Dear Mitt Romney,
Thank you. Seriously - no snark, thank you. I want to thank you for being a fine, upstanding family man. I disagree with pretty much every policy statement I've heard you make and think that you do not understand what most Americans' lives are like, but I'd like to put that aside for a moment and sincerely thank you.
Because you have been - by all accounts - a good, loyal husband, the campaign season is able to actually focus on policy positions, ideologies, opinions, conceptions, and issues both metaphysical and miniscule. We are not being led by the nose to follow tabloid stories of mistresses, hookers, baby mamas, or Rentboys. We are actually in the throes of a political face-off between two men who bring none of the sordid tabloid fodder that modern media (and its viewers) cannot seem to resist. And I, for one, very much appreciate that.
I understand why you don't especially want to talk about some very big issues like Bain Capital, health care, or the environment. I understand that this political climate makes it far easier to simply run against the incumbent and avoid laying specific policy propositions on the table. I can't say I like it, but I understand the political strategy and if I were advising you, I'd do the same thing.
Having said that, one of my early blogs is entitled "The Illusion of "Privatized" Government (or - The Government is NOT a business!) (8/12/10)" and I am exceedingly glad that you have put that very issue in the public eye.Over the past 10-15 years, the "if I ran my business that way I'd be out of business" crowd seems to have dominated the national non-conversation about the roles of businesses and government. I won't repeat my views here - they're in the prior post and not germane to my point now. My point is that we are finally HAVING the conversation. Your record at Bain and Bain's role in industry are more than fair game - they are long overdue lenses through which we and the punditsphere are able to now engage in that critical conversation.
Your history with healthcare is more than fair game - it's exceedingly relevant not only to our national healthcare policy, but as a benchmark for the shifting platforms of the parties who run our increasingly parliamentary government. It is also a perfect launching point for discussions over the role of states and the federal government, devoid of the histrionic religiosity of gay marriage.
Your extreme wealth does not diminish or elevate you as a person or a candidate, but does frame discussions about stratification of our society that have been sorely ignored or even deemed "impolite" in recent years and decades. We seem to have collectively shrugged our shoulders and decided to give Reaganomics a chance and see what happened. Well, now we know what happened, but we haven't seemed to be able to get back to the foundational discussion about ourselves as a collective society. What we learned is that smash-and-grab economics does not make us stronger as a nation. But we have not filled the "and then" void with anything substantive. You give us a framework for discussing class, success, and what America truly values. As well as what has really changed since our glory days.
I realize that petty squabbles, non-controversies, and other silly distractions are part of the political insulation that all candidates employ. My sincerest hope is that, through the noise and drama and name calling, a few voices will raise the questions that you enable us to raise now. Because you and President Obama are fundamentally good men in your personal lives (and I do believe that you are a fundamentally good man overall, even if I also think you're fundamentally wrong about most things), we may have the first chance we've had in decades to take a few moments and consider the deepest roots of who we are as a country, a people, and as citizens.
So thank you for leaving the tabloids hanging. I would wish you luck, but hey ... I'm a liberal Democrat!
Very sincerely,
The Holly Lama
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