Mitt Romney casts a pathetic shadow in his WaPo Op-Ed attacking Trump
Romney, the putative Boy Scout, was turned into a monster by Democrats and the media. And he blames Donald Trump for our divisive politics?
As his last act before getting sworn in as a Senator, Mitt Romney took to the pages of the newspaper that most epitomizes #TheResistance to attack Donald Trump.
You can read it here, at The Washington Post, Mitt Romney: The president shapes the public character of the nation. Trump’s character falls short:
It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination. After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion…. But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions last month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.
To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. A president should unite us and inspire us to follow “our better angels.” A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect. As a nation, we have been blessed with presidents who have called on the greatness of the American spirit. With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.
My feeling on reading it is that Mitt Romney diminished himself more than he diminished Donald Trump.
The rhetoric in the Op-Ed, while lofty in places, lacks a reality. Romney was viciously attacked by Democrats and the media, accused of deliberately giving women cancer and putting them in binders, of being a cruel heartless businessman who destroyed lives to save a dime, of being cruel to the point of assaulting a high school classmate and abusing his own dog.
Mitt Romney, putative Boy Scout, was turned into a monster by Democrats and the media. And he blames Donald Trump for our divisive politics?
Romney had a chance to reject Trump when Romney was running for President, but instead he courted his endorsement. Romney had a chance to reject Trump after Trump was elected, but instead he lobbied to be Secretary of State. Romney had yet a third chance to reject Trump when Romney was running for Senate, but instead he embraced the endorsement.
Is there anything worse than a self-righteous hypocrite?
Dear Mitt:
You are being fêted by the very people who destroyed your presidential ambitions, but that love will be short-lived and only for so long as you are the useful idiot serving their purposes. You also are being praised to the rafters by NeverTrump Republicans whose goal is to see Democrats elected. Think about that.
Of course you can and should speak out on issues of importance to you. But that’s not what you did. You reopened campaign wounds for no good reason.
Sorry Mitt, your current virtue signaling, coming where and when it took place, isn’t noble, it’s just sad and pathetic.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1080447092882112512
POTUS is attacked and obstructed by the MSM media and Democrats 24/7. For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack @realdonaldtrump as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappointing and unproductive. https://t.co/ArhI7Bi7bo
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) January 2, 2019
I’m disappointed in Mitt Romney. His defining act as an incoming Senator is to criticize Pres. Trump. If Senator-elect Romney thinks Trump is a bigger problem than Nancy Pelosi or Sen. Schumer then he has a lot to learn about how things get done in Washington.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) January 2, 2019
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) January 2, 2019
[Featured Image: Mitt Romney accepting Donald Trumps endorsement for president, 2012]
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Romney has attacked Trump with 10x the furor he ever did Obama when he was RUNNING against him.
Pathetic.
Romney has clearly been to the Paul Ryan school of politics.
Or vice versa
“It’s all about uniting the country,” said Mr. 47%.
Point out where he was wrong, bigot.
Well, we can start with your response.
Since Trump won the election, uniting the country means getting behind Trump and supporting him and his efforts. Trump bashers try to win the argument by defining uniting as the winner giving up his victory so they (the losers) are validated; they are intellectually dishonest.
Petition to support border wall.
Please sign and share:
https://borderwallnow.com/bsn06/s
PS Va gal myself:)
Romney has proved how talentless he really is as a politician.
He makes Fauxcahontas and hillary clinton look like geniuses.
On a note about his character: he has about as much character as harry reid.
Romney had dreams of being the tie-breaker in the Senate. Now we have dreams of joining john mccain, where ever he is lately.
Romney did nothing less than say undercover, out loud: look and listen to me, I am everything Donald Trump is not! It was a disgusting display of aNarcessist.
I may be guilty of conformational bias, but I whole heartedly agree the the treehouse view of this act.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/01/02/strap-in-romney-didnt-wake-up-this-morning-and-haphazardly-write-an-op-ed-to-attack-the-president-of-his-own-political-party/
I don’t, especially his misrepresentation of where McDaniels fits in all of this. His implication that she’s backing Romney because they’re related is slanderous, and has already been firmly rebutted by her.
A typically excellent and depressing article from Sundance. And I have little doubt that Mitten’s niece was unaware of the hit piece.
My favorite line
“We don’t need a third party in Washington DC, we actually need a second one.”
The next two years will be violent. I hope President Trump does not lose heart and calls out for his supporters like myself to fight back.
From the link in the OP:
When you think about the actual structure of the Republican state party machines; it’s enough to make you wonder if the mid-term outcome and lack of structural fight was not part of this dynamic. After all, “their” party was taken over by a new MAGA base and a new pragmatic political leader, Donald Trump.
The VA republican party is totally worthless. It’s only defense of republican / conservative principles will be found in it’s emails begging for money. Once the legislature meets, they surrender. When attacked on an issue, they NEVER defend their principles.
Same in Colorado. A few years ago, we recalled 2 Democrat state senators to give the state senate back to the Republicans after their failure to support their own candidates gave the Democrats the governorship and both houses of the legislature. We succeeded, but it was over the opposition of the Colorado Republican Party, whose chairman came to try to argue us out of it because it would upset their comity with the Democrats.
We need a Deplorable Party. q.v. March 20, 1854, Ripon, Wisconsin.
I wonder if he didn’t see the irony of complaining about the failure to unite
Candy Crowley defeated Romney in the last debate I watched in 2012. He should have taken his well earned lesson to heart.
If Romney can be tripped up by a reporterette, the he has no business in the White House, except maybe as a tourist
You are wrong. Romney lost that debate because he was a gutless fraud. The Fat lady may have sung but he didn’t have to walk away as he did. He could have said, “Wait a minute, why do you have that exact quote so handy”? Was there a little collusion between you and obama before the show? But he just smiled and let it go. Can you imagine how Trump would have handled that same issue?
The dummy should have pointed out the elephant in the room (aside from crowley): that odumbo sat there like the ignoramus we know him to be, while crowley was debating for him.
How the hell did he drop that softball? Romney really is a schmuck outside of whatever else he did for a living.
” He should have taken his well earned lesson to heart…”
The lesson came from candy crowley. Fat chance.
Spitting into the wind is never a good idea, Mitt.
Mittens (LOL) hasn’t changed my opinion of him, but then again his daddy sucked too.
romney never had a position he could not compromise (slide…change opinion…do a 180… etc) on.
I’ve never felt prouder of voting 3rd party in 2008 and 2012. It really does matter who the GOP nominates.
Pasadena Phil Rule: “I never EVER vote for liberals or Democrats, especially when they run as Republicans.”
I took a lot of abuse for posting that over the years but I stand vindicated.
“A president should unite us and inspire us to follow ‘our better angels.'”
Is this a Mormon thing that Mittens is trying to foist on the rest of us?
“The Angel Moroni is an angel stated by Joseph Smith to have visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel was the guardian of the golden plates, which Latter Day Saints believe are the source material for the Book of Mormon, buried in the hill Cumorah near Smith’s home in western New York. An important figure in the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, Moroni is featured prominently in Mormon architecture and art. Besides Smith, the Three Witnesses and several other witnesses also reported that they saw Moroni in visions in 1829.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Moroni
Actually, it’s an Abraham Lincoln thing, that I think was also a key theme of Reagan.
Referring to angels is hardly unique to LDS people.
Willard really is a Rat
A “mantle” belongs to a king. President Donald Trump is every much a man-of-the-people. This was a shameful attack, and I am embarrassed I ever voted for Romney.
We only voted for him because there was no alternative. What was the RNC thinking when they ran a Wall-St. insider after Wall-St. criminality had tanked the U.S. economy?
You are so delusional, it is painful.
The billionaire with the golden toilets as “man of the people”?
You are sick.
Your Orange Man Derangement Syndrome is getting the best of you.
Oddly, Yellow Pussy, I don’t see a rebuttal…
And a Happy New Year to you, too Rags. One prediction I can make right now is that this will be my sole reply to you in 2019. May God grant you the serenity to experience all of Trump’s success this year with your sanity and dignity somewhat intact.
And may you reclaim your sense of being an American instead of a cult worshiper at the feet of the Man With The Golden Toilets.
Rags, you’re sooo adorable/predictable/ad hominem-obsessed/profane….what would we do without you? Oh, I know, mock other democrat/rino flakes a little more.
Other than your narcissism, what gives you the right to decide who is a good American and a good conservative?
May God grant you the serenity to experience all of Trump’s success this year with your sanity and dignity somewhat intact.
Too late.
You only need to momentarily glance at his most emotional and hysterical opponents to find that is more true than not. BTW what did you post suitable for rebuttal?
Mitt Romney has been a serial disappointment since he first ran for office against Ted Kennedy in 1994. A barely cogent Kennedy mopped the floor with a feeble Mitt in their first debate and Romney has been saying “thank you sir may I have another” to a whole variety of moonbats ever since.
The only glimmer of him actually owning a pair was in the second debate with Obama in the 2012 election but he fell right back into line thereafter and lost the most winnable of races later that year.
As I recall, it was because of the First Debate that Romney provided a glimmer, but brief, hope. The report, later after the election, was that advisers told him he couldn’t talk to Obama the way that he had. So, during the Second Debate, any number of persons were wondering what happened.
Add to this the disastrous Biden/Ryan debate, during which I though Biden demonstrated he was unfit to be Vice President, and, as it is said, “The rest is history.”
No Mitt, you’re not going to be President.
Ironic that Hairy Reed is back in the news today too. I guess we’re supposed to feel sorry for the lying sack of shit since he’s dying.
Karma is a bitch.
depends on which side of it you are on
Isn’t she a Senator from CA?
The name is a little fuzzy, but the description sounds right.
Did you misspell lying? Everyone is dying, especially an 80 year old. Lying is a choice, though.
True, but his march toward the grave has picked up the pace considerably since his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
Thanks Paul. I needed some good news today. Although, Bevo getting after that puppy from Georgia is still making me grin.
That was great, he really set the tone for the game.
I sure hope the surgeons didn’t use any Koch Industries instruments during the operation.
You have insulted sacks of shit.
Oh, boo hoo. Harry Reid is dying. My heart really bleeds for the jerk.(heavy sarcasm) Too bad we can’t have a necktie party for him, the traitorous cretin. Backstabbing seems to be a common MO with the Mormons, apparently.
Sign: Mitt’s testing the 2020 waters.
Guess: He’s trying to get the lead on the anti-Trump wing early.
Likely outcome: Some new party? The Kristol-Boot party of morally superior folks seeking the big government middle ground probably attracting more disaffected Dems than anything else. Heavy on centralized power, big push for more globalization. About the same disdain for middle America as the Dems. Poster boy is George Will.
Feorge Will and Bill Kristol both make me want to vomit. They both think they’re so much smarter than everyone else, and they always come across as being so smug. The reality is, they’tr two of the stupidest morons on Planet Earth, and vixous to boot. But then, stupid animals usually are vicious.
First, there are several things in the Romney piece I find objectionable, including his apparent approval of the too-broad criminal code reforms, the allusions about trade policy, etc.
Further, there are some references I find ambiguous, and would like MUCH more clarity about, such as “a united Europe”.
But I find it sadly ironic that you, Prof. Bill, who are a “putative Boy Scout” if ever there was one, should attack someone on that basis. You love your wife and honor your vows to her. You have a moral code you adhere to. You have ethics that you work to uphold. You and Romney are two men of a kind.
Duh Donald, conversely, is none of those things. Indeed, in a overwhelming display of projection, he called one of America’s finest military leaders a “dog with a big, stupid mouth” because he had the temerity to say he would not serve in a T-rumpian administration.
That is just ANOTHER example of why Romney is dead on in what he says about Donald “Artful Slats” T-rump, a sick child of execrable “character”.
Ahh rags, of course you would support the rat
Rat &Rags
You need to read, bigot.
We knew Rags was lurking because everybody on the thread got a thumbs down.
And Rags votes himself up, that is why he rarely gets more than one up vote.
I take it this Rags person is an imbecilic leftwing snowflake who doesn’t know the first thing about the President, but just spouts off the typical leftwing party line with no proof to back it up?
I do love how these little idiots never bother to look up the President’s TRUE history. They just all assume he was born with a platinum spoon in his mouth and has no idea how to relate to the common person. The reality his, He grew up in a very rough neighborhood in Brooklyn, and his parents didn’t have billions, or even millions of dollars, yet. Donald had an older brother that fell in with a bad element, and died from alcohol poisoning. It affecting him so greatly that Donald swore never to drink, smoke or take illegal substances, which he never has to this day. When Donald was a teenager, he fell in with a bad crowd, so his parents had him shiped off to military school to teach him discipline. When he graduate, he came to work for his father’s company. His father started him at the very bottom, at a minimum wage job. Trump stuck with it and worked his way to the top, then decided to start his own business. He sank all his own capital into it, and then asked his father to BORROW $1M to get it going. His business was a success, and he paid his father the million back, WITH INTEREST. He edeucated himself on the ins and outs of business and pulled himself u by his own bootstraps. Donald Trump is the epitome of the American dream; he’s a self-made man. Have there been blips and mistakes along the way? Of course, no one is perfect, but instead of whining for a bailout,he restructured his businesses, and got on with life.
What pisses the leftwing snowflakes off so bad is that not only is he not an elitist; he wasn’t born into his money. He did everything through hard work, grit and determination. They mocked him viciously when he decided ro run for office, but he did it anyway. He countered every dirty trick they threw his way, and he still won, fair and square. That’s what really drives the left around the bend- no matter what tricks and frauds they perpatrated, an outsider still beat the crooked candidate they were certain had everything sewed up. And no matter what they’d like you to believe, he came frome as humble a background as the majority of all Americans. That’s why he got voted in. Andin the two years since he’s been in office, he’s kept virtially every one of his promises, which is more than any president in hidtory has ever done. Why? Because he’s not beholden to special interest groups.(which, imho, should be done away with) The left is jealous beyond all telling that the right man got the job, and they can no longer keep their oppressive boot on the collective neck of the working class . Too bad.
Rags is a sourpuss, he appears to suffer from the Little Person Syndrome, as in small minded. He hates Trumps because Trump is smarter that him, and he has much more money than him,and he has more power than him. It grinds him that Trump with never know of him or care what he thinks.
Rags does have one redeeming thing, it is fun to jerk his chain and see him get worked up.
Friggin’ Mormon Mafia.
Flucking religious bigot.
Romney is a liberal, Establishment political hack. His claim to fame, so far, is to be elected the Republican governor of the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, And being a liberal Republican Presidential nominee, a la John McCain. He is such a weak candidate that he actually had to travel to Utah to get elected to the Senate [possibly to take advantage of his membership in the LDS church]. So, his actions are not surprising.
Only a pure moron would write that.
Romney was to the RIGHT of Mr. Establishment on immigration.
Romney NEVER contributed to Pelosi or Schumer or supported them. Mr. North East Progressive DID.
You are a poster child for Trump Derangement Syndrome.
There has been no evidence presented the Trump’s current political platform was adopted solely to win the office of President. Neither has there been any inference that he is trying to diminish or destroy this country. His actions in the first two years of his Presidency have been beneficial, for this nation. So, it is unclear why Trump’s prior political affiliations or points of view are of any importance. After all, the poster boy of the modern conservative Republican movement is Ronald Reagan. Reagan was a rather liberal Democrat before he became a conservative Republican politician. And, Trump is not a career politician who has run for office as a liberal for decades.
Romney, on the other hand, has consistently identified and run as a liberal, though for the Republican Party [though he publicly identified as “not a partisan Republican”, but as a “moderate” with “progressive” views. He has always supported big government and liberal social programs while in office. And all such positions have benefited the Establishment.
With McCain gone, Romney is simply trying to step into his shoes and THE premier RINO in the Congress.
Bullshit. You can’t deny what I’ve said, so you change the subject and tell a pack of lies. Typical.
Romney is an anti-American prog, just like you.
Romney is a collectivist. You voted for him, the father of Obama care.
T-rump is a lying, cheating Collectivist, just like you.
Glad to see you’re back. It’s instructive for people to read the miserable comments of a true nevertrumper, Romney worshipping, anti-American prog.
Romney is as authentic as Elizabeth “Pochahontas” Warren.
Your finger getting sore from downvoting every comment save yours?
You prove, again, that you can’t read and will lie about everything.
“Brilliant”.
Rags is probably marginally smarter than a moron.
No, he’s submoron.
I did work to get ANYONE but Romney on the Utah ballot. Unfortunately, he said in his town halls (I went to a few) that he supported our president on many issues. And people believed him. I think he is a lying rat, and east-coast liberal carpet bagging his way to an easy senate seat.
And yes, he took advantage of his (very respected in Mormon-dom) name.
Did you even read the piece?
He supported several T-rump moves, some of which I strongly oppose, BTW.
Can you name them?
Mitt is King Fredocon the First.
That’s just stupid name-calling.
Where is he right?
Where is he wrong?
Well, you certainly know more about stupid name calling than most, R-ags.
Post-Traumatic Stockholm Syndrome.
Even his RNC Chairwoman niece, Ronna Romney McDaniel, called him out on this one. What a little bitch. Count on him voting with the Dems for the next 6 years.
So Etch-a-Sketch Mitt wrote a hit piece against Trump for the publication that accused him of giving a woman cancer?
A defining characteristic of the Bush school of politics, of which Romney is a charter member, is to never take personal attacks personally.
Time will tell Romney’s true motivations for this hit-piece. Playing axis and allies as far as I can figure. Proves to me that he is just another DC weasel hedging his bets like a proven Baine venture capitalists using other people’s money 🙂
Given that his niece has already agreed to put the RNC fundraising apparatus under the control of the Trump re-election campaign, I don’t see why Romney deluding himself into a potential primary challenge is more than a tempest in a teapot. Sure he’s a hypocrite. So is a politician not to be named who changed his political affiliation almost as often as his underwear to benefit his business interests. As far as his conduct as Senator, we got rid of both McCain and Flake and gained a few conservatives, so we’re still ahead of the game even if he does go full Flake.
He has just guaranteed, if by some fluke he does get the nomination, that millions of conservatives will ignore his candidacy and stay home in the November general election.
I cannot vote for him again, although I have in the past in both primaries and the general election against Obama.
What an idiot.
Y’all do realize that part of his goal, if he runs, is to guarantee just that result to make sure that the Left wins and completes the dismantling of the Constitution and the country.
Had Romney gone after Obama like this in 2012 he would still be President. We thought we were nominating a tiger but all we got was a pussycat.
As discussed at CTH, this was an obvious PRE PLANNED ‘op ed’ piece so Mittens can PRE KISS swamp arse.
#SwampDwellersUnite
#MittensPlusMittEqualsMoreSwamp
#OhMittensOhBrother
Reading the comments in this thread, I am once again compelled to ask – why is the progressive venom and name calling spewed out by Ragspierre tolerated?
I shall leave my rebuttal to the execrable Ragspierre to Don Surber:
https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2019/01/republicans-dont-rally-behind-romney.html
And note that I believe that Donald John Trump has governed as the most conservative President since Reagan. And that is what sticks in the craw of progressives everywhere.
That’s just stupid name-calling.
Where is he right?
Where is he wrong?
I’ve never been “Progressive”. Duh Donald IS, was, and will be.
“Where is he wrong?”
Look in a mirror.
SkyCaptain, I believe Trump is more conservative than Reagan in some ways. Reagan implored us to go along with the ’86 amnesty, saying it was the “compassionate” thing to do and we would only do it once.
Trump wouldn’t be suckered like that. Trump is proving more effective, notwithstanding the wall situation.
Trump is far more conservative than Reagan. That’s easy, because heck even Jimmy Carter was probably more conservative than that California communist.
Reagan not only amnestied a lot of Mexicans into legal status here, but he killed off the S&L industry, gutted our major corporations with the LBO frenzy on his watch, and saw manufacturing move to Japan. He collaborated with Iran in the hostage crisis to defeat Carter, so which side do you think he was really beholden to in the Middle East? He weakened America, our corporations never recovered, and now we have the Muslim invasion.
cult of romney meets cult of trump.
film at 11.
film will be based on idiotic fkin comments posted on blogs.
they both suck.
least the mention of one can make many peoples explode so thats at least worth it.
candidates like these 2 were why I almost didn’t bother to vote this time but no way was I going to help clinton. and since my state one of two that treats electoral college correctly I had to suck it up.
This is not a cult of anybody. This is simply a continuation of the Establishment v Anti-Establishment battles that have been fought since the 2016 Presidential elections. Trump voters voted for Trump’s platform, which he has done a very food job delivering. They did not necessarily like or even admire him. Those same voters sent a message to Republican Congressmen of their desires. When the Republican Congress refused to assist the Trump agenda, those voters were going to stay home, en mass, in 2018. But, the actions of the Democrat politicians convinced some of them to go to the polls. Otherwise, the GOP would probably have lost the Senate as well as the House.
Nonsense. The ONLY reason we have a SOMEWHAT improved tax code is the House and Senate. The same is true for ANY good thing that’s come in the last two years that can have any durable effect.
Conversely, we DO have new taxes imposed by the diktat of your cult leader, quite AGAINST the will of the people and all sound advice. Mr. Establishment knows what your choices should be, and you’ll by=gawd get them!
An interesting comment. You should reread it and think about it for awhile and maybe you’ll understand the 2018 election a little better. One correction, though. You said:
Those same voters sent a message to Republican Congressmen of their desires. When the Republican Congress refused to assist the Trump agenda, those voters were going to stay home, en mass, in 2018.
I doubt that’s correct, for a simple reason: Those voters had already demonstrated that they would overlook some differences and disappointments to support the common good – first by voting for Trump, who as you point out was not their preferred candidate, but then also by voting for GOP candidates in 2018 who weren’t their preferred candidates, either. As this blog demonstrates daily, it’s the Trump cult that refuses to compromise. I don’t know that they caused any losses in 2018 – I tend to lay that at the feet of the Republican leadership and the fact that so many RINOs retired, but blaming the very people whose flexibility put Trump in the White House for the subsequent loss of the House is at least counter-intuitive.
By far the biggest reason the GOP lost the House was because 40 RINOs decided not to run for re-election. Ryan could have persuaded at least 10 of them to stay on one more term but he didn’t. And he was useless in helping House members who chose to run for re-election. In other words, House GOP leadership intentionally gave the House back to the Dems.
Yeah, that’s what I said.
Why should Trump followers compromise? Never-Trump Republicans don’t compromise, they don’t even talk about the issues, they just sideswipe and attack. The Democrats “resist” and some Republicans join them.
Against that backdrop, all one can do is be authentic and push for what one wants.
You deckare your unwillingness to compromise on anything and then complain about the “never Trumpers” – a group that consists roughly of two magazines, one of which is essentially belly up, a handful of political commentators and “advisors”, and a couple of ex-Senators, one of which is already pushing up daisies. Maybe you should reflect on Trump who wrote books about negotiating (i.e. compromising).
Actually, if the polls were even remotely accurate, even Fox News was skeptical of the ability of the GOP to retain control of the Senate and everyone predicted that the Dems would win the House. Why? The House and Senate remained virtually the same after the 2016 elections, in terms of party membership. But, the polls suddenly reversed after the Kavanaugh debacle. That was what brought out the anti-Establishment Trump vote. This allowed the GOP to retain control of the Senate and probably limited the number of Dem seats in the House.
Trump got a huge percentage of the Republican and independent voters, in 2016, running as the anti-establishment candidate. There were almost no anti-establishment Congressional candidates in 2016. So, Trump voters voted largely for the incumbents in Congress. They expected the GOP incumbents to see the handwriting on the wall and support Trump. This failed to happen.In fact, as you noted, a significant number of incumbent Republicans “retired”, rather than run for reelection. You have to ask yourself why? In the special elections, the GOP seemed determined to see an Establishment candidate elected, even if it meant that candidate was a Democrat.
The political landscape has changed from Republican-Democrat to Establishment-anti-Establishment. And, just like the conservatives in the Republican party, anti-Establishment voters are extremely reluctant to vote for Establishment politicians.
Excuse me if this is a little disjointed – it’s hard trying to jump back and forth between your comment and my response.
I never place any faith in polls, even Rasmussen. Others may disagree.
Obviously the Kavanaugh debacle had a positive impact on voter turnout, maybe a critical one (or maybe not – it increased turnout on the left, too), but the people who were motivated to turn out weren’t the people you designated, for the reasons I mentioned above – if anything, it was the Trump core voters who were more likely the ones who were motivated by Kavanaugh.
Maybe I misunderstand you, but you seem to be mixing up the 2016 and 2018 elections, since it was in 2018 that the large group of GOP/GOPe members retired. In 2016, is was precisely the voters who did not support Trump in the primaries who provided him with his win. You seem to be trying to make the point that it was his base, rather than the people who were willing to vote for the party’s candidate even though they hadn’t supported him during the primaries.
One more little point that I noted but forgot to mention: The establishment/anti-establishment conflict isn’t anything new. This particular battle has been ongoing since long before Goldwater. We’re not breaking any new ground, it’s just that the conservative movement has continued to grow, the left continues to move further to the left, and the sides have become more entrenched. In the process, more and more non-ideological voters have moved into the Republican tent. Throwing them out again because they aren’t ideologically pure enough isn’t going to win elections. Another point that seems to get lost in all of the sniping and infighting – we’re all basically in agreement on the major tenets of conservatism and the struggle against the establishment. Essentially we’re just debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. But this urge to throw out anybody you don’t agree with even if it means turning the field over to the enemy (and to me the Marxist left IS the enemy) is suicide. And in conclusion, let me add that I don’t think anybody who considers themselves conservative is going to enjoy the next couple of years.
Let me address your two posts in the order in which you made them.
1) I think you are unclear on who constitutes a Trump voter. I have no idea what you are referring to when you say “Trump core voter”. But, a large coalition of various voters voted for Trump, in 2016. A large segment of this group were conservative Republicans who had been disenfranchised by their party. Another group were comprised of moderate and conservative NDPs [No Declared Party]. And, they all wanted one thing, to force the Republican Congress Critters to work for their constituents, not for Establishment special interests. They expected these Congressmen to do this by supporting Trump’s efforts on behalf of his constituency. As we saw, the Establishment Congress did everything within its power to hinder and stall that agenda. And, in 2018, the GOP ran few, if any, anti-Establishment candidates. When faced with this situation, it appeared as though a significant number of 2016 Trump voters were simply going to sit out the 2018 elections and punish the GOP by allowing it to lose the Congress. Until the Kavanaugh hearings. The actions of the Dems brought a lot of these voters back to the polls. You make the assumption that many of the anti-Trump Republican primary voters must have voted for Trump in order for him to win. But, it is actually just as strong an argument that the anti-Trump voters stayed home, in the 2016 General Election, and independents, who could not participate in most of the Republican primaries, made up for their numbers in the general.
Now, I do not put a lot of faith in political polling. However, when establish polling firms show a Democrat double digit lead dwindle to a couple of points or even show the Republican ahead [especially as polling tend to under report Republican support numbers] I suspect that a large number of people who were not going to vote at all, suddenly entered the political arena.
2)In the past, the Establishment-anti-Establishment fracture was most often along party lines. Traditionally, the Republican Party was thought of as the Establishment Party and the Democrats were considered the party of the people. However, over the years this changed. Today both parties are actively controlled by Establishment special interests to the detriment of the common man.
Whether the conservative movement has grown or not, is largely irrelevant where Party politics are concerned. Since the early 1980s, the conservatives in this country have been ignored by both major parties. The Democrats have espoused big government socialism since the late 19th century. And, while GOP paid lip service to conservative tenets, it largely ignored them and jumped on the big government band wagon with the Dems. Reagan came as close to being a conservative as any President in the 20th century. But, even he fell short. The Bushes were both foreign policy moderates, but social liberals. Dole, McCain and Romney were complete liberals. And, after Bush 41, large numbers of conservative voters simply stayed home. Dole, McCain and Romney had no chance without the conservatives [that was the reason why McCain ended up with Palin as VP] and why Bush 43 barely beat Gore and Kerry. And, it is why the GOP lost the House.
Do not fall into the mirror trap. Simply because you consider yourself a conservative and would vote for anyone to defeat a liberal, not all conservatives are like that. Many independents are conservatives who have left the Republican Party because it does not reflect their views. These people are tired of being promised a conservative banquet and do not even get an appetizer from those that they elect. As long as the Republican Party is going to be Democrat liberal light, it is doomed.
I hate to say it but when the comments end up like this group they are not up to LI standards. Nothing but ad hominem attacks and name-calling. That should have been reserved for Romney.
“Nothing but ad hominem attacks and name-calling. That should have been reserved for Romney.”
Which tells the whole tale here.
Why attack Romney with name-calling and ad hominem?
Again, where was he right? Anywhere?
If you can articulate a rational argument where he is wrong (and I’ve noted a few), how come you knee-jerk to name-calling and ad hominem?
Romney and Rags have a few things in common. While Romney is a tad more successful than Rags, both he and Rags resent the fact that they are in large part irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. One difference between them is that Romney is part of the swamp, while Rags wishes he was.
Envy is eating at both of them 🙂
You’ve bragged about your intelligence many times, all evidence to the contrary.
I wouldn’t be Donald J. T-rump for all the whisky in Scotland. Nobody envies a sick, broken child.
“I wouldn’t be Donald J. T-rump for all the whisky in Scotland.”
I don’t think you’ve left any whiskey for trade.
Rags, you and the rest of us know that you don’t have a prayer in hell of measuring up to Trump.
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/01/02/trump-lets-face-soviets-right-invade-afghanistan/
The poor, idiot, sick broken child, in his own words.
Allahpundit?
Well, one sicko deserves another.
Even you are not so stupid that you can deny what your cult leader says.
Dishonest, yes.
“Dishonest, yes.”
Applies to you and Allahpuke.
I wouldn’t read any of the deceivers slander. He/she/it is as sick as you.
You, Pelosi, Harry Reid, Romney, Allahpundit, and the rest of the progs and RINO’s are always on the same page. Good company you keep. All are anti-American.
How sad and faithless you have to be to continue to deny what is true when it is plainly spoken by your little yellow god!
You wouldn’t know an American impulse if it bit you on your stupid nose and introduced itself in the iambic pentameter.
Disgusting…
“plainly spoken”
More of your lies, Allahpuke creates his own headline, not a direct quote, uses words taken out of context, with no context to the discussion going on…
And you suck it up like the fraud you and your prog friends all are.
You poor T-rump sucking myrmidon. He quoted your little yellow god in context. You can’t deal with it.
Disgusting.
You’re deranged.
Noting of the kind.
You’re a liar, and a disgusting, pathetic little cultist nutter.
Rags, you poor sick broken child, why do you disagree with Trump? Why did the Soviet Union not have a right to try to solve a terrorism problem on its border?
It amazes me that Romney claims to be so very virtuous because they can tell you to go ship on yourself without using a curse word; yet, the intent of his context is just as vile, divisive and demeaning than anything Trump says. He is actually no better but actully worse because he claims a moral high ground based on a false perception of his self. Those on the outside of his consciousness clearly see the hypocrisy. I hope he becomes self aware.
All he did is speak some truth about a man.
You can’t deny it, so you revile him. Romney is a good man, and good men DO work hard to be that. The object of your mindless, slavish adoration has never done the hard work of being a man.
I do deny it. Romney is wrong. We need some truth-telling from the White House to rip away the false consensus in which conservative voices were silenced and shamed. If there’s a real consensus, it will show itself under Trump. There’s real consensus at Trump rallies, that’s for sure!
If Romney’s a good man, why didn’t he express these sentiments on the campaign trail in Utah and let the voters decide if that’s what they wanted from their senator?
I guess we know why Rags nose has that brown stuff stuck on the end of it and how Romney gets his tension related to Trump relieved.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-i-essentially-fired-mattis-over-lack-of-results/
Mr. “Artistic Slats” will…like his cult followers…lie about anything, and anybody.
Two hundred and nineteen ‘thumbs down’ in one post.
Münchausen by Internet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchausen_by_Internet
In all seriousness, for you:
People often don’t get the mental health services they need because they don’t know where to start:
http://www.mentalhealth.gov/get-help/immediate-help
Poor “Ragspierre”, the president and commander in chief isn’t going to continue never ending wars for no reason other than some general tells him to.
Mattis made it clear in his pathetic parting letter that he was forced out. Mattis and Romney oughta get a room together.
“Some general”…???
You disgusting little worshiper, it was EVERYBODY on his national security team.
And NOW he’s saying the Soviets were RIGHT in invading Afghanistan.
In his OWN FLUCKING demented words…
https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1080549357232025601
You’re a cult of a few, nevertrumpers. You’re circle jerk of deranged faux conservatives has become quite small, and are aligned with the worst of all, the Pelosi and Schumers, the war mongers that wish for perpetual war, and the body bags are of no importance.
Afghanistan, sure explain why we need to be there forever. The generals, most are no longer the Pattons. And they do not make policy, they carry it out.
Mark Levin, who you used to speak highly of, agrees, Trump is the most effective conservative president if 50 years.
Deranged.
He said the Soviet Union have a reason to fight in Afghanistan. It’s on their border and terrorists came directly across. Is your reading comprehension still on Christmas vacation? It’s not personal, you’ve done much better than this and we hope to see the old Rags in the future.
But Trump was comparing the Soviets in that situation to us. It’s not our fight in Afghanistan. I think Trump was implying Afghanistan isn’t strongly connected to 9/11, which is the excuse used to get us in there.
But here’s a theory to consider. What if 9/11 was a Russian trick (it’s pretty high tech) to get us into Afghanistan, to fight their war for them?
It’s time we stopped and gave them back their border situation. We have a border situation of our own that we need to focus on.
I don’t believe the Russian Federation borders Afghanistan. The USSR did but that nation is gone.
Interesting (to me) on reflecting back on why the USSR went into Afghanistan in the first place. Given the secrecy and propaganda in the bad old USSR the things I read indicated that people were still uncertain as to the justification. There was some speculation on indoctrination driving real world decisions and some speculation on traditional Russian imperial territorial imperatives. Bu precious little documentation of the decision.
Romeny can jump in McCain’s coffin. Mattis, on the other hand, warrants a better fate.
Great solider, just in DC too long.
Rommey: grab a shovel, and a 6-foot ladder.
This . . . thing . . . from Romney is really extraordinary. It certainly can’t be intended to mark him as some sort of “elder statesman” newly arrived to straighten Congress out. It’s so awful it puts him only slightly above the Mean Girl’s Club. Tactically, it’s a mere restatement of the trick the Leftoids have been hacking at since the election—attempts by the peanut gallery to define the Presidency in trivial terms and thus chain Prometheus to a very small rock. A trick which, obviously, hasn’t worked against Hurricane Donald, and won’t work now.
To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. A president should unite us and inspire us to follow “our better angels.”
This is ahistorical drivel, the kind of noise we’d expect to hear at the benediction before a pig roast. No American President worth a bucket of spit ever blew his term spouting such nonsense. The “Bully Pulpit” was always about haranguing the crowd to follow some course of action, not to natter about angels. Romney seems to think that Carter’s dreadful “Malaise” speech was the pinnacle of Presidential achievement. Phooey on that. The President is the Chief Executive, not the Chief Cheerleader, the Senior Nag, or good old Mom. There are governments where an official poobah does indeed have those functions, but the presidential system isn’t one of them. And it strains belief that Romney is such a child that he believes a word of what he wrote.
So . . . why did he write it? It might possibly convince some of the more obtuse D’rats that he’s really just one of them, but I can’t see how that will be of any practical use to him.
I agree 99%. The 1% I disagree with is comparison to Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech, which was actually OK and had 100 times the class of this friendly fire by incoming Romney.
And I think Carter was a pretty bad President! But the “malaise” speech was just criticized as an excuse, because TPTB decided to replace him with “conservative” former communist Reagan.
Today I’ve gotten downvotes on everything I wrote, but so far no replies explaining what’s wrong with them. I guess it’s driveby trolls, so I don’t mind.
Asking for and accepting help from Trump, only to then attack him, shows just what kind of man Romney is. Parents, when you’re looking for an example to show your kids of how NOT to be a man, Mitt Romney fits the bill. Double crossing-success is not success. Dishonor is action is to be reviled.
Ah, so anyone in…or out of…politics that Duh Donald “helps” in any imagined way can no longer say a word against him or they’re “double-crossers”. No critique can be made. No call for him to better himself.
That’s insane, un-American, and dangerous to our nation.
No, but in the world of human relations, an attack like Romney made is pretty much off-limits in that situation. Also, he didn’t run on this platform in Utah, so it’s a bait and switch on the Utah voters.
Yeah, Romney went beyond the pale here. He’s just a little jerk of a man.
You and Romney are “insane, un-American, and dangerous to our nation”.
Romney is a backstabbing, disloyal, POS. A fraud.
Don’t worry about “Mittens” Romney. The Senate is where “Republican Statesmen” #GoToDie (e.g. John McCain, Bob Dole) .
But Romney will never be a Flake: He’s John McCain incarnate, without the power to achieve the lofty post of POTUS, but retaining ALL OF THE ANGER AND BITTERNESS against the people who did not elect him.
“Olinser” is correct about Romney attacking Trump with 10X the fury he ever used on Barack the Destroyer.”
So in final words to “the last Boy Scout,” I’d like to remind him that Politics is a dirty business. You’ll note, now that he has been elected, he feels safe enough to attack Trump, AFTER getting his endorsement. That ‘s straight out of the playbook of the gone, but not forgotten member of the Keeting 5 Senator, the late John McCain. Maybe if he or his family don’t have the stomach to play the dirty game, he shouldn’t be involved, even as a Senator for the Mormons.
Romney starts his congressional career with friendly fire. I’ve never heard of that happening before. I wonder what the people of Utah are thinking of their selection now — they are probably embarrassed.
This guy’s father ran American Motors, and the son doesn’t even understand how to play well on a team! Maybe the brains skip a generation in that family.
A great quote from Instapundit:
As Tennessee State Senator Frank Nicely put it on Twitter, ‘Mitt Romney has always been there when he needs you. The American people sensed that and he lost.’
Read the rest. There is a lovely list of the many successes of President Trump in fulfilling his campaign promises.
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/317508/
A great passage I wanted to share here:
“Donald Trump campaigned and was elected on rolling back the regulatory state. He has made a good start on that Herculean project. He campaigned and was elected on taming illegal immigration. He is hard at work attempting to achieve that. He campaigned and was elected on cutting taxes. He managed that last year. He campaigned and was elected on rolling back political correctness. He has done that through Betsy DeVos’s department of education and in other ways. He campaigned and was elected on populating the judiciary with judges who were Constitutionalists after the pattern of Antonin Scalia. He has made astonishing progress in doing just that. He campaigned and was elected on rebuilding the United States military and, with a military budget of some $716 billion, he is well on the way to accomplishing that. He campaigned and was elected on making America energy independent. We are now the world’s largest energy producer. He campaigned and was elected on helping black and hispanic minorities, who now enjoy the lowest unemployment in history. He campaigned and was elected on a promise to challenge the spread of radical Islamic terrorism. During his first year in office, he obliterated ISIS as a fighting force. He campaigned and was elected on challenging North Korea’s nuclear program and has made historic progress on that front. He campaigned and was elected on reversing China’s unfair trade practices and expansionist policies. He has made significant progress on that front as well. He campaigned and was elected on moving our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. He did it.” https://spectator.us/pathetic-mitt-romney/
Excellent!
As Mark Levin has noted, President Trump is the most effective conservative president in 50 years.
Now Mittens the mouse roars.