Following the sweep of contests including a win in Wisconsin, one of the last must-win states for Santorum, it looks like people are finally beginning to realize what everyone’s basically known for two years: Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee. FEC records from Friday, April 6 show that Romney’s main fundraising committee, the very creatively named Romney Victory, Inc., and the RNC have filed to form a joint fundraising committee.
The fact is, despite the media attempting to make this race close, and despite joke attempts by Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michelle Bachmann which caused much hilarity, everyone’s basically known Romney would be the nominee for a long time. This is how the GOP does things. They give politicians slightly more and more power until they finally reach the big show. See: George H.W. Bush, 1988/92, Bob Dole, 1996, John McCain, 2008. George W. Bush, of course, being the anomaly, but I think we can all agree being the son of a former president has a perk or two. Bush certainly did not win the nomination/presidency on his wit.
It was simply Mitt Romney’s turn. After rising in the heirarchy to second place in the 2008 GOP primaries, and despite some attempt by the Tea Party and other attempts to stop this rise, party elders once again ruled that Romney was ready for the big show. For the Republicans, money, power, and influence rule over anything else. Hence their abandonment of actually trying to run the country at all and shutting down essential government services to give more kickbacks to the rich.
Thus, the general election stage is set: Obama vs. Romney, and as College Democrats we cannot accept a Romney White House. The progress gained over the last four years would be reversed. More Scalia and Alito-type conservative justices would be chosen, and civil rights in this country could go back decades. We’ve also seen the beginnings of what Republicans will do in control in the state level. With Rick Snyder and his cronies in power in Lansing, women, the LGBT community, and unions have been attacked. The rich and business interests, on the other hand, have been given tax breaks and bailouts. We absolutely can’t afford this atrocity anymore. These are the stakes. Let’s join together and get Barack Obama back into the White House and Democrats down the ticket for a bright, hopeful American future.