You Think You Know A Person

by muon

This morning when I signed into Facebook, I noticed that one of my friends had "Liked" Mitt Romney.

This friend isn't a bosom buddy, so it wasn't like I'd found out my best friend was a serial killer or anything, but I couldn't help but wonder why this person would support Romney.

I've met her face-to-face, so I know she's female. She has a job in a profession not often pursued by women. Does she honestly think she ought to be paid less than the men who do the same work? She's been married for a couple decades and has 2 kids. Only 2. That kind of seems to indicate use of contraceptives. So...she's okay with other women being denied contraceptives and with women being forced to submit to state-mandated ultrasounds? She's okay with her own daughter having to be forced to have an ultrasound?

She and her husband aren't millionaires, or even likely half millionaires. Beyond that, I don't know her financial status, though she's definitely not in the 1%. Possibly she has enough bucks that she can't fathom how much more of her income will be funneled to the .01% under a Romney presidency. Here's how that works: government projects that benefit you are cut, making you spend more money on either private or local government substitutes, while the very rich get more tax breaks. You lose money, they gain.

Maybe she's pro-life. Of course, you'd think anyone calling themselves pro-life would object to the dismantling of programs that keep starving children alive and warm and healthy. You'd think they'd balk at the war on contraceptives, the very things that prevent the unwanted pregnancies that lead to abortions (because, seriously, what woman would intentionally get pregnant just for the chance to have an abortion?).

Maybe she's okay with being forced to drive gasoline powered cars and to heat her home with fossil fuels, at increasingly higher fuel costs, more carbon emissions, a dirtier environment, and more severe climate events each year, simply because the GOP refuses to lose their ties with the oil, gas and coal industries. Maybe she doesn't care about leaving her grandkids the legacy of having to fix the environment before her great-grandkids suffer the toxic effects?

Maybe she's just not too bright...that she lacks the reasoning power to know that a vote for Romney is a vote completely against her own interests and that of her family and her descendents? Of course, she's got a college degree in a scientific field. You'd think she'd have the smarts necessary to achieve that.

So, I don't get it. What makes an intelligent woman and mother "like" Mitt Romney? You tell me.