Appeasing is NOT Leading

The election season is always painful for us.  And this year it is particularly tedious because of the circumstances.

In a normal cycle you might have two or three strong candidates leading up to the convention.  And they keep an eye on each other by talking about GOP principles.  But this year you have a sitting president (no competition) pitted against a candidate who has eliminated the competition early.

Since Mitt Romney doesn’t need to fear the delegates, he’s already in general election mode.

And that means sending out messages calculated to please democrats.

An early test of Romney’s integrity came when he made comments about Obama’s DREAM Act by fiat.  After establishing himself as an immigration hard-liner during the debates, Mitt now shows his other side by sounding more like Rick Perry than Herman Cain. 

Romney is banking on party loyalty here.  He puts voters in a predicament.  We won’t vote for Obama; that is clear.  We could look for a dark horse Libertarian.  Or write in Palin.  Or stay home on election day.  Any such option is throwing away your vote.

Or we could just hold our noses and vote for Mitt.

And the political strategists are counting on it.  But they fail to factor in the notion that politically active people (you know, those ornery Tea Party folks) are now less likely to walk their neighborhoods and make those phone calls for Mitt.  And when they talk to their friends all they will say is, “He’s slightly better than what we’ve got now.”

That isn’t much of an endorsement for Romney.

And if he gets elected we must fear the potential for appeasement from a President Romney.  He has a reputation for compromise on some rather core Republican principles as governor of Massachusetts.