MItt Romney has done what John McCain did: gone truly Resistance to Donald Trump, showing his Trump Derangement Syndrome. Yet, both refused to attack the policies of Barack Obama or the man himself during their general elections as well as after they lost because they were being the “nice” guy while Obama, his surrogates, and the media attacked them.
The Trump presidency made a deep descent in December. The departures of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the abandonment of allies who fight beside us, and the president’s thoughtless claim that America has long been a “sucker†in world affairs all defined his presidency down.
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. His early appointments of Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Kelly and Mattis were encouraging. But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions this month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.
It is not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided. He was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global competitors, to strip out excessive regulations, to crack down on China’s unfair trade practices, to reform criminal justice and to appoint conservative judges. These are policies mainstream Republicans have promoted for years. But policies and appointments are only a part of a presidency.
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.
Romney continues to attack Trump on a personal level, again and again and again throughout the piece, which must have made the uber-leftists who run the Washington Post super giddy to publish. But, much like with Jeff Flake and the rest of the unhinged #NeverTrumpers, Romney wants to be a doormat for the Democrats and the leftist media, rather than fighting back as well as fighting for Republican policies
Furthermore, I will act as I would with any president, in or out of my party: I will support policies that I believe are in the best interest of the country and my state, and oppose those that are not. I do not intend to comment on every tweet or fault. But I will speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions.
Seriously, can anyone remember Romney write an opinion piece taking on Barack Obama and his divisiveness? His dishonesty? His destruction of “democratic institutions”? How about targeting Republicans via the IRS? He wouldn’t do it during the general election, and he wouldn’t do it after he lost.
People like Mitt are thinking about the Old Way of doing things, where Republicans can be attacked non-stop while Democrats must never be touched. Where Republicans must work with Dems while Dems have no need to work with the GOP. Yes, there are certainly times when Trump needs to reign it in, leave it alone, step away from the Twitter, but, he hearkens back to a time when Politics was rough and tumble, where people would defend their policies and themselves forcefully. This is something the Republican base had been asking for, Republicans who would fight back.
