Surprisingly, I’m not angry at Mitt Romney for his vote to convict Donald Trump for abuse of power and to remove him from office. I disagree with it, strongly, but anger isn’t my emotion. “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” is more my emotion. Disgust is more my emotion.
Romney has disappointed so many times, I’m numb to him.
Romneycare begat Obamacare. It was a hard pill to swallow that the Republican who provided the DNA for Obamacare was the Republican nominee in 2012. But as often is the case, a choice had to be made between bad and worse. Romney was bad, Obama was worse.
So in 2012, a lot of us held our noses and voted for Mitt Romney once he became the Republican nominee.
Not only did we vote for him, we defended him against attacks he seemed incapable of defending himself — including idiotic but relentless media/Democrat claims that he gave people cancer, tormented others in high school, and kept women in binders. We defended him when the media colluded against him.
Harder to defend were the claims that he was a heartless corporate raider who left a trail of shattered lives in companies he and Bain restructured. We explained that the restructuring and downsizing of failing companies sometimes was necessary — but when you’re explaining, you’re losing.
Romney was Obama’s human punching bag who never punched back. He lost gracefully, with nary a hair out of place on his neatly coiffed hair. He seemed most put out not by his tormentors, but by those of us who defended him from torment.
Romney’s loss begat Trump. There was a hunger for someone who would punch back. A Republican who would win ugly was preferred to a Republican who would lose pretty. A winner who clearly wasn’t holier than thou and didn’t claim to be, was preferred.
When Romney wanted to be Trump’s Secretary of State, we wouldn’t have stood in opposition. When he ran for Senate, while we didn’t actively support him, we didn’t oppose him. He seemed safe — silly us. When Romney embraced Trump’s endorsement, despite previous harsh statements against Trump, who were we to cry foul — been there, done that.
Then this vote.
Watching Romney’s speech today, what stood out was the holier-than-thou attitude, holding himself out as a man of God bound by a higher calling to vote to convict.
Perhaps the only man or woman of God in the Republican Party, because all 52 other Republican Senators found (1) that the possible corruption of the famly of a former Vice President through payola was a legitimate subject of discussion with the government where the corruption and payola took place, even if that former VP now was running for president, or (2) even if the foregoing was improper, it mixed legitimate public objectives with the sort of political interests that motivate all politicians, or (3) even if all of the foregoing was wrong and without any legitimate motive, it did not amount to the type of serious threat to the Republic that, even if not a crime itself, required immediate removal from office in an election year.
Ignored also in Romney’s sermon was the dirty game played by Democrats. The 3-year-long attempt to find a reason to impeach. The FBI abuse of the FISA process and deceptive targeting of the incoming and then sitting Trump presidency based on a phony dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign and DNC using a British spy who relied on Russian sources. The targeting of those around the presidency who were investigated and charged for crimes unrelated to supposed Russian collusion only because they made the mistake of associating with Trump. The biased and manipulative House proceedings that caused even Lisa Murkowski to refuse to remove the target of that dirty game regardless of her criticism of his conduct.
In Mitt Romney’s world, Trump was expected to be a punching bag and not to punch back. Putting the issue of Biden corruption out for discussion was a legitimate punch back, but even if it wasn’t, in the world of body blows Trump and those around Trump have absorbed from Democrats and the media, it was small ball. 52 Republican Senators understood that to varying degrees.
But not Mitt Romney. Nope, this was classic Mitt. He was right, he was pure, he was holier than thou.
I’m sick of him, but not really angry. We’ve been fooled twice, maybe more times than that, shame on us. If there is a viable means of removing him from office, or a viable challenger to him in 2024, so be it. The people who are angry with him have those options.
What I won’t do is allow anger to poison my life because of Mitt Romney. He’s not worth it.
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