You vote based on moral or religious principles
Mitt Romney’s single-minded pursuit of wealth is not in line with biblical teachings. He clearly has more in common with Gordon Gekko than Mother Teresa. Biblically, Christians are called to tend to the sick and the poor, the most vulnerable in society. Amassing obscene wealth by liquidating struggling companies is, quite simply, immoral.
We find it astonishing that people buy into the idea that a businessman would somehow be good for the country. A president must lead so that everyone prospers, not just those at the top. Knowing how to make a profit does not equal good governance! Profit is good for a boss or stock holders, often at the expense of the employees.
Labor costs are the biggest expense for an employer; they only hire someone when they have no other alternatives. If they need to cut costs, the first thing they do is cut hours or lay off workers. How is it moral to shut down factories here, ship jobs overseas, and deprive hardworking people of an income, all in the name of profit?
Despite his insistence that he has no enduring ties to Bain Capital, there is evidence he is still involved. The workers at a manufacturing plant in Illinois are begging Mitt Romney to stop Bain from outsourcing their jobs to China. They’ve been forced to train their replacements and expect to get their pink slips four days before Christmas.1 So, far Romney hasn’t taken any action on their behalf or issued a public comment.
Putting greed aside for a moment, let’s look at hypocrisy. The Salt Lake Tribune, the largest newspaper in uber-Republican Utah, has come out in support of Obama because of Romney’s hypocrisy.2 Since Romney has held both sides of every issue known to man, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this newspaper has done the principled thing and criticized Romney's self-serving, dishonest behavior.
Some Christians are uncomfortable with the perception that the Republican Party has hijacked Christianity, as well as with the way many conservatives promote the idea that Democrats are a bunch of godless heathens, favoring socialism and foreign ideas over capitalism and America. According to an AP Poll, 51% of Americans express explicitly racist attitudes,3 and many right-wing politicians seek to exploit this at every turn. Romney surrogates John Sununu,4,5 Donald Trump,6 and Sarah Palin7 have all been guilty of making racially-tinged remarks, and the constant attacks on Obama as being un-American, Socialist, and anti-business feed into the worst of people’s fears.
Finally, on the subject of morality, we are stunned by the lack of attention to Paul Ryan's hero worship of Ayn Rand. While reading a particular author may not reflect one’s views, and though he now denies her influence,8 Ryan has a history of promoting Rand. In 2005, he gave a speech to The Atlas Society in which he stated: “I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are.” and “what’s unique about what’s happening today in government, in the world, in America, is that it’s as if we’re living in an Ayn Rand novel right now. I think Ayn Rand did the best job of anybody to build a moral case of capitalism, and that morality of capitalism is under assault.”9,10
He claims to be a devout Catholic, but there are multiple interviews and speeches in his past that would make you think he’s really a rational objectivist. He's stated that Ayn Rand motivated him to get into politics and that he requires his staff and interns to read her books.11,12
Russian-born writer and atheist philosopher Ayn Rand became fascinated with a serial killer that dismembered little girls and she’d planned to write a book with the hero based upon this killer. In an interview on August 20, 2012 on The Diane Rehm Show, there was a lengthy discussion about Congressman Ryan's embrace of the Ayn Rand philosophy. Ayn Rand biographer Jennifer Burns acknowledged that Rand's interest in the serial killer, and her repeated use of a storyline where the hero rapes the heroin, are difficult ideas to reconcile.13
Ayn Rand developed objectivism, In her view, absolute selfishness, without regard for anyone else, is the only true morality. Job creators are seen as almost holy, society is filled with weak takers and government is the root of all evil.14 In a PolicyMic article entitled, Paul Ryan VP Debate: Ayn Rand, the Woman Behind the Paul Ryan Philosophy, writer
Juan Pablo Laso cites a Mike Wallace interview.
"The late Mike Wallace interviewed Rand in 1959, thus providing a public service to those of us who in 2012 feel a need to better understand why she still is a political firebrand. She explains objectivism, her philosophy, and her call for a morality based “not on faith, not on arbitrary whim, not on emotion, not on arbitrary edict, mystical or social, but on reason.” For Rand, man “has to hold reason as an absolute” and “has to hold reason as his only guide to action.” In this context, she considers altruism to be evil and sets out to challenge “the base of all institutions” that hold “the moral code of altruism;” I began to see why a politician like Ryan might have trouble courting the religious conservative vote by touting his Randian roots."15
How can a person reasonably reconcile adoring Ayn Rand and any true adherence to a Christian religion?
Ryan has long been known as a politician working towards the end of social security and Medicare, and his budget plans have been some of the most extreme in their impact to the middle class and the poor.
The Republican Party has has widespread evangelical support and many conservative pundits demonize Democrats as being immoral. We think this religious division is at the heart of how conservatives manage to convince poor, white, religious voters to vote against their own economic interests.
Many poor conservatives considering it a point of pride to choose morality over financial gain. They view liberals as supporters of atheism and socialism. Right-wing media consistently promotes the idea that freedom, liberty, capitalism and Christianity will be destroyed by the Democratic Party.