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Sen. Mitt Romney Says He Would Vote For 'Virtually' Anybody Other Than Trump or Ramaswamy
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this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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I don't think people get that this difference makes a difference. As a millennial going through college during the GW Bush years, there was at least a Republican party that cared about America, cared about non political government institutions and the service those members participate in, etc. Since the tea party that shit changed. And I don't think it's hard to believe Mitt Romney actually cares about this country and means what he says on this thing. I feel disgusted defending Romney, but I kind of miss it when it was guys like Romney were the political opponents in power and not these MAGA folks hellbent on destroying democracy and politicizing the institutions critical to America.
I mean, I was going through college when GW Bush was elected, and here's what I remember:
Everyone lying about GW Bush being the "first Spanish-speaking President" (he spoke no Spanish at all), the first of many lies meant to cover up his manifest incompetence and intellectual incapability
Republicans shutting the government down for weeks at a time
A maniac, entirely fictitious scandal invented solely to hamper Al Gore's election prospects (the White House phones scandal)
What was different about that day's Republican Party than today's? We knew less about it, was all.
The thing that I dont think a lot of people like to recognize is that GW Bush had both some of the highest and lowest approval ratings. For months immediately after his approval rating was like 90 percent. Dems are also responsible for going to war then, even if they weren't the party in control.
But the thing is republicans did hold institutions, agencies, and administrative government orgs in higher esteem and weren't trying to destroy and purge. That's very different than trump. There's a difference between Mitt Romneys of the. GOP and the Jim Jordans who have never passed their own legislation and instead only focus on dismantling government and going on witch hunts.
I think the other thing you need to look at is how other elected officials speak about working with him. There's what you say in the public light, and then there's the work that actually gets done.
Also, didn't Romney kind of quietly champion universal healthcare in MA? And despite his own views, accept state Supreme Court rulings to provide gay marriage licenses? This guy actually cared about governing.
I think that MAGA-ism has led to a dangerous amount of rose tinted glasses with regard to the pre-Trump GOP. Even the pre-Tea Party GOP (which was the real start of this latest flavor of rot)...
...buuuuuuut
You do make a very good point in the difference between a Romney and a Jordan.
The Romneys of the world may indeed want small government, hell some of them may only want a smaller government...but they still want some degree of government, and by extension, they're still interested in governing. That is: doing their job of steering the nation toward some sort of goal that they feel is a worthwhile betterment of the country.
I may not agree with their goals or the ways they try to get there, but they do in fact have a goal and part of that end goal includes an intact, functioning country with an intact, functioning government.
The Jordans, however, have a fundamentally incompatible end goal: they don't just want small government, they want no government. Any level of government would serve as a check on their power to enforce their ideals, so their constant goal is simply to dismantle any bit of the government they can.
So they literally use their position as a chosen caretaker for the government as a platform to destroy the very thing they're supposed to be managing.
Also 2 unnecessary wars. Iraq causing the US to lose focus in Afghanistan. Republicans steered the Medicare part D BS and Bush signed it. The economy melting down then they blamed Obama. Then they questioned Obama’s citizenship. Before that was Reagan racking up debt, and raising taxes all while “states rights” was used as cover for institutional racism.
Republicans have always been dog shit.
Yes, but they never would have sold us out completely to China or Russia. Their goals were power and grift, but they weren't willing to destroy the country to do so.
As bad as they were, Trump is likely worse.
It's a progression, though. They turned up the heat slowly so people wouldn't notice how they're being boiled alive. Romney isn't a Tea Party/MAGAt like the rest, but he had no problem catering to them during his 2012 bid for the Presidency and he was part of the establishment that paved the way for the extremists. He can afford to distance himself now that he's retiring, but he didn't listen when we warned about the rise of extremism in his party. It's too late to earn our respect for acknowledging it now.
This is like the same logic republicans use to say abortion is just a gateway to death councils for grandma.
Don't make false equivalencies when you don't want them made against your party. Each party has a nuance of plurality in members.
You should really check your facts before committing to an opinion.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/whether-he-debates-or-not-trump-owes-a-lot-to-fox-news/
Specify please. There is nothing to respond to. What facts are you disputing
Only because China and Russia weren't shopping for US politicians at the time. For decades now Republicans have been about catering to the wishes of the wealthy - their basic treasonous natures were just masked by the fact that their wealthy donors used to be all-American.
I don't think you can really argue that the war in Afghanistan was "unnecessary." We were attacked by terrorists from that country, remember?
We were never going to let OBL do 9/11 and then just walk away.
Except we did.
When Bin Laden was cornered in caves in Afghanistan further resources to go after him were denied and sent to Iraq instead. There’s a reason OBL was killed in Pakistan during an entirely different presidential administration.
Sure, you can definitely argue that the war in Iraq was unnecessary.
Yup those fucking hanging ballots could have given Algore in Florida. In general the world would be better