We now have Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary behind us and it is a puzzle with two pieces in place and a long way to go to complete it.
According to the reports of the results, given a choice of the available Republican candidates, a former governor from Massachusetts is apparently the favorite of the Republicans in these two states. A surprising turn has been the strength of a long-time member of the House of Representatives from east Texas named Ron Paul.
Dr. Paul, a real medical doctor as well as a congressman, has been the butt of many comments during the debates because of his Libertarian views. It is ironic that his message seems to be well received among the younger generation who will be making choices about government issues in the future - and the generation supposedly striving to become the next middle class. Is it possible, on the Republican side at least, that there is a shift taking place in the priorities of these new voters who have seen our government fail to keep its promises of continuous prosperity and desire to take the steps necessary to make the changes needed now, rather than continue to postpone them?
Former governor, former businessman, current candidate Romney seemsto have the business background desired to lead the Republican Party in the November elections. Whether he can do better than the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire indicates, only time will tell as the primary process continues.
Much of the campaign rhetoric, aimed at other candidates, is intended to sway public opinion and gain votes for individuals, but all too much of it is misleading and an exaggeration of the facts. Ron Paul is not an “isolationist” and does not sanction Iran having a nuclear bomb. It is an interesting question when you ask, “Who are we to tell the rest of the world what they can and can’t do?” And, it furthers the debate if you ask yourself how far do we go to restrict what others can do? Who has the right to declare war and call it national security?
It is also unfair to condemn Romney’s involvement with Bain Consulting and Bain Capital Management. If one has the time to investigate organizations such as Bain Capital Management, one will find there are numerous companies doing the samething - both very large and very small companies. Using private capital, raised through (very wealthy) investors (usually), small groups invest in companies for the purposes of profit. How they go about this varies and some are labeled “corporate raiders” when they make the news through a hostile takeover.
There are many variations to this approach and the results are not much different from those obtained when two large companies merge. I have personally seen small groups of private investors do this, and some ended up losing their own investments, as well as the companies they tried to take over.
In the end, the success depends on the goals, financial backing and abilities of the people who actually make the decisions. Growth of some of America’s smaller companies has come about through investments such as Bain Capital. The term used for this investment in start-up companies is a word we have all heard - venture capital. Without it we would not have the Internet boom as we now know it.
We need to look beyond the personal political attacks, however, and determine who is best equipped to lead our nation to a recovery in our economy.
We need jobs provided by a stable, growing economyand much less government regulation. As a manager in my working career, I experienced the government (State of Wisconsin and Federal) strangling incentive to grow businesses.
Regulations, for the sake of employing more government people, is a direct deterrent to private corporations’ growth and expansion that provides new jobs to the private sector.
We are now suffering as a nation because we elected an individual whose campaign promises were unrealistic and beyond the capacity of the White House. We need to listen carefully as the campaign continues to heat up because ultimately we will have to choose between an incumbent whose record we can measure and a person coming through the primary process and representing the Republican Party. We have to rely on our best judgment when we make our choices recognizing the unnamed, unidentified campaign contributors - the rich 1 percent - will be funding much of the campaign rhetoric through Super PACs.
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Editor’s note: Leo Lynch, a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Opinion, Pages 4 on 01/18/2012