone would have told Romney about this technology. However, with his severely conservative earnestness, what he says will stay for an eternity in cyberspace. While I am not an English professor, I don't think that you can use an adverb like severely to modify a noun. Nevertheless, the issue is more than grammatical; it is ethical. Here are some of the YouTube moments that Romney apparently forgot or didn't care about. The following are just a few that I quickly recall. I placed them in alphabetical order:

Abortion:

Affirmative action:

Gay issues:

Global warming/climate change:

Gun control:

Healthcare:

NBCNews.com

Immigration:

Now, if you don't completely follow the two previous video clips, try this one from the Colbert Report:

Reagan pro/con:

Recovery on economic stimulus:

Roe vs Wade:

I accept that this article might sound like merely a Sarah Palin man-up diatribe. However, I tell my students about the no pain, no gain issue in athletics as personified by Lynn Swann. Greatness comes in athletics as well as in life in general due to pain. Pain of any sort will cause us to either stew in our juices or motivate us to address the pain. Therefore, pain is a blessing in disguise...if it is addressed.

I do not expect Romney to address his pain that his dishonesty creates. Nor do I expect him to man-up and address it. He will simply transfer millions from a Swiss bank account to his off-shore Cayman Islands account. However, I do expect some of my readers, who assert that they are concerned about America and its future, to do 2-things:

I expect them to become more informed.
I expect them to push for more honesty. In that way, we can have an informed and honest electorate. If we can address the pain and learn from the BS in Romney's binders, we can become a stronger America. Romney's binders of BS could create blessings from BS.

Forrest Gump Film Poster

Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."

Visit the Stupid is As Stupid Does page to read more about this topic.