Mitt Romney was the LAST Republican candidate for President that I supported, and it is painful to reflect on how much financial support we managed to cough up. Speaking of "coughing up," I now find myself choking on the game he is playing by refusing to endorse Kamala. With everything on the line, including, according to him, his family's personal safety, he opts out. Definitely the LAST R for me. The R party needs to go away.
As Heather Cox Richardson, historian, noted in her daily blog: the Covid "test" that Trump gave Putin was actually a testing MACHINE, designed to be used at a "point", like hospital, for detection of Covid in a large number of people... NOT merely a single test packet like we get at the drug store these days. BIG difference in scope of the "crime".
I was in a gay bar in Philadelphia with a friend of mine who was visiting from Raleigh NC, watching the Phillies lose to the Mets (sigh). One of Trump's anti-trans ads came on, and the bar naturally roared out in laughter. THIS is what Trump is running on? But my buddy from NC just shook his head. "That is a very effective ad." he said. "People in Raleigh love to hate the 'they'."
Its quite delusional for him to believe he'll have a role rebuilding the party. Its inconceivable. He'd have more of a role trying to move the Democratic party further to the right frankly.
This simply isn't a rational belief and Romney has prided himself on his rationality. I want to chalk this up to the heavy lift of asking a man who spent his entire adult life as a major Republican figure being unable to believe it's over but... its over.
A post Trump Republican party is not going to be economically libertarian. Its MONUMENTALLY more likely that Matt Gaetz, Rubio, Hawley and Vance shape the future of the party. Its over.
Mormon and rational is not quite ticking for me. I have many Mormon neighbors, and have been to activities at their church, which is about 2-3 blocks from Obama's Chicago house, and one of the Mormon mom's I know is working with an Interfaith coalition to support Immigrants from Syria to our community, so we have a progressive Mormon community. Still, I know the beliefs are not always mainstream. Some are just old fashioned seeming, like grinding your own flour, or having to have lots of children. There is an intersection with some aspects of Christian Nationalism that I see as being somewhat magical in their thinking. So, I can see how he can be delusional, I mean Mormons believe that they can handle child sexual abusers in their church with a talk with elders.
ROFL, it's not the Covid tests having been sent to Putin that is the issue. It is whatever top-secret info Trump snuck inside the Covid tests that is the jaw dropper here. I mean, c'mon, Vladimir Putin, who rivals Elon Musk in wealth (and no one in both wealth, power and international reach) couldn't get his hand on a few Covid tests, but-for his friend/asset Trump? It doesn't pass the smell test.
George Romney may have been "brainwashed" by the military brass in Vietnam, but he was a stand-up politician. I suspect he would be quietly appalled to have observed his son's indecisive, flabby political career. Mitt knows what it takes to be an effective political leader, but he hasn't the stomach to act upon it. What waste of a public career.
1) I’m repeating here what I wrote last week about the Morning Shots article about Liz Cheney. It’s still all true:
For the life of me, I can’t understand the reasoning of people like Romney or Christie. Do they really think that the GOP base will come crawling back to them if Trump loses? Don’t they realize that, should Trump lose, the GOP base will blame them (right after they get through blaming Dominion, Italian space lasers, the media, illegal aliens voting, and demonic Democrats) because they wouldn’t ride the Trump train? Because you know that Trump won’t take any blame and you know that his cult will follow whatever he says and you know he’ll blame them. They won’t be heroes, they’ll be goats.
And what’s worse is if their inaction contributes to Trump winning. Then they’ll be worse than whatever is worse than goats. And that will apply not just to them, but to the whole country.
So a party that has been reveling in its grievances and hate and flat-Eartherism for at least the last 15 years is suddenly going to do some soul searching and realize the errors of their ways just because someone like Romney is pointing it out to them? Color me skeptical.
2) “MAGA lunatics have hijacked the party and driven it into a ditch. They only reason they have any national political viability is because they’ve convinced a critical mass of longtime Republican normies to keep their heads down and keep being good team players.” I disagree with this assessment. It’s not because the “normies” kept their heads down. The reason that the MAGA lunatics have been able to hijack the party is that the party is now largely made up of lunatics.
Personally I think it started with Newt Gingrich back in the 1990's (although Bush (41) kind of started it with his Willie Horton ads). Newt's take-no-prisoners attitude combined with the dulcet tones of Rush Limbaugh started the grievance party that used to be known as the Republican Party. If you watched conservative media as I did in the aughts you could see the degradation of the conversation as the decade went on. And it really started accelerating (downward) when the Democrats had the audacity to nominate someone that (according to Giuliani) "doesn't love the country the way the rest of us do". I can't say that I predicted something as bad as Trump, but I did feel that something bad was going to happen when you heard all of the conspiracy theories and the almost complete lack of logic coming first from Limbaugh and Fox and then from the Republican politicians.
Let not perfection become the enemy of good enough. It's fine, Mitt. We will take it!
Mitt Romney was the LAST Republican candidate for President that I supported, and it is painful to reflect on how much financial support we managed to cough up. Speaking of "coughing up," I now find myself choking on the game he is playing by refusing to endorse Kamala. With everything on the line, including, according to him, his family's personal safety, he opts out. Definitely the LAST R for me. The R party needs to go away.
Some people still vote on one issue: abortion. We haven't that luxury. But that's how some voters view this race.
As Heather Cox Richardson, historian, noted in her daily blog: the Covid "test" that Trump gave Putin was actually a testing MACHINE, designed to be used at a "point", like hospital, for detection of Covid in a large number of people... NOT merely a single test packet like we get at the drug store these days. BIG difference in scope of the "crime".
I was in a gay bar in Philadelphia with a friend of mine who was visiting from Raleigh NC, watching the Phillies lose to the Mets (sigh). One of Trump's anti-trans ads came on, and the bar naturally roared out in laughter. THIS is what Trump is running on? But my buddy from NC just shook his head. "That is a very effective ad." he said. "People in Raleigh love to hate the 'they'."
Mittens has a fantasy that by holding back in an attempt to be "true" to the Republican Party that he can resresurrect it from the Trump firebombing.
He can fantasize all he wants on the Utah ski slopes...his Grand Old Party will never return.
Correction: NOT
Step up mittens.
No, we are going to buy your and the rest of you cowardly repugs shoulda, coulda, woulda bullshit books in the aftermath.
Its quite delusional for him to believe he'll have a role rebuilding the party. Its inconceivable. He'd have more of a role trying to move the Democratic party further to the right frankly.
This simply isn't a rational belief and Romney has prided himself on his rationality. I want to chalk this up to the heavy lift of asking a man who spent his entire adult life as a major Republican figure being unable to believe it's over but... its over.
A post Trump Republican party is not going to be economically libertarian. Its MONUMENTALLY more likely that Matt Gaetz, Rubio, Hawley and Vance shape the future of the party. Its over.
Mormon and rational is not quite ticking for me. I have many Mormon neighbors, and have been to activities at their church, which is about 2-3 blocks from Obama's Chicago house, and one of the Mormon mom's I know is working with an Interfaith coalition to support Immigrants from Syria to our community, so we have a progressive Mormon community. Still, I know the beliefs are not always mainstream. Some are just old fashioned seeming, like grinding your own flour, or having to have lots of children. There is an intersection with some aspects of Christian Nationalism that I see as being somewhat magical in their thinking. So, I can see how he can be delusional, I mean Mormons believe that they can handle child sexual abusers in their church with a talk with elders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_abuse_cases#:~:text=The%20LDS%20Church%20states%20that,to%20blame%20for%20the%20abuse.
https://apnews.com/article/mormon-church-investigation-child-sex-abuse-9c301f750725c0f06344f948690caf16
Pliney,
Are you an arc-welder, or do you lean toward the more delicate tig-welding?
If Trump wins, Mitt is likely to end up in front of a firing squad.
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnsundman/p/peter-thiels-game-of-thrones?r=7wxj3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
ROFL, it's not the Covid tests having been sent to Putin that is the issue. It is whatever top-secret info Trump snuck inside the Covid tests that is the jaw dropper here. I mean, c'mon, Vladimir Putin, who rivals Elon Musk in wealth (and no one in both wealth, power and international reach) couldn't get his hand on a few Covid tests, but-for his friend/asset Trump? It doesn't pass the smell test.
Romney and Bush should be ashamed. But Nikki Haley is far worse.
George Romney may have been "brainwashed" by the military brass in Vietnam, but he was a stand-up politician. I suspect he would be quietly appalled to have observed his son's indecisive, flabby political career. Mitt knows what it takes to be an effective political leader, but he hasn't the stomach to act upon it. What waste of a public career.
Romney isn't pro-Harris, but his is pro-pro-Harris. The rise of the Pro-Pros.
Idiocracy unbound.
If today's GOP was 2004 -- GWB, Cheney and Karl Rove would be airing the same negative trans ads.
Let's not act like those ads are somehow more offensive now. They are exactly how the GOP got trump.
Mitt is a TWIT! Screw him, nothing more than a corporate raider and stealing worker’s pensions!!!
A few comments...
1) I’m repeating here what I wrote last week about the Morning Shots article about Liz Cheney. It’s still all true:
For the life of me, I can’t understand the reasoning of people like Romney or Christie. Do they really think that the GOP base will come crawling back to them if Trump loses? Don’t they realize that, should Trump lose, the GOP base will blame them (right after they get through blaming Dominion, Italian space lasers, the media, illegal aliens voting, and demonic Democrats) because they wouldn’t ride the Trump train? Because you know that Trump won’t take any blame and you know that his cult will follow whatever he says and you know he’ll blame them. They won’t be heroes, they’ll be goats.
And what’s worse is if their inaction contributes to Trump winning. Then they’ll be worse than whatever is worse than goats. And that will apply not just to them, but to the whole country.
So a party that has been reveling in its grievances and hate and flat-Eartherism for at least the last 15 years is suddenly going to do some soul searching and realize the errors of their ways just because someone like Romney is pointing it out to them? Color me skeptical.
2) “MAGA lunatics have hijacked the party and driven it into a ditch. They only reason they have any national political viability is because they’ve convinced a critical mass of longtime Republican normies to keep their heads down and keep being good team players.” I disagree with this assessment. It’s not because the “normies” kept their heads down. The reason that the MAGA lunatics have been able to hijack the party is that the party is now largely made up of lunatics.
Wonderful! Thank you, particularly for pointing out that this has been going on for at least the last 15 years.
Personally I think it started with Newt Gingrich back in the 1990's (although Bush (41) kind of started it with his Willie Horton ads). Newt's take-no-prisoners attitude combined with the dulcet tones of Rush Limbaugh started the grievance party that used to be known as the Republican Party. If you watched conservative media as I did in the aughts you could see the degradation of the conversation as the decade went on. And it really started accelerating (downward) when the Democrats had the audacity to nominate someone that (according to Giuliani) "doesn't love the country the way the rest of us do". I can't say that I predicted something as bad as Trump, but I did feel that something bad was going to happen when you heard all of the conspiracy theories and the almost complete lack of logic coming first from Limbaugh and Fox and then from the Republican politicians.