The Ultimate Flip-Flopper

We've seen politicians accused of flip-flopping on issues in the past. Sometimes it was not a real flip-flop, but just a slight change in a position on an issue. At other times, it was real because the politician had found new evidence that caused him/her to change their mind. Both of these are understandable, and actually show an honesty that is desirable in a politician.

But there is another type of politician. This type must read the polls before announcing their position on anything, because they have no real values or beliefs (other than to do whatever is necessary to be elected to the office they are seeking). The most recent and egregious example of this kind of politician, the real flip-flopper, is Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie).

Romney has changed his position (flip-flopped) on a whole array of issues. He has gone from pro-choice to anti-choice. He has gone from supporting equal rights for women to opposing equal pay and opposing their free and easy access to contraception. He has gone from supporting equal rights for gays/lesbians to opposing those rights and supporting the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act. He has gone from being in favor of giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship to now denying that path and wanting to make life so hard for immigrants that they will "self-deport".

And that's not all. Romney once supported the ban on assault weapons and the Brady gun control law, but now opposes both. Romney once thought global warming was real and action needed to be taken to curb it, but now he claims it has not been proven to be real. Romney once supported stem cell research, but now says he would criminalize that same research. Romney once refused to sign Grover Norquist's no tax raise pledge (calling it "government by gimmickry"), but now that he's running for president he has signed it. Romney once supported a limit on campaign donations, but now is in favor of both secret and unlimited donations. Romney once thought the minimum wage should keep pace with inflation, but now opposes raising it at all.

There are probably more Romney flip-flops than that, but that incredible list should make it clear that Romney has no real deeply held beliefs (other than to cut taxes for himself and his rich friends). He will take whatever position he believes will get him the most votes. Massachusetts is a pretty liberal state, so he took liberal positions to run for office and then govern that state. But those same positions are anathema to the teabaggers and evangelicals that form the huge majority of the Republican Party base, so he flip-flopped on all those issues to appeal to the right-wingers who pick the Republican nominee. He ran far to the right in the Republican primaries.

But nothing illustrates Romney's propensity to flip-flop for votes more clearly than health care reform. While governor of Massachusetts, he took the health care reform proposed by Republicans (in opposition to the Clinton plan) after got it passed in that state. As he signed it into law, he proudly proclaimed it to be a real accomplishment for his administration (including the "individual mandate" requiring the purchase of insurance that was included in the law). And while the reform was not perfect, it did improve health care in that state -- saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars, covering most of the state's citizens with decent health insurance, and reducing those without health insurance (and subject to the penalties of the individual mandate) to less than 1% of the population.

Now one might think Romney would be proud of signing this reform into law since it did so much good -- and for a while he was proud of it. But then a Democratic (and African-American) president passed an almost identical health reform law for the nation as a whole. And the Republican Party base couldn't stand that. If a Democrat (and even worse, an African-American) passed the health care reform law, then for them it had to be a bad thing -- in spite of the fact it was originally a Republican plan.

Romney wants to be president, and he knew he could never get the Republican nomination by supporting the Democratic reform (Obamacare), even though it's nearly a mirror image of his own "Romneycare". So he flip-flopped. He now opposes his own health care reform law, and would like to see it repealed (or at least says he wants it repealed).

This whole mess has exposed Romney as the ultimate flip-flopper. He will take any side of any issue, as long as he thinks it will get him votes (including opposing bills that he signed into law). The teabaggers were right. He simply cannot be trusted.

(NOTE -- The humorous, but true, pictures above were found at the excellent blog called Under The Mountain Bunker.)