{"id":12704,"date":"2012-01-18T17:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T22:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=12704"},"modified":"2012-01-18T18:38:28","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T23:38:28","slug":"romney-can%e2%80%99t-make-the-moral-case-for-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/12704\/romney-can%e2%80%99t-make-the-moral-case-for-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Romney Can\u2019t Make the Moral Case for Capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Will someone please tell the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> editorial page that Mitt Romney is not Rick Santorum?<\/p>\n<p>Over the past week there\u2019s been a raft of handwringing at the conservative publication over Romney\u2019s inability to make \u201cthe moral case\u201d for all kinds of economic activity, such as private equity and capitalism\u2019s risk and reward system.\u00a0 Yet since Romney hasn\u2019t risen to the challenge of defending the free market, surrogates have stepped forward in droves. \u00a0Two recent examples include a guest column that ran yesterday headlined \u201cNewt\u2019s Bain Opportunism is Mitt\u2019s Opportunity,\u201d calling on Romney to \u201cmake a moral case for free market capitalism.\u201d\u00a0 One of today\u2019s editorials, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052970204555904577167131853956766.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop\" target=\"_blank\">Mitt Romney\u2019s 15%<\/a>,\u201d thinks the candidate\u2019s disclosure of his tax rate gives him \u201cthe opportunity to make the moral and practical case for lower rates and fewer loopholes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Journal<\/em> and other economics-only conservatives are demanding too much from Romney.\u00a0 He\u2019s not a moralist.\u00a0 As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/12\/25\/us\/politics\/how-harvard-shaped-mitt-romney.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">this revealing bio-piece<\/a> makes clear, those who know him <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/12\/25\/us\/politics\/how-harvard-shaped-mitt-romney.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">consider Romney a relativist<\/a>.\u00a0 Members of his church <a href=\"http:\/\/campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com\/article\/york-romney-briefed-church-abortion-stance\/282721\" target=\"_blank\">came to a similar conclusion<\/a> when he challenged Ted Kennedy in 1994.\u00a0 Remember, the defining characteristic of a relativist is that he doesn\u2019t believe in absolutes.\u00a0 For example, the idea that government should never force its citizens to purchase a product against their will\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Simply put, the reason Romney won\u2019t make the moral case for capitalism is because he <em>can\u2019t<\/em> make it.\u00a0 It\u2019s just not the way he approaches decisions in business or politics.\u00a0 Like other New England Republicans, he sounds like a fiscal conservative, but he\u2019s always willing to increase spending, and pass more regulations.\u00a0 (See RomneyCare, the Salt Lake City Olympic Games bailout, etc.)\u00a0 His history shows that he opts for what <em>works<\/em> instead of what\u2019s <em>right<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>If the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> and its guest columnists are chagrined that Romney is unable or unwilling to defend beliefs they hold dear, then maybe it\u2019s time they lower the temperature on the rest of the conservative movement who have been expressing the same disappointment with Romney since 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Will someone please tell the Wall Street Journal editorial page that Mitt Romney is not Rick Santorum? Over the past week there\u2019s been a raft of handwringing at the conservative publication over Romney\u2019s inability to make \u201cthe moral case\u201d for all kinds of economic activity, such as private equity and capitalism\u2019s risk and reward system.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,928,102,160,1084],"class_list":["post-12704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-capitalism","tag-conservative","tag-free-market","tag-mitt-romney","tag-rick-santorum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12704"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12713,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12704\/revisions\/12713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}