THE CONCERNS OF A CITIZEN

Assuming that no one will read this collection of speeches and articles except to assess the candidate, how do the concerns of a citizen translate into the programs of a President? It would be easy to dismiss ninetenths of the contents as inspiration tailored to a particular occasion except for evidence (besides repetition) that Romney really believes in the danger of moral decay and the abdication of personal responsibility, in the birthright of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, in the power of God and voluntary action: the President as preacher, perhaps? He has been criticized for simplicism, confusion and contradiction, weaknesses which are manifest here. The proposed solution for the Vietnam war--military dominance to be followed by an amnesty for the Vietcong and their participation in political life as individuals--disregards the realities so completely as to be undiscussible. Only in his desire to limit the power of big business and big labor by reversing the trend toward industry-wide bargaining does he seize the essentials of a situation, but the cure would necessarily involve the very power he bemoans the most, that of the federal government. Romney would say that we don't believe enough; rather it's a question of what to believe.