No. I don’t agree with what your’e saying. Romney does not agree that Trump is an immoral piece of shit. What he agrees with is Trump is not speaking softly enough to people before he fucks them over. He still approves of fucking them over. That makes them both immoral whether one speaks softly first and the other doesn’t.
Ok. Never mind.
I get you want this to be some outspoken GOP member against Trump. He’s not. What he has written there might be the right words but what he has really written is he’s fine with what Trump has done, glad he got his results, now that’s it’s safe to peak his head out he’ll just trumpet the same old thing the GOP always trumpets, there is nothing wrong with our policies, just the message, and in this case, it’s the message and the messenger… but he’s happy with what happened.
Ok Mitt, put up or shut up.
Op-eds are cheap. You think Romney will vote different from McConnell? For impeachment? Against “border security”? To overturn the evil policies of DHS and all the other cabinet-level monsters? Seriously? Because if he doesn’t he might as well be a kowtowing maga-hat-wearing Trump flunky like the rest of them. We’ll see…
This is the problem. Some of the Rs will wring their hands a bit but when it’s time to vote, what do they do?
“Speak softly and carry a big swastika.” - Theodore Roosevelt
For what it’s worth, Timex, I do applaud that he went -very- public with that op-ed. I agree with the others here though, he’s also striking back against Trump for calling him out in the past. Then there is this key statement in his piece:
And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.
Not Trump, not the President, the incumbent.
Let’s be clear what Romney is pushing, it’s Romney. This is nothing but a tee-up for future gain. We will surely see what happens with him as a senator now, under Trump.
The Furrowed Brow Brigade does need to replenish their ranks after Corker and Flake have gone. I look forward to Romey’s furrowed brow, his moments of being “concerned” or “troubled”. Maybe even the occasional thoughts and prayers if the situation is truly dire.
I dunno, Romney seems like a decent dude, for a vulture capitalist. He might stand up to Trump.
We’re talking about the same Romney that went full lickspittle when he thought he had a shot at a cabinet position? :)
Not sure what in Romney’s or any other Republican’s past has shown that to be a possibility.
This comes to mind.
You know, I agree with @Timex that it’s good to see Republicans publicly repudiate Trump. At the very least, it shows that they smell blood in the water.
However, I also agree with the other sentiments in this thread that people like Romney don’t really have a big problem with Trump’s policies, they just have quibbles about the terrible PR in how he is executing those policies. I think their main worry about Trump is that he’s giving their ideology a bad rap rather than having many complaints with actions Trump is taking. The tariffs are probably one of the few exceptions.
EDIT: I should add that I’m mostly talking about the domestic agenda. Trump’s foreign policy is a fucking disaster and I think everyone on both sides of the aisle can agree on that.
Like I said, you don’t gotta praise him for anything beyond saying that Trump is an immoral piece of garbage with poor character. You don’t gotta believe he’s gonna do anything else.
But the praise/attention that Romney is getting for this OpEd is good, because it’ll make it more likely that other Republicans will jump ship.
The sad thing is that a Never Trumper could in fact play a valuable role at this point. There’s a need for someone on the campaign trail who loudly draws attention to all the things that are perfectly true and obvious but that the media has proven it refuses to say out loud. That Trump is not up to the job. That he’s not a master dealmaker but incompetent, a bumbler and a fuckup. That he’s possibly senile and certainly an idiot. That he’s lazy and corrupt. That every day he’s in power the US grows weaker and weaker. And that, by abrasively alienating women, minorities, and young people - which is to say, the vast majority of the population - he’s either signed the death warrant for the Republican party, or for democracy in the US itself (because the only way for a Trumpist GOP to remain in power is to jettison democracy.)
Dems can’t do this effectively, because the media is programmed to automatically dismiss any Dem criticism of the GOP as “partisan” and “radical.” (And Dems won’t willingly point out that Trump is destroying the Republican party on the Napoleonic grounds of not interrupting the enemy while they’re making a mistake.)
So it would do the country a lot of good if some Republican would take the stage and announce loudly and abrasively, in terms that even a Trumper can understand, that god-emperor Trump has no clothes; that he’s a loser shitheel circling the drain with no marbles left, but his hands firmly planted on his followers’ wallets.
This will not happen. Instead in 2020 we’ll get a Comey or a Romney who will strike noble poses in glossy ads featuring lots of flags and eagles. They will talk a lot about Honor and Integrity and Being Our Best Selves. Occasionally they will drop a hint that Trump Isn’t Quite The Thing, and the media will wet themselves about how incredibly brave they are for taking a principled stand.
And Trump supporters will laugh at how lame RINOs are and go back to admiring their god emporer’s outfit. The Never Trumper will get 10% of the vote in the primaries, and will either disappear into obscurity or, Cruz-like, start kissing the ring.
I don’t think this is how it will play out.
Any primary challenger would likely go into it with the intention of being a spoiler in the general. Their goal would be to make Trump lose. And if they run in the general, they’ll likely have that effect.
I mean, it wouldn’t take much. If there is a Republican out there – retired or otherwise – that wants to put country first, they will run against Trump in the general. A few thousand less votes in a couple key states and we wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with.
Explain how this works. Romney runs in the primary. Gets 10% of the Republican primary vote and drops out. Yet somehow this causes Trump to lose…because reasons?
Presumably they run as a third party and Perot it.