I'm a registered Independent, but the last 5 minutes of Romney's speech on foreign policy is primarily why I've voted Democratic the last two Presidential cycles.
Presidents can try to set the agenda, but domestically the party that controls Congress and holds more state governorships tends to have a bigger sway on domestic policy. However when it comes to foreign policy, the President pretty much runs the entire show and can start foreign and/or secret wars with little to no congressional oversight or approval. This means if we vote for a President who's controlled by a bunch ideologues, we can end up chasing around bunch of middle eastern dictators while stuck trying to terraform the Arabian sub-continent for the next half century. All the while sowing the seeds for terrorism for even more generations to come.
So when Mitt Romney started sabor-rattling about Iran, it just confirmed my belief that this guy needs to be nowhere near the steering wheel of our military.
In terms of domestic policy, I actually liked the concept of compassionate conservatism that Bush originally espoused. Or at the very least it was a legitimate alternative to choose from. But in the mid 2000s, Republican base just became extremely xenophobic. They became openly anti-muslim, anti-immigrants, and etc. And it's only got worse the last several years.
But if in 2016, a Republican candidate shows up who has a sane worldview and foreign policy outlook, and rejects the politics of anger, division and "othering", then I might be able to get behind the Republican ticket. Honestly, Obama pretty much already governs as a moderate conservative circa '80s. Our country has swung so much to the right that pretty much any moderate from either party is almost indistinguishable. So if the Republicans fielded a candidate who was based in reality, then I might actually have to make a real choice in the presidential election.
As it stands, Mittens is basically just a neo-con marionette like Bush. And Ryan proved he's not serious at all by the countless lies and half-truths in his speech. If he had any integrity he would have rejected that draft when the speechwriters handed it to him.
