https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/mitt-romney-republican-denial-biden-election/661468/

I love irony, and nothing is more ironic than a MORmON claiming the rest of America is in denial. I don’t disagree, but I’d say most Americans are delusional, given the fact most believe in God and nearly half of them reject the theory of evolution



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2022 10:06PM by schrodingerscat.

Well…
I did/do like how WMR stood up to Little Donnie.

that struck me as a bit ‘Outside The Bubble’

GNPE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well…
> I did/do like how WMR stood up to Little Donnie.
>
> that struck me as a bit ‘Outside The Bubble’


If by ‘stood up to Little Donnie’ you mean he gushed over him after a posh dinner of frog legs, then yeah, that’s what I mean by Mittens the Flip Flopper.

https://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/11/dinner-for-3-trump-romney-and-reince-231976

Guy flips more than Flipper the flip flopper!

Didn’t WMR vote to (either impeach or convict) tRump?

Was all for Trump when he had a vision of being Sec. of State. I don’t think he stood up to Trump during that dinner…more like on his knees (and I don’t think he was saying a blessing on the food). Been butt-hurt ever since. LOL!!

Given that you were (presumably) not present at that meal, what is your evidence for Romney's servility?

How was he more deferential than, say, David Petraeus or any of the other dozens of powerful people who felt it appropriate to give the newly elected president an hour of their time?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2022 12:59AM by Lot's Wife.

From the Politico report on Romney’s frog leg dinner,

‘In his March speech, Romney painted a picture of a dark future under a President Trump, with a looming global recession and the end of Ronald Reagan’s vision of America as a “shining city on a hill.”

But on Tuesday, Romney had a sharply different take.

“I happen to think that America's best days are ahead of us,” he said. “And what I've seen through these discussions I've had with President-elect Trump, as well as what we've seen in his speech the night of his victory, as well as the people he's selected as part of his transition, all of those things combined give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us to that better future.”

I realize you don't do nuance, but saying American's best days are ahead of it is not an endorsement of Trump. And saying that the meeting gives him "increased" hope that Trump will be a good president is damning by faint praise because he did not define his hope level before the meeting.

And you missed my point, predictably. I asked for evidence that Romney was more obsequious, unctuous, whatever adjective you choose, than the dozens of other people who met with Trump over possible jobs in the administration.

That was a direct quote from the Politico article I linked to above.
And Romneys own words, where he flip flops more than flipper, in one article,

“all of those things combined give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us to that better future.”

That was obviously some misplaced hope, Who woulda known that electing a serial sexual predator would end badly for those ‘binders of women’?

Maybe Romney didn’t care about Trump’s sexual proclivities or misogyny, or racism, or Bigotry towards ‘others’ because he’s got no problem singing the praises of a sexual predator, bigot, misogynist and believes in the same misogynist policies.

In the end Romney got what he wanted, a conservative court,
And that’s the end that justifies the means.

They got what they wanted most, to win the CULTure War.

While Liberals were more interested in raising Anti-Racist babies, conservatives were fighting the culture war, mainly over abortion and guns, and they won, easily. Mitch McConell played the Dems like a fiddle, and Dems sat still and took it, in silence.

Now, thanks to the right’s toxic masculinity, in red states, women are forced into pregnancy and giving birth, even if they’re just 10yo girls who’ve been raped. Romney’s all in on banning abortion, now.

Didn’t used to be.

Thanks to Romney and his NRA sponsored party, we have mass murders on a daily basis. And Congress doesn’t care enough to ban assault rifles, again, so the Toxic Male Incels who carry them out continue to be motivated and radicalized on the internet.

They’re growing around the world like a bad virus.

The pandemic just exacerbated the problem.

Crime is out of control and rising rapidly, along with inflation and homeless pandemic, and the whole litany of problems at the root of that whole problem.

As a result, Republicans are sure to win back Congress and the White House.

Then it’ll be like Handmaids Tale with drones, so, Star Wars, with lots of sexual abuse.

Unless Dems grow a GD spine first.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2022 11:57AM by schrodingerscat.

When someone points out a flaw in your reasoning, simply restating your point in lengthier and more excited form is not an effective reply.

Bombast is not logic.

> Bombast is not logic.


Bombast shows you care; thus more bombast means you care MORE!

Bombast's progression is infinite in the sense that you can always add another bombastic adjective.

One of The Cat's many attributes is how humble he can be about how much he knows.  And he's never self-deprecating; he prefers deprecating others...such a giver!

So you are saying, where there's bombast there's love?

Wow!

"You never bring me flowers anymore..."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_zsJC63kc-I

"Kill frogs"

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When someone points out a flaw in your reasoning,
> simply restating your point in lengthier and more
> excited form is not an effective reply.
>
> Bombast is not logic.


Because we don’t have transcripts from what the dozens of other candidates for Secretary of State had to say about Trump, and I don’t care. They didn’t go on record calling Trump a Con Man. Mittens did, during the campaign.
Then he switched his tune completely in order to grovel over frog legs and a cushy job. He’s a whore, nothing more.

Yet another non sequitur response. Try to keep your eye on the ball.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
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> Bombast is not logic.

put that in a letter and send it off to yourself

Ah, there's that rapier wit!

You are a very important man, Smirky. Thank you for gracing us with your presence.

Perhaps we're all here because we are flip flippers. Is being willing to change opinions a bad thing? I think Romney has said some correct things lately.

Since I don’t live in Ew-tah, I’m not in that connection…

The Ultra-Righters accosted him at the SL airport saying “We’re the people who elected you!”

I hope he told them that he doesn’t won’t cower to just one segment of citizens - voters!!

GNPE Wrote:
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> I hope he told them that he doesn’t won’t
> cower to just one segment of citizens - voters!!

Well, he certainly won’t cower to the 47%

He's not wrong, but in his political party, he's like a voice howling in the wind. I have to say that it is nice to have a Republican who doesn't automatically throw teachers under the bus.

He's no profile in courage.

No, he’s not. Flip-flopper is an apt label for him.

I’m not going to change that view simply because he’s flip-flopped into a somewhat reliable anti-Trumper, at least since Trump didn’t give him the job he desperately wanted. What’s the next flip? Or flop?

Who is the real “Mitt?” We only know the Mitt-in-the-moment when he’s trying to get elected.

Voting to convict Former Guy was most certainly not going to help him get re-elected in Utah, so I will give him that. He usually keeps his spine in cold storage somewhere.

His father, George, lost a presidential primary when he said something honest about Vietnam. I was thinking that when push came to shove, Mitt would prove to be his father's son, and he would behave with integrity.

Authenticity is clearly not his strong suit, but I think he has pretty much turned out to be his father's son. I also doubt he will run again. What's the point? Congress is dysfunctional and his party is revolting, in both senses of the term. More fun to just go home and be grandpa.

For those who ridicule Mitt for trying to get a job under Former Guy, rather a lot of pretty competent people tried or did get jobs in the administration in the hope that they could insulate and protect the country from the dumpster fire at the top. [most everybody knew he was a dumpster fire. A lot of people saw that as a feature, not a bug.]

In the first year of the administration, that was a reasonable error to make. There was hope FG would grow into the job. Instead he got worse over time. After 4 years, to call FG "our Captain Moroni", now that was an unforgivable error IMHO, and Mitt didn't make that one.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For those who ridicule Mitt for trying to get a
> job under Former Guy, rather a lot of pretty
> competent people tried or did get jobs in the
> administration in the hope that they could
> insulate and protect the country from the dumpster
> fire at the top.

Exactly.

I have to say that from the Jan. 6th testimony, most of the people at the Justice Department gritted their teeth and did the right thing. It's a shame the FG whack-a-doodles have taken over.

Mitt has done a lot of damage to this country, IMO. For starters, corporations are NOT people too.

He may be a rotten apple, but he's by far not as rotten as a lot of them in the Congress barrel. He's a special interest (mostly his own interests) sell out. He's quite the flip flopper, but he has a long way to go to top Lindsey. Being a rotten flip flopper appears to be part of the job description.

I find it interesting that Utah has an extreme Mormon Senator Lee and a less extreme Mormon Senator Mitt. I suspect that makes makes Mormons think they are actually diverse and not meddling in politics.

dagny Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mitt has done a lot of damage to this country,
> IMO. For starters, corporations are NOT people
> too.

A minor quibble, probably minor in intent and minor in persuasive power. For legal purposes corporations "are" people. That's what the word "corporation" means; and "incorporation" is transforming an entity into a legal person, meaning an entity subject to law. In other languages "corporation" is literally "legal person." Without that structure, which dates back centuries, laws on contracts, defamation, fraud, and virtually everything else would not fall within the jurisdiction of courts.

As a political matter, Romney's choice of words was a disaster (cue: binders full of women). He could have made his point much more felicitously--and fortunately.

Point taken. I mostly mean his support for corporations to buy out our lawmakers. I still hold a grudge against his actions at Bain hedge fund wrecking ball.

I'm still disgusted by the dog on top of his car and his dumb car elevator. Gawd, what a piece of work.

Yeah, I agree with all of that.

Don't forget the bullying haircut episode, when teenaged Mittens and his pals were so put off by another kid's hair that they attacked him, pinned him down and cut it against his will, just because they didn't approve of how he looked (and apparently presumed that he was gay).

I like how the author of this ten-year-old piece summed Mitt up in a "spoiler alert" at the end:

https://gothamist.com/news/update-mitt-romney-terrorized-gay-student-cut-his-hair-according-to-prep-school-classmates

"SPOILER ALERT: He's kind of an asshole."

I just read that article and another one embedded in it. I've never heard that story before and it is deeply disturbing: another bully leading weaker people to abuse someone they suspected was gay.

That may well be the worst thing I've ever read of Romney's personal behavior.

I thought that episode was pretty well known. Anyway, I think it reveals a lot about his character.

Agreed.

It's just too bad corporations can't go to jail.

Or corporate executives. . .

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dagny wrote:

> As a political matter, Romney's choice of words
> was a disaster (cue: binders full of women). He
> could have made his point much more
> felicitously--and fortunately.

I'm no fan of the Mittster, but he got a bad rap on that. He pointed out that when he set up his gubernatorial administration, women applications were very underrepresented. He called for more female applicants and referrals and got "files, even binders" of references and resumes, all to improve his applicant pool. But he's a Republican in Massachusetts, so the media--rather than commend him for this--made the lame joke like it was a reference to sexual kink.

Good for Romney and shame on the knee-JERK (pun intended) liberal media.

Moderate Republicans can do well in blue states, especially when the Democrats get a little too full of themselves. Maryland, a blue state, has a well-liked two term moderate Republican governor, Larry Hogan. But with the recent Supreme Court rulings, along with the January 6th insurrection (which happened just down the road from us, and was deeply frightening on a personal level,) the tide may be changing. I don't see a Republican getting elected next time around. And moderates are treated like pariahs in the Republican party nowadays.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2022 07:58AM by summer.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Moderate Republicans can do well in blue states,


Republicans really HAVE to be moderate in blue states.


> And moderates
> are treated like pariahs in the Republican party
> nowadays.


Exactly, on a national level they can't get traction. The things that make them appeal to Democrats, and to some extent independents, are anathema to the party base. And they can't win on crossover appeal, because if it gets down to a democrat or moderate republican, democrats will vote democrat.


Frankly, I don't think Mittens could get elected anywhere but Utah, and that may not even happen again if he keeps going the way he has.

"Democrats will vote democrat" -- not necessarily. Hogan had to have a lot of support from moderate Democrats to get elected (he was preceded by the much more liberal Martin O'Malley, who never seemed to find a tax that he didn't like.) Same for certain local and state offices. Moderates of either party have often been quite willing to listen to the moderates of the other party. Independent voters are also willing to listen. I voted for Hogan in the general election both times because I didn't care for his Democratic opponents.

Hogan is a (recent) past president of the National Governors Association. So he does have the respect of his fellow governors. As president, he played a leadership role during the pandemic. But I agree, at the present time it would not be possible for him to gain traction for a run for the presidency. The far right has taken over the Republican party.

Having said all that, it has become increasingly impossible for me to vote Republican for governor, or national office, or really, any office at all. The Republican party has betrayed me. It will have to be straight Democrat from now on out. The Republicans have firmly shoved me out. They have shoved a lot of people out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2022 10:54AM by summer.

Unfortunately, a million white, suburban Americans switched party affiliation to R, over the past year.

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-biden-covid-health-presidential-e50db07385831e67f866ec45402be8b9

I’d expect overturning RvW would reverse that trend, but the economy isn’t doing D’s any favors. Neither is the Woke Cult. A greater percentage of blacks voted R in 2020 than in 2016.

https://www.vox.com/2020/11/4/21537966/trump-black-voters-exit-polls

Blacks are not in favor of defunding the police. 81% of blacks are not in favor of defunding the police.

https://www.newsweek.com/81-black-americans-dont-want-less-police-presence-despite-protestssome-want-more-cops-poll-1523093

Most Americans recognize crime is rising and we need more policing, not less. This issue is an obvious liability for the Left. Most Americans see the Right as more tough on crime than the Left. This doesn’t bode well for the prospects of egalitarianism, going forward.

https://www.rollcall.com/2022/04/27/defund-the-police-still-haunts-democrats/

Suburban workers in the middle of America, are asking themselves, which party represents my interests (economy, security, God, guns) best? As the Left champions Minority causes, Suburbanites are increasingly feeling unrepresented. They’re turning to the Right because they feel abandoned by the Left.

Don't forget Terry Mcauliffe announcing on the eve of the Virginia gubernatorial election that parents weren't going to be deciding what their children study (or words to that effect). It probably cost him the election. I live in the DC suburbs, and parents feel like they're at war. (FWIW, I'm glad my kids are already out of school).

Parents have always had a say in what kids study. Normally when new curriculums and textbooks are under consideration, they are put in front of parent committees and school boards. Individual parents may not get a veto, but collectively, they do get a say.

And honestly, the curriculums from what I've seen over the years are rather plain vanilla. It's been nothing short of ridiculous how the right-wing media has been harping on about CRT, which 99.999% of the time is not taught in American public elementary, middle, or high schools.

Teachers are well aware of the "hot spots" in the curriculum (anything having to do with evolution, religion, holidays, or human sexuality,) and are careful to stick closely to the mandated curriculum when teaching those subjects. Again, those curriculums are subject to parent review. And parents are always given fair warning when a sensitive topic is on the horizon, along with a chance to excuse their children from the lessons.

Much ado about nothing, but of course, the right wing must demonize the public schools as a matter of course.

I'm probably oversimplifying, but I was also thinking more on the national level. I know Hogan has been popular (I too live in the DMV, but on the V side), but I suspect things are changing.

He's also made overtures of "reasonableness" in an effort to fill the Trump void (I assume). I don't see him succeeding nationally, but I could be wrong.

With reproductive choice on the horizon, IMO Marylanders are going to run home to the Democratic party in the upcoming gubernatorial election. The Democratic base is not going to be in a mood to risk losing that.

Mitt is an opportunist. That's all he is. He's played a weird cuddle game between the East Coast establishment and the Mormon Church. He was popular when Gordon B. Hinckley was also playing the cuddle game trying to mainstream the church which is an impossible task only the naive or crazy try to do.

Mittens is a whore, nothing more.
He called Trump a ConMan during his campaign, then did a 180 in Mitt the flip flopper style, and said Trump was the man to unite America, in hopes of securing a job working under a conman.

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mitt is an opportunist. That's all he is.


100%

"What clears the scales from the eyes of a nation? Pearl Harbor did. 9/11 did. A crisis can shake the public consciousness."

Go get yer muskets?

. . . for it demonstrates the Mormon mental state.

Though in a position of actual leadership & power he abdicates responsibility, awaiting instead President Messiah who will magically make it all mo' bettah.

But what can one expect from someone with a dedicated lifetime of "pay and obey" who has relied upon some nebulous "Authority" external to himself to tell him what is right-think? Responsibility? Original thought? Solutions? Leadership? He's doing pretty well, considering his thinking consists of a wheelbarrow full of used bumper-stickers provided through the years from externalized "Authority."

He's not "flip-flopping."
He doesn't even know who he is (which is why the perpetual deer-in-the-headlights expression).
"Know Thyself" is a prerequisite to integrity -- i.e. being able to stand alone unaided (from the structural engineering concept).
He's been obedient, careful to avoid thinking for himself, abdicating responsibility to Authority -- just as instructed for a lifetime.

He is the product of Mormonism.
This is what you get.

The quest to pay big tithing is another part of the majesty of mormonism.

What does the 47% think of Rmoney ?