The Masks of Romney

This morning, speaking in South Carolina, Mitt Romney told us that his father-in-law came to America from Wales, where he had been a miner. Papa-in-law was injured in an accident, Romney said, and subsequently traveled to the United States because he viewed America as a land of opportunity. Although Romney didn't specify, we can draw the conclusion that it was in fact a mining accident.

I thought it was interesting, because, like all the Republicans presidential wannabes, Romney is campaigning against government regulation. He hasn't done much about specifying what regualtions he would do away with, but could mining regulations be among them? And would greater mining regulation years ago in Wales have saved his daddy by marriage from whatever his accident was?

In the midst of the frenetic election season, when government intervention in the world of private enterprise is under assault, we sometimes forget that regulations can save lives and protect health. I certainly hope we haven't forgotten the 29 miners who died in West Virginia two years ago. The mine owner had paid heavy fines to the government for safety violations because it was cheaper to pay the fines than install the safety equipment. What was needed there was not less regulation but steeper penalties that would provided an incentive for the owner to do the right thing. Frankly, the bastard should have gone to jail. (Remember, corporations are people, and this one was a mass murderer.)

In the same vein is the explosion at the BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed eleven workers and injured several others. Compensation to the victims, to people whose livelihoods were affected, and money spent to clean the Gulf coast will mount into the billions, and all because BP couldn't be bothered to install safety equipment on the rig. Corporate officials responsible for the lapse should be doing time.

I bring this back to Romney because, like too many people, he seems to have forgotten his roots, or at least his father-in-law's roots. Romney, by the way, seems to me to be the least genuine candidate for president I have seen since Nixon. Where in the facade he presents to the public can we find the real Romney? What does he truly believe, other than truly believing he'd like to be president? Pictures of him always seem to show a big smile, like some celebrity in the entertainment field, brightening the day of the little people whose presence he is gracing very briefly.

But probably I shouldn't care. President Obama will be re-elected and  Romney will get a sentence in the history books, nothing more. There's a fair chance he won't even be the GOP nominee.