Mitt Romney's missing backbone puts Americans at risk, writes Colbert I. King in the Washington Post [5]. Looking at the candidate's penchant for flip-flopping on issues like health insurance and the auto industry, King fears that like President Andrew Johnson and hopefuls like Barry Goldwater before him, Romney will be detrimental to the progress America has made.
Goldwater's anti-civil-rights stance earned him the support of Deep South states, making him the first Republican since Reconstruction to carry Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana.
Operating with a well-earned inner sense of peril, African Americans voted overwhelmingly against Goldwater, helping to hand Johnson a landslide victory. A retreat on progress toward racial equality was averted.
What would be the consequences for race of a Mitt Romney victory?
A Romney takeover of the White House might well rival Andrew Johnson's ascendancy to the presidency after Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865 ...
A Romney win would be worrisome, however, because of his strong embrace of states rights and his deep mistrust of the federal government — sentiments Andrew Johnson shared.
Read more at the Washington Post [5].
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