{"id":39300,"date":"2012-11-01T00:13:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T07:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=39300"},"modified":"2014-12-30T11:01:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T18:01:59","slug":"since-it-is-obvious-that-romneys-one-and-only-core-value-is-the-will-to-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/11\/since-it-is-obvious-that-romneys-one-and-only-core-value-is-the-will-to-power.html","title":{"rendered":"Since it is Obvious That Romney&#8217;s One and Only Core Value is the Will to Power&#8230;."},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K9njHHyRI7g\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u2026the only explanation for why his supporters trust him when he happens to accidently pledge himself to their position on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, while pledging support to the opposite on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (he relaxes into his natural gelatinous state on Sundays and spends the day with his family, believing in nothing at all except in the preposterous rubbish that is Mormon theology)\u2013is due, not to Romney\u2019s overwhelming charisma or sudden growth of principles, but to the extraordinary ability of people in need to project their needs onto a blank screen and find what they seek there.  Why does a teddy bear give a child comfort?  Not because the teddy radiates personality, ideas, or conviction.  But because the needs the child projects onto this bundle of fluff and fur imbue it with a life not its own.  Beyond the will to power and the utter conviction that the universe owes him the Presidency, Mitt Romney has no ideas or convictions whatsoever.<\/p>\n<p>And yes, I do think the sort of mental gymnastics one must perform to take Mormon theology seriously once one reaches adulthood and can see what a load of bushwah it is do contribute to Romney\u2019s ability to express total conviction in contradictory and duplicitous intellectual rubbish.  The question is, how can any conservative or Christian, seeing what a complete and utter empty suit Romney is, make any case for him beyond, \u201cHe sucks slightly less than Obama, if I stand on one foot and cock my head just so.\u201d?  It\u2019s the only intellectual case to be made for the man.  And the entire problem with the baleful effects of our politics on our Faith is that so few people can restrain themselves to saying only that.  Instead they feel compelled to lard on all sorts of garbage about how he has \u201cexperienced a conversion\u201d or \u201creally cares about the unborn\u201d or has real integrity and all the other tommyrot that anybody with eyes can see is a lie, or self-delusion.  My current favorite: \u201cHe\u2019s had a conversion.  Or he might someday.  And to deny that is to deny Jesus\u2019 power to save.\u201d  News flash: if we are now voting for somebody because we are betting that Jesus might work a miracle of conversion then that\u2019s just as much a reason to vote for Obama as for Romney.  After all, Jesus might miraculously convert him too.<\/p>\n<p>But as a general rule, we don\u2019t vote on the basis of \u201cThen a miracle occurs!\u201d  At present, it will take a miracle for Romney to suddenly grow a core conviction beyond \u201cI MUST BE PRESIDENT\u201d. Therefore, it will take a miracle to get me to vote for him\u2013or Obama.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026the only explanation for why his supporters trust him when he happens to accidently pledge himself to their position on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, while pledging support to the opposite on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (he relaxes into his natural gelatinous state on Sundays and spends the day with his family, believing in nothing at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-39300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-politics-and-other-social-diseases"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ 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