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April 18, 2024

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Walking, Talking Cowards

POSTED: October 22, 2012, 12:00 am

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Comments by Taggert Romney, son of the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, that he wanted to take a “swing” at President Obama after the last debate is par for the course. The privileged son of the privileged candidate reflects the sense of entitlement from a family of six men who all evaded military service, though age-eligible, while the nation was engaged in war. Mitt Romney could have been drafted to serve during the Vietnam War but instead opted to use a special exemption reserved for Mormons to evade military service. Not that serving in the military is against Mormon doctrine, as his wife admitted on the talk show “The View.” Mitt simply chose not to serve his country and instead went to France on a Mormon “mission.”

His five sons have also evaded military service; all the worst given that our nation has been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade. They too simply evaded service and instead conveniently went on Mormon “missions.” So, to hear Taggert Romney talk tough is ironic and comedic. It is easy to talk tough from the comfort of your privileged family background, it is quite another to show real courage and patriotism in the field of battle. As one who has a family history of military service, dating back to the Civil War, it is beyond offensive to me to hear a rich kid talk tough. Taggert Romney doesn’t know tough, nor does his military service evading father. And for the record, President Obama did not call Mitt Romney a liar, as Taggert Romney alleges and is seemingly the cause of his wanting to strike the President. The President is too diplomatic to do that, and has too much reverence for the office and the nation to do that in a public setting. However, Mitt Romney is a liar. He has proven it time and again throughout this presidential campaign and it’s about time that he is called out.

Taggert Romney’s comments are not the result of some petty grievance that should be casually dismissed as the emotional outburst of a heated campaign. Mitt Romney’s sons fit the classic right-wing narrative of tough talk, no personal action. It is the one trait Romney shares with George W. Bush that he did not own up to in the last debate when asked to distinguish differences with the 43rd President. Like George W. Bush, the Republican nominee was raised with a sense of entitlement and the belief that the nation was his playground. Both men were draft dodgers in their own way, and both men, like so many conservatives, get away with pointing their cowardly finger toward those who exhibit more patriotism than either man has ever exhibited in their lives. Bush did it to John Kerry and managed to sully the reputation of someone who served his country with honor. Now, Romney is trying to be the country club warrior and paint himself as the champion of a muscular America. Like George W. Bush standing on an aircraft carrier below a banner hailing “Mission Accomplished” when Osama bin Laden was still at-large and two wars were raging, Romney’s tough talk defies common sense and credibility.

In street parlance, Taggert Romney and his father are punks. They have never known what it is like to fight for anything besides increased wealth and are only loyal to the inequities in society that preserve their advantage. Listening to Mitt Romney try to lecture the President who has crippled al Qaeda and who disposed of the person that was considered our nation’s primary enemy is like listening to Barbara Bush tell Katrina victims they are better off after that devastating storm. It is sheer idiocy and the village idiots are now trying to convince America that they are more capable of running the nation.

All of this is important as we head into tonight’s final presidential debate and foreign policy is the topic. Mitt Romney revealed himself in the last debate when he shamelessly tried to exploit the tragedy in Benghazi that claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and four Americans. From the moment the crisis in Libya erupted, the Republican nominee worked to politicize the tragedy; issuing a statement even before our government could respond. So much for patriotism Mr. Romney. The truth of the matter is that Mitt Romney is devoid of patriotism and he has no respect for the office he now seeks to purchase. He could care less about the lives lost, defying even his purported faith. The Romneys are all about serving themselves and using any excuse or lie to do so.

They are indeed this year’s Republican model of walking, talking cowards.


Walter Fields is Executive Editor of NorthStarNews.com.

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