Farewell Mitt

In July of 1912, a five year old boy was brought to the United States by his parents. It was that year that a one hundred year journey would begin, starting with George Romney, being one of the first "displaced persons of the 20th century" to his son coming within a few steps of the White House.

Today, it was announced after much hype, hopes, and fears from some, that Mitt Romney, the son of that once little boy George, two time losing candidate for presidency, would, after all, not be running for a third time. The old  man is done, and some other, younger ones are ready to take his place.

The long saga had many ups and many downs. Many stories of Romney doing amazing things for friends, such as shutting down his billion dollar business to search for the missing daughter of a colleague, to helping out families in need in his church.

Of course there were the bad stories as well. There was the hidden camera fiasco which caught Mitt talking about "47% of Americans" who think they are owed something by everyone else. And there was that old story about how he once put his dog on top of his car, inside its kennel, because there was no where else for it to go.

Mitt Romney ran in four elections, and lost three of them. in the nineties he ran against Ted Kennedy, the last of the brothers four, because Mitt thought that everyone was tired of Kennedys. He miscalculated. Just watching the footage from the debates shows him getting torn apart.

Mitt and sons

His next election was, of course, the one he would win. The race for the Governor of Massachusetts's, but after that job was done, he felt the next step was the presidency of the United States, and after talking about it with the family, he decided to try. But it was John McCain's time, and John McCain won.

But, in 2012, the one hundred year mark had been reached since George had come here, and the Romneys were a well known American family. And now it was Mitt's time.

In 1968, George Romney, the father, himself a former governor, had run for presidency, thinking that the nation would want him. At first, they liked him, but after making an unscripted and poorly thought out remark about Vietnam, his campaign fell apart.

Mitt did not lose because of any particular statement that destroyed him, but it was the public persona that he gave out that harmed him. In the words of one pundit he was like a "cyborg." Or in the words of his son in 2006, "too good to be true."

He was uncomfortable with the media, he wasn't the best with strangers. Even when he had been in business, his colleagues were never really his friends. And now the man who had always been kind but never been overly concerned about his popularity was engaged in the ultimate popularity contest, and he lost.

The more people knew about Romney, the more they liked him, as evidenced when the documentary Mitt came out, we finally felt we were dealing with a human. But too late, the election was over. Romney had lost. We had known him so little most people did not even know his first name-Willard.

The one hundred year story was in many ways a bit of a fairy tale. Oh, it didn't end with the White House, but it ended with a poor's man's son coming a step away. And in the end it was a good story, even if both father and son lost. Some said Mitt was not a lot like his father, but in the end, maybe he was too much.

Andrew C. Abbott

Frozen in Time

“We just elect the next old guy in line.” –Mitt Romney

Atlanta GA, – David Blaine, the famous if slightly odd magician and illusionist who has pulled off many stunts, in November of 2000 pulled off one endurance stunt which was absolutely incredible-and so famous, it got its own section on his Wikipedia page.

In New York’s Time Square, he had himself encased in transparent blocks of ice, in what he called his “Frozen in Time” stunt. He would stay there for more than sixty hours, in ice so cold, that it was said if he touched it, he would be frost bitten almost instantly.

Recently, a slew of Republicans have shown that they may be very much frozen in time themselves. Just a couple of months ago, the political realm looked like it was shaping up to be a new era of ideas, with people like the Castro brothers for the Democrats, preparing their frontal assault on the Grand Old Party in Texas, and Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio shaping up to be the face of the new, younger, tweeting, iPad carrying, picture sharing and selfie-taking generation.

Change can be a scary thing. When organs first appeared in some churches, some preachers preached against them, saying that there should be no music in church not made by the voice. Never mind they did not really have any arguments to back up their claims, they just were afraid of something new.

And it seems now, that Republicans in the Establishment are determined to hold on to the old ways as long as they possibly can. Jeb Bush is being paraded as the man to beat in 2016-no matter there is no popular support for him. (Never mind the last time a Bush ran against a Clinton he did not do so well.)

Someone who the old guard knows would definitely make them feel more comfortable than someone new. Someone like Marco Rubio or Mike Pence, who has not been in the establishment a long time and has not had time to learn all the ins and outs of Washington’s ruling class would be too much of an unknown factor for the “good old boys.”

The old men are coming back to tell everyone that “You Like Ike.” It won’t work. Without popular support for their candidate, if they ramrod someone through, it might just finally tell the social experimenters how historically low voter turnout can really get-what a chance for science!

In closing, let us not forget what happens to those that freeze themselves in time. When David Blaine finally came out of his ice cage after more than sixty hours, he could not walk.

Freezing yourself in time, holding onto old ways even when they are deader than the proverbial horse people are always beating-will cripple you in the end.

Andrew C. Abbott

Between now and then

“Several geological ages will come and go between now and the 2016 elections.” –Carl Rove

Atlanta, GA – On Saturday, in Des Moines, Iowa, congressman Steve King held the “Freedom Summit,” with such Republican Nominee hopefuls as Chris Christi, Rick Perry, etc. etc. The headlines about Hillary yesterday on Politico were about how, in the past the probability, they said, was 98% that she would run. Now it has crept up to somewhere around 100.

Besides that, the news is full of mentions, such as on Huffington Post, of “Republican Bigwig goes after nomination,” or even the Guardian, the British paper, running articles about whether Scott Walker is the man of the hour. But let’s not forget, November 4, 2,016 is still a long way away. 650 days to be exact.

How long is that? Well:

There will be two full baseball season between now and then.

And also two super bowls.

If you still think the wait is not going to be too long, look at it this way. The story behind the movie In the Heart of the Sea about the men who inspired Moby Dick, and their horrible journey of starvation and dying of thirst, only took 94 days. In other words, they could have lived out that story more than six times between now and then.

And another survival story, Shackleton, and his men, only took 497 days. 153 days less than between now and the election.

So in other words, there is a long ,long time between now and then, and Hillary, and anyone else who may look like a frontrunner may topple. Even a day is an eternity in politics, and the earth must turn completely around 650 times before the new president is elected. By comparison, Napoleon took about two weeks for his empire to go from being victorious, to nearly nonexistent. He could have fallen more than thirty times between now and then. So could Hillary, or anybody else.

Andrew C. Abbott

(Special thanks to my brother Paul for help with this article.)

Babies have a right to live

Atlanta, GA – Today marks the forty-second anniversary of Roe v. Wade, when the Supreme Court, in one of its lowest moments, ruled that abortion must be legal in all states. That day, people protested the Court’s decision, and every year since then, including today, in all fifty of the State Capitols and the Nation’s Capital in Washington, on the anniversary, marches are held protesting abortion.

My family, and hundreds of others, went to Atlanta today, where, after speeches by activists, including Molotov Mitchell, the controversial senate candidate last year in North Carolina, (I do not know enough about to say which side of the line I fall on him) there was a moment of silence and then a silent march of mile.

Heavy police presence helped insure that nothing wild happened when pro-abortion activists with a bullhorn, banners, and foul mouths showed up to exercise their own right to free speech.

They marched in front of our march for a while, until they were told to get on the sidewalk, from which they continued to scream things like “fascists, murderers, bloody, sickening,” etc.

My brother Paul and I, overlooking the crowd.

I was pleased to find upon arriving back where we are staying that the US House of Representatives had passed a bill permanently banning all funding by the government of abortion. The bill, even if passed by the senate however, unfortunately has little chance of being signed by the president.

Some of the “pro-abortion” protestors screamed at us that we hated black people, (there were many black people on the march, many more than in theirs) asking us where were we when the “Black Lives Matter” marches were happening a few weeks ago.

But the fact is we were there because Black Lives Matter. White Lives Mater. Asian Lives Matter. All Lives Matter. Inside the womb or out.

It has been more than forty years, and despite many attempts at bringing down Roe v. Wade, the decision stands. But perhaps, finally, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. With increasing technology, and better ultrasounds which show the human form of the child inside the womb, many Americans now see themselves as Pro-Life. (According to Mitchell, that number is at 51%.)

According to some, the case is in danger of being overturned or at least rendered useless by 2017 if current trends continue. Although congress could not within their rights overturn the case themselves, they can do many other things, and have, in connection with actions taken by state legislatures, which have brought the numbers of abortion clinics across the nation.

In January of 2012, Time magazine stated that all those years ago pro-choice activists won a victory in Roe, but they have been losing ever since.

They need to lose permanently. There is no longer a reasonable argument which says the embryo is not alive. It is more alive than a tree, and we should and do protect those. The so called “fetus” is a person-a member of mankind. And in the Declaration of Independence itself, we are told all men have a right to live.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these rights is life…”

Andrew C. Abbott