Spring Cleaning

Wow. It's been a long time, hasn't it? Well, you know how it is: life is what happens when you make other plans. I've been surely preoccupied with "life". As it is, most of my "legion" of fans here also manage to keep up with me offline so they haven't missed much. As for the rest of you, now that the political dust has mostly cleared, it will be easier to share my thoughts.

In some ways, I am not surprised that Mitt Romney has emerged as the unofficial but presumptive nominee...but in other ways I am. On the one hand, he was the rare choice that would attract the center-right and independents that those chasing the Tea Party or other hard line conservatives would eschew during primary season. Considering he's gone from establishing universal health care as Governor of Massachusetts to proposing to dramatically downscale if not shutter HUD and the Department of Education as President, he has shown to me that he is adaptable to any situation. Whether that is good or bad, I'll leave that up to you. On the other hand, I have to give credit to the Republican Party, with its considerable base of Southern Baptists and Evangelicals for narrowing the field down to not only a Mormon but two Catholics (oh, and Ron Paul, I guess.) Or perhaps I should just credit the fiscal conservatives on that one.

At this point, I should issue an apology of sorts. There was a discussion I once posted - although darn if I can find it - about the prospect of voting a Mormon into Presidential office. My thought then was that because what I saw as overwhelmingly conservative principles were contrary to my generally center-left views, I would not be able to find enough common ground to support a Mormon President. But then I was reminded of Harry Reid, a Mormon Democrat....and he's far from the only one . Not only that, I've read more about Mormons who are on a sliding scale of accepting some articles of faith while questioning others. So basically, people are still people and there are more nuances than I was aware of.

That said, I'm still not voting for Mitt. I might have been able to grit my teeth through four years of seemingly centrist and fellow Mormon John Huntsman.

As for President Barack Obama, I'm still somewhat underwhelmed with his record but, as clearly stated above, the alternative doesn't inspire me. Depending on who one talks to, either the President refused to create or honor various compromise opportunities with the GOP-controlled House and the barely Democratic Senate...or vice versa. In essence, it appears that my prediction of the return of gridlock reminiscent of Bush's last two years has unfortunately come true. Signs seem to point towards more of the same in the near future.

The judiciary branch may not necessarily be of help, either. At the risk of sounding like a parody of the President, let me be clear: Corporations are not people...or at least not all of its people. If you're talking about a small business of perhaps one hundred or less, then I could see how  each manager and subordinate could have a vested interest in their mutual success. But when you are talking about the typical larger corporation, where downsizing and outsourcing have become key components in "strategy" and the lines between permanent and temporary employees become ever blurrier, perhaps the only people that a corporation represents are its top executives and those that aspire to join or replace them. I don't think George Soros or George Clooney should have any more control over politicians than the Koch Brothers or the Walton Family. The (Corporate) Citizens United decision needs to be overturned. I'm hopeful that swing-voter Justice Anthony Kennedy will agree.