As the 2012 campaign winds its way into its final week, this is an apt moment to reflect, for a moment, on the legacy of the 2012 Romney/Ryan and Republican campaigns.
How shall this Republican campaign year be remembered?
The most vivid memories of these final weeks of campaigning, will be of: (1) Two weasels (Romney & Ryan); (2) Rape Pregnancies; (3) and the Racist John Sununu.
(A) Two Weasels:
Romney and Ryan will be remembered as two weasels who, after devoted the most concentrated and intense effort on appealing to the right-wing of the Republican and Tea Parties, found a way to WEASEL out of every single controversial thing that they had ever said or done to appeal to right-wing organizations. Many words were used to describe them, including "liars," "bullshit" artists, con men, and flim-flam men; but the words "two weasels" may resound through the halls of memory, because the visual imagery of the weasel in action conveys their very essence. Who were Romney and Ryan, children will ask, one day, and we will remember them as "a couple of weasels."
(B) Rape Pregnancies:
Ryan was selected by Romney to appeal to the right-wing extremist sector, including Akin of Missouri and Mourdock of Indiana, and 10 Republican Senate candidates. Romney, Ryan and the 12 senate candidates succeeded only in bringing to voters' attention the dire warning that, if elected, they would see to it that the Supreme Court majority would force women to give birth when pregnancies were caused by rapists. Worse still, their words conveyed a profound lack of sensitivity to the concerns, rights, and long-term well-being of American females and their families.
(C) The Racist, John Sununu:
In the final months of the Romney/Ryan campaign, co-chairman John Sununu made a spectacle of himself as a campaign spokesman, never hesitating to go live on the air to utter words that shocked many Americans' ears with their raw, unfiltered hatred and contempt for the Democratic campaign. Not since the 1964 campaign, when Barry Goldwater shocked the nation with words implying an almost eager readiness to wage nuclear war against the Soviet Union, has an American Presidential campaign come so close to violating the spirit of tolerance, equality, and respect for all peoples. The (often bloviating) face of John Sununu, their highest-profile spokesman, will be the single most memorable visual image for the Romney/Ryan campaign. The negative, visceral impact and sense of revulsion caused by repeated images of John Sununu will be remembered, despite the very belated and futile recognition among Republicans and other right-wing voters that Sununu repeatedly "crossed the line."
THE LASTING LEGACY, IN THE NATION'S MEMORY, OF ROMNEY/RYAN:
TWO WEASELS, RAPE PREGNANCIES, AND THE RACIST JOHN SUNUNU