The Newly Minted Ticket

Rapacious Mitt Romney has chosen the fanatical ideologue Paul Ryan to be his running mate.

It is not the gift to the sane people of this country it may seem to be.

It is, in fact, a call to action.

The alliterative Republican ticket will likely reassure the hidebound right-wingers that Romney’s term as governor of the “socialist” Commonwealth of Massachusetts was more like Dorothy’s Ozian dream and not simply more proof of the contortionist chameleon Romney really is. The deep right will see Romney’s choice of Ryan as Romney’s Come to Jesus moment and it may even allow them to overlook all the oddities of Mormonism which makes their evangelical blood run cold. (While evangelicals are not usually thrilled with Roman Catholics, in Ryan’s case the Vatican trumps the Temple.)

If you are not familiar with Congressman Paul Ryan, Ezra Klein has a quick overview here.

Paul Ryan Lowlights:

- Voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
- Will end Medicare and turn it into a voucher system, thereby costing seniors thousands of dollars every year
- Will cut Pell Grants for education
- Voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
- Will ban all abortions even in the case of rape or incest
- Cosponsored a bill to ban common forms of contraceptives including many birth control pills
- Will increase taxes on the middle class and further reduce taxes on millionaires
- Voted against Marriage Equality
- Will cut funding to Head Start and other early education programs
- Voted to end funding for Planned Parenthood
- Will dismantle the Affordable Care Act - AKA “Obamacare” and, ironically, “Romneycare"
- Will slash funding for infrastructure - roads, bridges and rail
- In his budget, 62 % of the cuts will be taken from low-income programs
- Will cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/Food Stamps 18%

No matter how repellent Ryan’s ideology and intentions are, we must not forget that he is cool under fire in debates and interviews. He also states his “facts” in a compelling way - rather like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. We must take action so as to avoid an equally disastrous ending.