Romney is just another empty suit that belong to a bankrupt and dying party. It will take years to undo the damage Trump has caused here and abroad. Voting in November 2018 will start the process.
11
Mitt has learned that he lost to Obama because he ran his campaign like an 8th grade girl running for student counsel president. And Trump won because he ran his campaign like it was an all out war, indeed a battle for the future and soul of America. So Mitt should take his seat in the Senate and come groveling on his knees to President Trump. Then Mitt will have a career again.
2
Typical Douthat in that he re-imagines history with no less alacrity and ease than Trump himself.
"His[Mitt's] attempt to rally Republican opposition to Donald Trump in 2016 was an exemplary act that threw the cowardice of his party’s establishment into sharp relief." Romney's "opposition" to Trump was still echoing when he began to change direction and grovel for the Secretary of State position. Trump led him down the garden path and then dropped him like a bad date. That Willard Mitt actually believed Trump would EVER forget Mitt's criticism of him reveals a dangerous misreading of Trump (just as he had taken President Obama too lightly in 2012). For all of his obvious intellectual failings Trump played Romney with ease before the world.
Mitt was also no stranger to appealing to the dark, violent side of GOP populism. He frequently referred to President Obama's views as "strangely foreign," blowing the same dog whistle as Trump and David Duke. He traded his conscience and his intelligence for political power but he did not play the game as well as Trump who never had a conscience to get in the way. Very little has impressed the populace about Romney but his love of all things 1% and his moral flexibility when it comes to jettisoning his own health care model for the Affordable Care Act because the GOP base could do nothing but hate anything related to President Obama.
21
I was reasonably in agreement with this piece until toward the end. Mike Lee seems to be in the Senate to make Ted Cruz seem (very slightly) less odious; "Rubio" should pass into the language as the antonym for "principled," though it's been fun in a schadenfreude sense to watch him sulk as his years of working to embody the desires of Republican donors have gone unrewarded with the ultimate prize.
And Tom Cotton?!? In some ways, he scares me more than Trump. He's vastly smarter, infinitely more disciplined, and seems ideologically sincere in his tribal hatreds, rather than operating from a void in his soul.
As for Romney, recall that he tried to run in some respects to Ted Kennedy's left in the 1994 Senate race, before rebranding himself as a "severe conservative" in his presidential runs. I suppose that with no realistic remaining aspiration to higher office, he could operate in office as his true or best self... but that assumes there is such a person, and that he is someone other than the Randian caricature of 2012.
8
Mitt Romney is of the proper cut. The second debate.. though....knocked him out ... having rapped Obama in the chops in the first round .... a back off in the second had the distinct odor of direction. Two different executive styles should be capable of face to face honest tempered aliiance
1, 765 grandchildren? that must be a misprint!
3
Truth be told, it's time younger people ran for office and took leadership roles. Why does a man in his 70s want to run for a six-year senate term? The world and our country is not going backwards. I think we need younger people who can respond to today's needs in a modern manner. We baby boomers have had our day.
I am 67 myself, and I really think that it's time to ask the octogenarians and septuagenarians to retire and let the next generation have their turn. Then, perhaps, some of this gridlock and divisiveness will go away and we can have a rational government again.
13
Your very small pro-worker Republican coalition voted for the tax scam.
7
I hope Utah voters recall Romney's grovelling at a lunch with Trump hoping to get the nod for Secretary of State. It was disheartening to say the least. #TrumpFact.
6
Trump continues to make otherwise distasteful Republicans look downright reasonable. If I didn't know better, I would swear Trump's nomination was a giant GOP conspiracy to make people like Romney, Rubio and Kasich look like moderates, so when one of them runs against Warren, Booker or Harris, they look like Rockefeller Republicans.
Sorry, Ross, I'm not buying this pablum you're feeding us.
Or are you part of the conspiracy . . . ?
11
Mr. Douthat: That was a gratuitously bigoted "joke" you made about the number of grandchildren Romney (a Mormon) might have.
I could make the same joke about Catholics; but I'm above stooping to that.
Shame on you!
2
Newt Gingrich, summarizing Romney’s pursuit of the Secretary of State job under Trump:
“There’s a scene in ‘Pretty Women,’ where Richard Gere goes up to the salesman on Rodeo Drive and says, ‘We need a little sucking up here,’
you have never, ever in your career seen a serious adult who’s wealthy, independent, has been a presidential nominee, suck up at the rate that Mitt Romney is sucking up.”
6
Those who remember him as governor of Massachusetts have hard-earned skepticism that Mitt Romney could ever follow through with any pro-worker sub-faction of the Republican party. His virtue may appear real but he is not his father. Remember, Obama Care was once Romney Care and, while much of it was crafted by the Heritage Foundation, Romney shifts with the wind. He didn't just disown it; he ran against it.
Just watch the documentary, Mitt, that covered him closely during the 2012 election. It's still on Netflix. As you are fond of Latin phrases, res ipsa loquitur.
The reason I think of his father, George, still is not just because I considered him an excellent candidate for president. I wasn't buying the whole "New Nixon" nonsense in '67. What's memorable now was George Romney's undoing: a simple gaffe. "When I came back from Viet Nam, I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get."
That was it. Romney, Sr. was done. Nearly 50 years later, daily gaffes of genuine and often immense magnitude failed to even dent the prospects of the Republican presidential candidate. I think we make too much of his son’s ability now of delivering any meaningful opposition, alas.
7
Romney would make a fine senator from Utah. Period.
He could aspire to the leadership role of Orin Hatch.
But unless it's a VP slot, he has no place on a presidential ticket.
2
Romney lost because Obama was the better candidate.
15
I'm sorry that Ross Douthat suffers from selective memory disorder. Doesn't he remember Mitt Romney competing for the role of Secretary of State in Trump's cabinet?
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-romney-secretary-of-state-2016-12
What makes Ross think that someone who took part in the "cavalcade of supplicants" that Trump arranged as a so-called interview process will work to make the Senate any less compliant with the Trump kleptocracy?
12
Why would anyone think Romney the flip-flopper, who went hat in hand to have frogs' legs with DT to join in his deplorable administration, would not be coopted just like all the other "adults" and "moderates" that were supposed to rein him in?
9
The stench of the decaying Republican Party cannot be perfumed over by a couple of rich elites and their lap dogs. The GOP is history and rightfully so. Let Mitt get elected and sit in the minority where he can serve his penance.
5
What has Mitt Romney learned: Don't put your dog in a crate on the roof of your car in nasty weather and expect people not to notice. That's the kind of judgement no one needs.
8
A man loses the presidency and he’s being handed a Senate seat on a silver platter.
A woman loses and she’s been told to shut up and take up knitting.
Great to see 2018 is going to be the year of gender equality...
18
Romney has always been an empty suit with a hair-do. The fact that he stated the obvious -- too little, too late -- doesn't qualify him for a profile in courage.
If he joins the Senate "club," don't expect his spine to stiffen, suddenly. He'll roll with the slimy McConnell crowd as surely as the sun rises in the east.
16
One thing I would suggest that he must learn is this: unless he really likes frog legs (I do) don't eat them unless there is a job offer on a position that he really wants and the offer is comes with a guarantee cast in stone or concrete.
2
Mr. Douthat: Love your writing and overall political journalistic chops, but when all you have to hold up as the potential "third way" future of the R party are shallow and weak hacks like Rubio, Lee and Cotton, well, your entire premise falls apart. Why would Mitt want to hitch his hair color-stained wagon on those fallen (or never-risen) stars?
9
A "pro-worker" Republican? Don't hold your breath!
14
What Mitt Romney has learned? He has learned to hate Trump. But then again, he flips and he flops. He gets the Senate seat and quickly turns into a Trump panderer and sycophant.
8
My guess is that Romney has essentially learned nothing since that winter morning of 2011 campaigning in Portsmouth at Geno's Chowder House when an imprudent man yelled "When are you going to talk about this Vichy Empire --- both parties?".
A bit flummoxed in saying anything about Empire and claiming not to know what Empire installed the Vichy regime, Mitt just turned toward the water and said, "What I do know is how good Portsmouth Harbor looks".
This disguised global capitalist "Empire-thinking" leader, would IMHO, be every bit as supportive of this first in world
history; 'effectively-Disguised', dual 'Vichy Party', 'truly-Global', and crony 'Capitalist-fueled' EMPIRE --- which is only nominally HQed in and merely ‘posing’ as, our former country --- and would be just as Empire-supportive as our current faux-Emperor/president Trump, but Mitt would obviously be more careful what he says in public after that 47% "learning moment", eh?
Video available at 11:00.
3
True Romney is maybe handsome and decent but he is not a real political animal. His candidacy in 2012 and his loss was evidence to the fact. His attempt at pleasing everybody all the time, including piggybacking on Candidate Obama's initiatives itself, resulted in all the nicknames he accumulated. Flip-flopper, slippery eel and... the list goes on. But let's not forget Romneycare in Massachusettes where every citizen is happy with their healthcare. And of course he was unafraid to rake Trump over hot coals when all the Republicans pandered to this bellicose, vicious, lying narcissist. I would respect him more if he just refused the Utah seat. He has more than enough money inshore and outshore and spend quality time with his grandchildren. But seriously does he have 1765 of them?
4
I was a Massachusetts resident when Romney was governor. It was clear to me and many other Massachusetts residents that Romney would go with the prevailing winds. He was elected in Massachusetts as a pro-choice moderate Republican. As soon as he had national ambitions, he decided he was anti-abortion. The reason he did not run for re-election as governor is that he would have been defeated. He is way better than Trump - but I certainly would not categorize him as honorable or trustworthy. There are probably no sex scandals but Romney is for Romney first. He was willing to kowtow to Trump when he thought that he had a chance to be secretary of state. His ego let him believe that he had a chance when he should have known that Trump was toying with him. Maybe he isn't that smart.
8
How come the supposed "whitelash" didn't occur when Obama ran for POTUS, but only when a "white woman" did? What was it about Romney that didn't attract to people who voted for Obama twice, but then deserted the Democrats? Maybe when Romney said he was an "extreme conservative," it had the same resonance as when Hillary played at accepting Bernie's message. Inauthenticity reaps its own reward. As Senator, Romney will have the same effect as did Hillary: a way station until something else arises.
1
Re "you built that": When's the last time a Republican said something passionately complimentary about anyone who wasn't an entrepreneur -- or a bigot?
I remember when Republicans valorized janitors: people who worked hard even if they never got rich. Republicans don't even fake it anymore.
7
He learned that car elevator in one of his homes probably wasn't a great idea.
Not much else. Go away!
4
Look this is the sane face of the Republican party, how bad can a Massachusetts Republican be. I doubt he is tangled up with Putin money like the rest of them in Washington.
if romney is indeed an anti trump republican then once elected he needs to side with the democrats and overthrow the corrupt republican establishment in washington.
Reading these comments is a pretty astounding exercise - if readers of the NYT are this staunchly opposed to a candidate who, on the outside, always seemed to represent the most palatable and ideologically sound segment of the GOP, the political gulf in the US seems insurmountable. You need to be able to acknowledge that your country is not 100% Democrat and work within that framework.
I saw a reference to 'far-left revolutionaries'...I mean, seriously? I am not an American and my political leanings are classical liberal, but the lack of realism here gives pause as to whether the current political drama in the US will see a resolution.
Poor Ross Douthat- still hoping for a knight to come and save the Republican Party. It can’t happen because it’s the Republican Party that created The Trump Presidency.
You see that now with almost every Republican supporting and protecting this crook as he enriches himself through tThe Office.
And what about the Russia connection- it’s real but Republicans are tripping over themselves to cast aspersions on a fellow Republican (Mr Mueller is a Republican) and the FBI.
Shame on them and the Republican Party.
2
Romney, I think, could be counted as a solid 'Yes' in any impeachment trial. That's all I care about.
"First Things" , the journal Ross and Brooks so frequently cite, is a conservative Christian publication. That means its run by and written by people (like Ross) who believe that there once was a man who was literally (the 'son of') God, and rose from the dead. We're supposed to take them very, very seriously.
1
What little respect I might have harbored for Mr. Romney vaporized when he sat down with President-elect Trump for a dinner interview, the same Mr. Trump he had accurately characterized as a fraud.
Mitt Romney appears to have rock-solid principles as long as they do not interfere with his political ambitions.
6
"But in that time, the men who imagine themselves the party’s stewards or its conscience have learned little from the way he beat them and then beat the Democrats."
Trump didn't beat the Democrats -- he received 3 million votes less than Clinton. He won due to an archaic quirk of the Constitution. Just like Bush the Lesser. And they both turned out to be miserable excuses for leaders of this county.
5
As Governor of Massachusetts, Romney worked with the Democratic legislature to enact and implement a state-level version of Obamacare. Recall this type of plan had originally been promoted by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. Because of that plan, Mass. has the lowest level of uninsured residents in the country.
As a presidential candidate in 2012, because of the Republican lurch to the right, Romney disavowed his support or involvement in the Mass. health plan. Shameful, hypocritical and cowardly.
So - given Romney’s penchant for intellectual dishonesty - is it likely that he’ll be any different in the US Senate?
My view - no.
3
For the past 40 years the Republican Party has put forth policies that are inimical to the interests of working Americans; union busting, attacking Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the ACA; fighting minimum wage laws, fighting parental leave, fighting worker safety laws. The idea that there is a "conservative" policy agenda beneficial to working Americans is tRumpian Fake News.
3
Is that it? Romney doesn't appear to be a loose cannon and so he's the best hope of the Republican Party? He's still the Thurston G. Howell appearing man who said 47% of Americans were takers. Don't let superficial contrasts blind you to what he was in 2012 and what he still is as far as any of us knows. Yes, he criticized Trump but he also ran up to Trump Tower to see if he could get something out of the Republican win.
2
“....called ‘The Romney Disease’ — a condition that combines admirable personal probity and decency with an abiding commitment to unpopular economic policies”
Now the GOP has embraced the ‘Trump Morbidity’: a condition that ditches any personal probity and decency, whether real or simply perceived, while maintaining an abiding commitment to unpopular economic policies. Do remember that all the mentioned members of the “small caucus for a different way” voted for a hastily, surreptitiously, poorly written tax bill that rewards the non-working wealthy and penalizes the employed middle class. As for Mitt Romney, he has shown himself to be an able boot-licker and groveler. The chances that he will “stand up” to Trump in any way are nonexistent.
3
Bain Capital, which Romney was long part of, had a practice of buying up a company and then to increase the dividends to themselves load those stable companies with debt. In doing so they destroyed those once stable and profitable companies leading to their demise and lost jobs all around.
What decent person does such things? No, Romney is most certainly not a decent person. He was a predatory capitalist who cared not one whit for the lives (many no doubt lives led by truly decent people) he destroyed along the way as he amassed a fortune.
3
One thing he can take to the bank; Trump has lowered the bar so far that Romney looks great.
Has Romney emancipated those women, confined against their will, in all of his numerous "binders"? It's been an awfully long time for them, and an issue bound to emerge in any future candidacy. Perhaps he should reconsider that open Senate seat in the current political climate.
Mitt Romney is not a man of integrity although he sometimes plays one on TV that is not who he picked for his running mate and not how he would govern
See 47% comment, binders of women and corporations are people and I deserve the carried interest loophole and the 13% I pay is more than enough
3
If you look good because the point of reference happens to be Trump that is not exactly a compliment.
2
If he runs and is elected, I suspect he will follow the party line.
1
Mitt Romney got rich on private equity scams: buy a company, use it as collateral to borrow tons of money, pocket the borrowed money, and then sell the company and the debt liability to someone else. This scam bears more than superficial similarities to the Republican Tax Bill: borrow trillions of dollars from America's children and grandchildren (by increasing the federal deficit), let rich companies and individuals pocket most of the money (but scatter a few seeds to the middle class to maintain appearances), and then pass on the debt on to ordinary Americans by cutting future funding for services they depend upon (like health care, education, social security, and so on). So, when he is elected, Mitt will indeed fit right in with congressional Republicans.
4
Douthat encourages Romney to lead the GOP into a “pro-worker” future. But that is not what the GOP is or ever has been. It has always been the party of business interests, so why would Douthat expect a corporatist like Romney to lead a change in the party’s essential core identity?
1
Mr. Douthat implies that there are members of today's GOP (including the three lonely men he mentioned) who actually care first and foremost about the issues and concerns facing working American men and women. This is a pipe dream at best, and a cynical lie at worst. Lip service is one thing----but honest caring for working people would get anybody ejected from the party,
1
We used to think that words matter and what you say one day may come back to haunt you the next. So if that were true Romney's prior craving for a Trump endorsement should hurt, and maybe it will. But Trump has been contradicting himself day after day after day and that doesn't seem to hurt him with his base of true believers. So it will be interesting to see what happens to Romney if he runs. His past mistakes will be helpful for the Democratic candidate for the senate seat from Utah.
Why do we have any reason to believe Romney is that unicorn in the GOP who has a backbone where Trump is concerned? Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, John McCain, and even (occasionally) Paul Ryan Republicans who looked like they might stand up to Trump, but ultimately caved. They have all ended up choosing party over country. I am not holding my breath for Romney to be any different if he is elected.
1
The only real question that counts is whether Romney is or will be captured. My guess is he will.
"by becoming genuinely pro-worker".
Earth to Mr. Douthat: the economic policies of the GOP serve the donor class. End of story. Ain't gonna change.
1
When has the Republican Party been pro-worker? The Republican establishment was against Trump in 2016, not just because of his personality and impoliteness, but mainly because Trump portrayed himself to be a "populist" who supposedly are for the ordinary people who are also workers.
But the GOP can laugh themselves to the bank now with a President Trump who has totally reversed himself from a Candidate Trump.
Every time I hear a "moderate" Republican like Douthat, Rubin or Brooks making suggestions on how Republicans can redeem themselves from the debacle called Trump, they inevitably sound like a Democrat, even a socialist. Isn't that what they labeled anybody who ever advocate the interests of "worker"?
As a late observer of American politics, in what I see in the past ten years, I observe from their own policy positions and priorities, the GOP is a breed for preserving and enlarging the power and money elite. They are short-sightedly oblivious to the importance of environmental protection, education of our children, investment of R&D, healthfulness of our foods, soundness of our infrastructure, and some semblance of economic equity, not just for the good of the 99%, but the long term prosperity of this enterprise called USA.
In another word, the GOP are not the good guys. Not for a lack of certain rhetoric to the people or political tactic, but it's simply who they are.
1
The fact that Romney took the meeting at Trump Tower post election was very telling. I would wager Trump can rest easy that Romney will quite easily fall in step with the rest of GOP if he does get elected as senator of Utah.
2
Words well said said well Ross. It really is a joy to me that someone on the American centre-right feels like you do on economic issues. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur and workers need to be able to afford a decent living to provide a stable platform for their children who could become innovators in the future - or at least content, contributing members of society like their parents, rather than included in the opioid death or prison population statistics of their time. The Republicans really need to move back towards the centre on this. The Cold War is over. You won for goodness sake! A free society does not mean a heartless, "hyper-capitalist" one.
Does he actually know and is willing to work in the role of a senator? Can he keep his distaste for the president's Tweets etc. from effecting how he tries to govern? Does he agree with most of what Republicans have been promising for decades? Can he work with the president and keep his personal opinions out of policy decisions? If he can't or won't please stay home, I greatly respect him as a person and previous leader, but we need change and quickly.
1,765 grandchildren? Make up your mind, Ross. Either we’re having enough babies or we’re not. It can’t be both.
2
Romney, like Hillary in 2016, was up against history in 2012: only George HW Bush failed to be elected to a second term since Hoover in 1932, and that was partly from Ross Perot's third party bid, and that the GOP had by then been in the White House for 12 years and Americans get ready for change after 8. So I don't make too much of Romney's defeat in 2012 - anybody was very unlikely to defeat Obama esp with Obama's grace and brilliance. Douthat's other points are good ones - but columnists are tending to forget that much of the country...enough to comprise swing votes that change elections - are independents rather than GOPites or Dems. Hoover had failed miserably to care about the fate of Americans during the 3 yrs from the stock market crash to his reelection campaign, and the GOP does indeed flirt with continuing that meme, esp with the "bait and switch" tactics of Trump and his GOP supporters. Do the GOPites and independents really believe in the "trickle-down" theory that the rich need to be well cared for so they'll create jobs? In the voodoo economics that lower tax rates will stimulate tax revenue increases? Does Romney really believe that stuff? And why did he run against Obamacare, which was adapted from his own state's system that he approved? Was it a failure, or just not GOP palatable. I hope he continues to find his moral voice, and stops being expedient, which people figured out in 2012 and hopefully will remember at the ballot boxes in 2018.
2
People forget the actual context of the 47% remark. He was saying that anyone in that 47% (people who didn't pay any net federal taxes, a number that included children and the retired) are takers and THEREFORE vote Democrat. As a taxpaying, but SS-receiving, Democrat, I found that the most insulting part of his meaning. Did he really think that, or was he just parroting the, probably intentional, right-wing media interpretation of the statistic? Is he not aware of the existence of deep-red, high-unemployment states?
11
That 47% also included our working poor. That's pretty insulting to our minimum wage workers who pay payroll taxes just like everyone else. Not everyone can be a millionaire entrepreneur. Some people have to do the dirty work of society. Do they deserve no respect?
2
The irony is, of course, that some in that 47% were victims of Bain Capital, lead by the head vulture, Romney. A Reganesque figure in a smart suit and the same hairdresser is not what Utah or the US needs in 2018, even if he still has most of his marbles.
2
Mitt Romney is a very ambitious man. With his great hair, square jawed good looks and attractive family, he is the central casting version of a president and, like most prom kings, he knows it.
Looks can only go so far. There have been many Romneys depending on what seemed suitable for the occasion. This is normal behavior for professional politicians, but it hasn’t always gone smoothly for Mitt who is known for his gaffs. This one meant to show empathy is quite telling "I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed." — speaking in 2011 to unemployed people in Florida. Romney's net worth is over $200 million. It’s hard to forget his famous “47%”, the family dog riding on the roof, corporations are people, binders of women, on and on proving he doesn’t read the room well.
After “courageously” calling out Trump during the election process, Romney rushed to answer Trump’s summons after the election. That misjudgment cost him the kind of public humiliation Trump lives to dish out.
Romney as a man of integrity? He’s just playing one and not well.
15
Romney is still shallow!
7
I may have missed the column in which Mr. Douthat expounded on the thesis that Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton were actually pro worker. It sounds absurd to me but If that comment could be further addressed I would be greatly appreciative.
3
Not only was Romney tone deaf in regard to the real concerns of ordinary voters, but he set the direction for Trump's continual lying by lying himself -- many times: remember the "Etch-a'Sketch" moment? Whatever Romney said yesterday ceased to exist today with -0- accountability demanded by the MSM. Romney also displayed lack of integrity by ignoring that the Affordable Care Act was based almost entirely on Romney-care that Romney succeeded in passing in Massachusetts when he was governor. Romney's brand of "venture capitalism" was really "vulture capitalism" -
using outsize leverage to take over a company with a "non-recourse" loan; no personal accountability or risk to principals; strip company assets, pay yourselves first, then file bankruptcy and benefit financially by providing "consulting" to the company you debilitated by drowning it in debt. Romney's income defined as "carried interest." Finally (for today, at least), Romney's choice of Paul Ryan for a running mate was scary; regardless of Ryan's faux sympathy with the underprivileged "(we will make welfare better" HAH!!!), Ryan is on a hypocritical, vicious, and economically de-stabilizing, mission to destroy the very benefit that kept him, his family and his Russian emigre heroine, Ayn Rand, alive - Social Security (widows and children of the deceased for Ryan, old age support for Rand). By their behavior, Rand proved herself to be an anarchistic libertine and Ryan a political and economic anarchist.
9
Mitt Romney is simply another 21st century Republican, a bit better dressed than some. He will most certainly follow/toe the Republican party line.
No knight on white horse he...
7
I think the never trump movement was a classist sort of response to trumps blalantly ignorant, openly racist inflammatory rhetoric- the traditional repubs were caught unawares by their lack of appeal to many voters, then slapped again by their many constituents realization that their economic interests were lip service only. Romney isn't the type to inspire people and as you pointed out Ross, he hasn't exactly been upstanding when it comes to battling trump
2
Romney does not have to "learn" anything. He can win the nomination away from Trump the same way Republicans have always won nominations.
The Republican Party, irregardless of Trump, has long been a coalition of preppies and yuppies, which are essentially products of the American success story. The latter group nominally cares more about money than the former, who cares more about image. (Hence, Evangelicals fit easily into the preppy group). This coalition is due primarily to the industrial revolution, which introduced the possibility of fast/new money. At first the old money people had all the power, and resisted yielding to the new money people. But ultimately, money - whether new or old - was the commonly-agreed upon highest priority, since money is synonymous with success. Hence, both of these two groups have a revulsion against consorting with what they see as the "losers" on "welfare", i.e., the "poor". I repeat, Republicans have long sided with the "winners", the ambitious/bullies/owners/managers. And therefore, the Republicans, having most of the powerful on their side, will almost always win, (even when the Tea Party seems to have some control). So Romney does not have to "learn" anything.
3
I hope he has learned that the richest member of the famed bottom 47% would trade stations in life with him in an instant.
2
He is still a Republican. It’s a hat he wore proudly. But he has never, in recent years, shown himself to be any more liberal than Any national Republican. He stil wants to win more than he wants to be humitarian.
3
"He is still a Republican."
It is only in the New York Times that this fact can be considered an unforgivable offense.
For most of us unbiased ones, it carries no information whatever as to vice or virtue.
Mitt has demonstrated already that his interests align with those of the well-off. The only question unresolved is whether that allegiance extends to the select few bonkers billionaires that finance the GOP. Not all the wealthy are wackos, but the present backers of the GOP are complete nutballs, supporting Bannon and the extreme religious right. Will Romney go along?
4
Romney is an empty suit desperate to have a role in government and the public eye. He has sought the presidency twice and failed. He pandered to the most useless, ignorant, incompetent, mysoginistic, dangerous, childish, narcissistic sexual predator ever to disgrace the United States of America. He offered to be Secretary of State, played one of the fools in Trump’s continuous, callous charade of being a President. Given all,of this, why would we think he could rein in Trump? Or want to? He is solely interested in what is in his best interest, not unlike Trump. He is just as narcissistic, but more polite, has better clothes and is not fat.
8
Your appraisal of Romney seems an attempt to find some honesty and decency in him. Good luck with that. Hypocrisy has been blatant at times, opportunism as well. Current republicanism is a 'disease' as well, where Mitt may fit comfortably....while the flickering light of this democracy continues to 'fight' against the evil forces of complicity with the vulgar bully in the Oval Office, twittering his destructive ways on what we ought to hold dear, the trust in each other.
2
You're dreaming. Wait for Romney to come to heel for Trump. Honor, decency, and serious accomplishment for whichever way the wind is blowing.
5
But you overlook the obsequious, humiliating dinner with Trump when he was hoping to be Secretary of State. Is that a sign of character?
And the notion that Cotton is somehow anything but full-throated supporter of Trump is ludicrous.
10
What Romney needs to learn is that he needs to lie boldly and often. The truth doesn't matter any more. Tell them you are a populist enough times and they will believe you. Seems unimaginable to those who are literate, but that's how it worked for Trump. The coddled billionaire with bone spurs and his gilded penthouse became just another working Joe simply by telling that lie often enough. Then, he gives himself a gigantic tax break and his followers still believe him. Never underestimate the stupidity of the average American voter.
3
As a former neighbor (sort of) in the Detroit suburbs of the 60's, I find the Mittster an opportunist (not a criticism) whose spiritual values always come in second to his earthly ambitions. He won't stand up to any "Republican".
Corporations are people.
3
Well, I hope he's learned not to pander to the right wing Evangelical base at the expense of the millions of moderate voters out there. As a popular governor in Massachusetts he was decidedly a middle of the road, moderate Republican. Somehow he decided on his White House run that he needed to become "conservative". Mr. Romney is "Presidential" in looks, experience, can speak more than two sentences without repeating himself, and appears to have an understanding of how government works. If he becomes Utah's next Senator it will likely only be a stepping stone to another Presidential run.
4
If at first you fail to become president, try, try again . . . and start by running for the Senate from Utah.
6
What a difference a few years makes! In the current environment Romney looks positively saintly!
But his failing has always been his ambition, which seemed to be the only thread binding his ever changing positions, and eventual embrace of the worst elements of his party when the going got tough during his presidential campaigns.
He's clearly a smart guy, and seemingly moral and ethical. But does he have it in him to hold the line under political pressure?
8
It is amazing that even bright columnists like Mr. Douthat do not seem to fully realize the distain that much of the American public has with professional politicians. Their individuals politics and policies now fall on deaf ears. unless that politician is running against another politician, they will likely lose.
Talking about a pol's strengths and weaknesses are talking about secondary considerations. All members of the political establishment, past or present, will lose an election to almost any "outsider", no matter how unpalatable the outsider may be. Do we need any further proof then we are now faced with in the white house? Did we not witness the ascension of Trump and Sanders---two candidates who would not have attracted five percent of the vote two decades ago?
These are VERY dangerous times, with wisdom and reliability a distant and secondary consideration. It may not seem possible, but we may well soon end-up with someone less qualified and more dangerous to our economy and safety then the man now holding the office. Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!
2
Just like to point out that all politicians are professional politicians. Unlike in sports, there is no amateur class. Now I know what you mean, and millions of voters seem to support the point, but it is still worth remembering that anyone who runs for office is a politician. Just because some pretend not to be doesn't mean we should believe them. The idea that incumbents are tainted merely by being elected, and serving, is a very dangerous one.
2
JayJay--
We agree. Voters electing candidates with no track record of public service is very dangerous. Especially when their vote is primarily anti-incumbent.
I still haven't figured out why he met with Trump after the election. It was obvious to anyone who was paying attention that Trump would not forgive and forget and nominate him for Secretary of State or any other cabinet post. His decision to meet with Trump made him look like a fool.
11
Regardless of anything Romney may have learned, I'm looking forward to his return to the political stage.
But only because it will give Gail Collins the opportunity to revisit poor Seamus' travels atop the Romney-mobile!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/opinion/09collins.html
4
Interesting that you begin with, "The 2012 G.O.P. presidential nominee is a man of honor, decency and serious accomplishment" Then proceed to illustrate why he has neither honor nor decency. If elected, he'll do what others in the GOP are doing. Huff, puff, bloviate and then fall in line and vote Trump's way.
10
A very interesting column and a very hopeful one for Romney.
To me, however, the worst thing about Romney is his going to Trump Tower after the "Never Trump" trial (not really a "movement") begging for a post as the Secretary of State, even eating frog legs for that, and then failed to secure that post. Any really serious Never Trumper would not bow so low as to "kiss all four cheeks" of Trump, to quote a phrase after Chamberlain "secured" the "peace of our time" with you know who.
Yes, one way to interpret it is not an aspiration to higher power but to "serve the country". But a real Never Trumper should know, as so many columnists have pointed out, any one near the Trump orbit will eventually be tainted. Just look at the credit that he claimed from the no fatally in the commercial flights in 2017 and compared to his "the generals" did it after the death of US special troops. Sad!
3
Douthat is leading the parade for a new look at Romney. Still showing his Republican ideology, he classifies Rubio and Lee as pro-labor. He sees Romney as having the ability to stop Trump. That's wishful thinking especially since Romney will be like a Ryan, wringing his hands and moaning and groaning at the latest Trump outbreaks of incoherence and cruelty, but voting for all the Republicans efforts to decimate safety nets and enlightened tax policies. Utah, vote for him, don't vote for him, but don't pretend that it will really matter to Trump. Can you say Flake, Corker, and McCain? At best, they will be his role models.
5
The GOP's grasping at short-term, Trumpian success risks the future of the party. It is at risk of being swept away if and when the electorate rejects Trump and Trumpism. This might manifest as a split into two parties: a far right of Cotton, Lee, Bannon, etc.; and a moderate rump of Collins, Murkowski, et al. Or who knows?
The GOP needs someone to save it from itself, and define a "3rd way", much as Clinton did in 1992. Could Romney be that person? I hope so - we need an opposition, to contain the excesses that would come from an unbound Democratic Party.
1
Where is Mitt Romney from? Is he a citizen from Michigan, Massachusetts, California? Now Utah? Whatever's politically expedient for Mitt. As a presidential candidate he lacked conviction and a clear defined belief system--except when it came to corporations and the 47% of the rest of us. Mitt criticized Trump as unfit for office and was one of the first to lick Trump's boots when he thought there was a shot at Sec of State. What kind of a man with an iota of self respect would do such a thing?
6
I see Romney as the politician who will do what it takes to win. I wonder if he truly has the decency to continue to denounce Trump on the campaign trail.
1
The picture of MItt Romney at dinner in Trump Tower, looking sheepish while Trump grins like a satyr, tells me all I need to know about Romney's principles. Yeah, he'll be better than Hatch, but that's not exactly the high jump.
11
I see no point in finding fault with Romney. Orrin Hatch and others currently in the regime are responsible for the Trump team's destruction of the country. Some of the Florida, Ohio and California stooges are trying to show their support for Trump and his dishonesty by questioning the honesty of the Mueller team. These politicians must be held responsible by those who elected less than honest politicians who prioritize party over country - loyalty to the country has to be a concern for voters too.
2
Mitt is ambitious, well-bred and hungry. What he's learned this time is that the breeding cannot be permitted again to outweigh the ambition. He'll mouth the words that make him sick and swallow the bile that rises in his gut if it works. He'll be complicit in the worst of the Trump-GOP behaviors and positions because that's where the power is. He can claim that he didn't make it happen, and say that he'll try to make things better; but that's how the land lies now. Whether you're upright and decent and patriotic now, wallowing in the mud is the only way to win.
1
Well-bred?
Please...
I am a Democrat from Utah I had hoped Hatch would run because there was a outside chance we could beat him if there was a big Democratic turnout and a small Republican turnout because of the lack of enthusiasm for another Hatch term. We might even have picked up a few down ballot races. Mitt will win big and there will be a turn out to vote for him. Once elected, he will be just as big a sycophant for Trump as Hatch became. SAD in Utah
6
It is 2018 and I live in Quebec. I know nothing as well as I know that 20th century liberalism and 20th century conservatism are simply obsolete political philosophies.
Here in Quebec we understand that females not burdened with unintended reproduction and child rearing seem better equipped to handle the jobs thought not to be their area of expertise. 70% of new doctors , lawyers and our future business leaders are females because they are more focused and more rational. Males are better at role playing and are simply far more dynamic computer game players.
My wife who was a business executives says genius is everywhere but people who could focus and just do the job are few and far between.
Mitt Romney can do the job but the world has past him by.As the twig is bent so grow the trees. Mitt will be 71 in March and it is too late for him to learn that colour, gender or national origin no longer dictate suitability or competence. I am a Quebecer and a year younger than Mr Romney but I know the twenty something female urological intern from the Cameroons looking after me was the best candidate for the job when she entered medical school and is the best qualified now.
I cannot believe Mitt Romney has learned enough to realize that Neil Gorsuch, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell or any 2018 GOP leaders is suitable for any A list of candidates for any senior position in the most powerful country that ever was. America is in trouble and needs A list executives, legislators and judges.
11
Romney’s best chance is to return to his Massachusetts Roots, his universal health insurance and bipartisan pragmatism. This could mean a bipartisan 2020 ticket- with Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren or Corey Booker as VP.
Maybe he can rally rational policies in the Senate and skip 2020.
The sweet spot is Romneycare, infrastructure big time and a renewed quality of political dignity. Bannon will go ballistic but America could take a deep breath of relief from the careening rollercoaster ride of an immature ignorant Trump, driven by the support of mean boys to embrace really stupid policies.
3
This is an incredible pipe dream with something REALLY good in the pipe. There is no way that Romney has the courage to do any such thing.
1
I'm a Massachusetts liberal but have voted for Republican govs. I liked Romney as governor. A Romney/Warren ticket is certainly one I could get behind!
So, Spiliakos thinks that Trump was triumphant and everyone else rejected "because the voters find their ideas even more unpleasant than Donald Trump’s odious personality"? You so wish this to be true that you can't bring yourself to face the reality that it isn't. If you think Trump's voters -- I mean his core -- care one iota about policy, why not go out into Trumpville and ask them? They love Trump because he reassures them that being an American means being like them: crude, bigoted, white. They were "taking their country back."
"[T]he various forces challenging the core American culture and Creed could generate a move by native white Americans to revive the discarded and discredited racial and ethnic concepts of American identity and to create an America that would exclude, expel, or suppress people of other racial, ethnic, and cultural groups (Huntington, "Who Are We?," 2004)." It was you who recommended that.
Actually, Trump voters do care about policy: banning Muslims, building a wall, and making sure blacks living in inner-city hellholes don't cause any trouble. Many progressives adore the kind of isolationist, anti-globalist, anti-neoliberal twaddle that Trump spouted. Why didn't Trump voters opt for Sanders? It's evident to me that you see in Trump's success a sigil that your policy partialities are what GOP voters want. Aye, center-rightists have some fetching ideas; but Trump is more -- nay, is other -- than the precipitate of a rejection of GOP economic dogma.
3
"The 2012 G.O.P. presidential nominee is a man of honor, decency and serious accomplishment." Romney, after attacking Trump during the campaign, rushed to the golden towers to lick Trump's feet for a chance at the Secretary of State job. A man of honor, decency? Romney who wrote off 47% of Americans as losers. A man of honor, decency? Romney will follow the likes of Corker, McCain, Collins, Flake and turn his back on the "little people" because that is what he did when he had worked at Bain Capital, buy up businesses and lay off people with no thought about their wellbeing even though he pretends to be a religious leader.
12
Ross I think you expect far too much from a man who declared that banks are people too.
9
Utah is decidedly not the nation. Trust me. I live here now. Romney, if elected, is never going to champion a pro-worker shift within the Republican Party. Not happening. As you might have noticed, Trump lost the majority in Utah. Evan McMullin made this abundantly clear. Trump's personality and populism are not wanted here even among working class Republicans.
I want to see Mitt's platform too but taking 2012 as any guideline is a giant mistake. Mitt the Senate candidate is not the same thing as Mitt the Presidential candidate.
I expect a fully pro-business agenda with a focus on promoting Utah families and attracting economic opportunities to the state. He might throw a bone to public lands but primarily in lip service. Health care is another one that might get scant attention. Utahans will elect him due to shared cultural identity and his anti-Trump statements.
When it comes to policy, his supporters will defend him no matter what he does. Utah is bought hook, line, and sinker on the "entrepreneurial spirit." They'll willfully attack labor even if they themselves are wage earners. That's how this is going to play out. Democrats need to find a candidate to run against Mitt or face a Utah Mitt Romney as Senator. Period.
2
Mitt Romney's sweaty half-turn to the camera during his dinner. exploring his possible service at Secretary of State in the Trump administration, said it all. That weak, "I'm caught in a trap, please help me," smile told anyone willing to see it that he had just been dragged through a humiliating experience any man with half a political brain would never have allowed himself to be in.
Mitt Romney is a weak man's weak man. He has been all over the map politically and no one knows where he'll be next. If Utahans want to put him in the Senate there is nothing the rest of us can do about it. Maybe he can continue Hatch's role as defender of quack Utah-based medicine and natural supplements.
5
No one who is "genuinely pro-worker" would have voted for the tax cut. The idea that Rubio, Lee and Cotton are "genuinely pro-worker" is ridiculous.
12
If he is voluntarily reentering politics, he apparently hasn't learned very much.
3
Amazing how quickly Romney's image has been rehabilitated now that we have President Caligula. Let's not delude ourselves - Romney is still the heartless Richie Rich he was in '12 when he made his infamous "47%" comments. Still, it would be good to have one GOP senator who didn't, as Omarosa so pungently put it, "Bow down before President Trump." The Rose Garden photo op with GOP lawmakers after the Tax Bill was passed was absolutely nauseating. It would be refreshing to see a GOP senator that wasn't beholden to Trump or his base, and perhaps looking for a little payback...
8
The key will be if he has to become another Repub-Trump puppet to win. Will he be able to be his own man, show the type of policy that is reasonable and will he call out the crazies in his party? let us hope the people of Utah are serious and realistic and support a independent , rational representative.
Let's not forget that Romney was "Mr. 47%" and made a lot of his fortune as a "Vulture Capitalist", pillaging companies to line his own pockets and leaving scores of people out of work.
This guy is no knight in shining armor, and although I will admit he's not as viscerally disgusting as Orrin Hatch, he is an outstanding hypocrite in his own right.
He backed the famous "Romneycare" as governor of Massachusetts, then in a staggering display of hypocrisy campaigned on repealing Obamacare, repeatedly lying about the differences between the two.
Calling out Trump from the cheap seats isn't exactly a heavy lift, so let's see how long it takes him to change his tune once he gets into the senate.
My guess, about two days.
5
I’ll tell you why. Look at the pronouncements that you mention. Then remember how he was willing to grovel at Trump’s feet to be Secretary of State only to be humiliated soon after. He’s basically just a republican toady.
6
What did I just read??
It seems like Ross's response to Trump is to throw conservativism out the door and take up a new mantle of progressive economic policies and kensyiansim (see last week's column). Ross, did you really not know that the ONLY thing Republicans care about is regressive economic policy? I know you try to be a good Catholic and all, but surely you could have come to an understanding that "moral" issues are either window-dressing or cover for racism and sexism. It's literally your JOB to think about these issues. But here you are acting like all Republicans have to do is get an ideology transplant and everything will be fine. As a Democrat I wouldn't mind if that happens, but it boggles my mind that you and your colleague David seem to be genuinely confused by how our politics have been organized for decades.
Mitt Romney is fine. Mitt Romney is a terrible politician but an otherwise competent adult who is worthy of serving in the Senate, even if I don't agree with his garden variety Republican ideas about taxes. I don't know why you're trying to saddle him with making over the Republican party and blaming him for Trump. Things more to blame than Romney for Trump: 1) Fox News, 2) James Comey's Hubris, 3) Mainstream Media Election Coverage, 4) Facebook, 5) Twitter, 6) Barack Obama's Correspondent's Dinner Routine, 7) Racists, 8) Russia, 9) Normalizers like yourself .... go write about some of that.
3
Hillary had her Romney moment when she said, "We are going put a lot of coal miners...out of business." Obama flubbed when he said, "You didn't build that," without adding a coda that nothing is built in business without a strong economy to support it. Romney said 47% of the population are takers, losers, and he should always be remembered for those sentiments.
How do politicians come up with these truly dumb lines? At base, they have to actually believe them. Ridiculous ideas don't just flow out of the mouth unless there is some fundamental, carefully constructed flaw in the brain. Romney sees himself and his very rich friends as being special and the rest of the population as being unspecial, lazy, indifferent to their own fate, un-salvageable, lost. Yeah, just the kind of man we need in public service.
After slobbering over Trump to take his endorsement in 2012, after that dinner where nothing was actually offered except for Trump to show he won, Romney fired some shots across the Trumpian bow. Not that big a deal. Romney was doing what any of the old line, establishment Republicans would have done, if there were any of them left around. Trump is an insult to what the Republican party once was long ago, the kind of guy they would never allow into their country clubs, so Trump had to build and buy his own.
Maybe Romney can help them find their way out of this wilderness and back to sanity. One can hope.
By the way, Romney has 3,820 grandchildren. Facts, please.
4
A "genuinely pro-worker" Republican party? Not in your wildest dreams. And Romney being a catalyst to build one? That's 53% ridiculous. The other 47% don't matter.
5
Mitt Romney would have been a better president than Trump. Kasich would have been better. Any other Republican, except perhaps for Pence, would have been better. Our local dog catcher would have made a better president. That said, thank goodness and a jolly farewell to that doddering dotard Orrin Hatch, whose groveling before Dear Leader Trump made my stomach churn. Utah deserves better and just about anyone would be better than Hatch.
1
Mitt Romney has "open mouth,insert foot disease".To London before the Olympics,he announces he is skeptical of their preparations to keep people safe during the games.While campaigning in a small US town whose biggest employer is a cookie bakery,he shuns said cookies as being obviously NOT homemade.Amidst many more stupid comments like these, he crowns them all by the" 47 percent"line.This is a very pampered man who runs with only people like himself.How about a REGULAR person who knows an honest days work.Exactly how much $$ did he inherit from his daddy,the Gov.??
2
On the subject of Romney's character and basic decency, let us not forget his debasing himself by running off to Israel with Sheldon Adelson to pay obeisance to Netanyahu
2
Mitt Romney is an opportunist and a man without ethics. After using Trump to fund raise for him, he had only nice things to say about him as long as the the money flowed his way. When he saw an opportunity to join the bashing bandwagon, he came out against Trump, and in a particularly public way. When Trump was elected, he then again saw opportunity to further his own career. If Trump was such a horrible person, why did Romney high tail it over to Trump Tower eager to get a position in his cabinet? With Romney it is all about what you can do for him. If the people of Utah vote him into office, well, they can surely expect him to act as he always has, in his own ambitious interest.
3
You hate the 1-percenter Ayn conservatives, you hate the faux-populist conservatives, and you hate the Evangelical conservatives. Maybe you just hate conservatives!
If you want to be liberated from all these people-blind conservatives, you should become a liberal and vote Democrat.
4
We aren't really more likable. Lol
1
We need to remember that Romney only supported the MA healthcare initiative when he had not choice but to get behind it. The ground had been won by the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization's painstaking work to unify the people, stand as a block against MA legislature, and then to present to Romney a fait accompli. That is when the usual Harvard talking heads also got on board - years after the hard work had been done.
2
Romney was right when he said there are too many “takers” in our country, whether it’s 47% or some other number doesn’t matter.
And yet he said what he believed to be true and was punished for it. The lesson for Mitt is that truth without compassion is abuse. It could have been different if he and the GOP had figured out a way to pull at least some of those 47% into the fold, but that was never the GOP plan anyway and his carelessness did him in.
Trump appealed to the 47% and won the election. Now Trump has no more intention of helping them than Romney and the GOP did. Trump simply lied his way to victory.
There’s not much redeemable in the GOP taken as a whole. Hopefully the country sees that now, and will vote accordingly in November, and say “No” to Romney, Trump, and the rest of the deplorables in the GOP.
1
Romney will be no different than Corker, Flake, McCain and Collins, big talkers who wilt at crunch time. Corker, Flake and Collins (McCain couldn't vote) could have defeated this disastrous tax bill if they had any backbone. Corker voted against it in the first round but supported it in the second round because a sweetener was added for his financial benefit. Flake criticizes Trump but votes for all his legislation and nominees requiring senate confirmation. Collins was rolled by the Republican leadership. McCain criticized the Obamacare repeal because of the way it was put together but voted for the first round of the tax bill even though it was put together the same way as the Obamacare repeal. These are not the legislators whom our Founding Fathers envisioned.
3
I am finding it very difficult to envision how any part of the GOP is pro-worker in any sense of the term I know.
7
The way President Trump dangled the Sec State position in front of Mitt Romney like Lucy with a football was one of the most mean-spirited things I've ever seen in politics, completely emasculating a man of great accomplishment with a single cringe inducing photo. Best wishes to Mitt in his pursuit of serving his country, irrespective of his political views.
1
Republicans and their "ideas". Romney reminds me of the father of a friend of mine who owns a car dealership in Pennsylvania. He constantly is griping about the high taxes he pays, and how he worked so hard to make his business a success and now "they want to take it all away from me with taxes." But he doesnt seem to remember that those taxes paid for the paved streets that the cars he sells drive on, for the fire and police services that protect his business and the big house he lives in, and the very good schools his children attend in his upscale neighborhood.
The Romney Republicans imagine they have become rich and deserve it so much more than the other Americans who buy their products, those unfortunate hard workers who drive cars to their jobs. They got snookered by Trump because Trump has been cheating those same workers his whole life. Such wonderful people you have such high hopes for Ross.
2
"... becoming genuinely pro-worker ..."
Let's see, that would include boosting wages and guaranteeing a minimum wage that a 40 hr worker could actually live on; ensuring access to low cost quality health care; ensuring a retirement system that a retiree could actually live on; and providing quality schools for free or truly minimal costs so students lives don't collapse under massive debt.
Of course, those are the aims of the Democratic Party and have been for decades. So why don't you just join already?
4
Ross, I highly recommend a old documentary entitled 7 and the follow-up films. If there was anything to be learned is that as we get older we seem only to develop physically, our personality is pretty much set in stone. Do really think Harvey Weinstein is going to change because he was caught out? do you really think Mitt Romney is going to change because he's 4 years older. Here is a guy who called trump every name in the book, and trump treated him like something his dog left on the lawn and here he is, crawling back into politics, and who would really want a politician like that?
Seriously? Is Romney so desperate for attention? I'll bet he still travels with his dog on the rood of his car? It is the way he feels about creatures other than humans, and perhaps humans as well. Let's NOT encourage MItt to do anything but run for his church leadership where he will serve his folks best.
1
The problem is not ideologically bankrupt individuals but a politically corrupt system. Trump is not the disease, he is just the most obvious symptom. he Republican Party benefited for decades from the support of right-wing billionaires and the lock-step voting of rural white Christian voters. Mitt Romney and other NeverTrump Republicans cannot change what they benefited from themselves for so long.
3
Not a mention of Romney's remark that unlike Barack Obama, he is a "true blue American." That was vile. What's the difference, really, between populism and Volk? The best thing that can be said of the man is that (as Obama graciously noted at the DNC ) is that unlike Trump, he is capable enough to do the job.
70
Sheesh, and here I thought he was white. But just like Thurgood (oh, how we miss you) Marshall said when HW appoint Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, "you don't have to be white to be a snake."
One way that Mr. Romney could endear himself to suspicious working and middle class voters would to be to avoid the term "successful class" when describing the people at the top of the economic ladder--many of whom got there (as Romney and Trump did) by inheriting power and money. That's not "success" in my book; I'm surprised that it still is in Douthat's.
5
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Mitt read these comments and realized how he is seen by thoughtful people who love this country.
If Mitt found his courage and took on Trump starting this afternoon he could have as much to do with Trump’s demise as Mueller. Does he see that? Does he know he can salvage what’s left of the GOP? Let’s see. He has his own base in Utah and nothing to lose. Freedom.
Courage, Mitt.
3
Wouldnt it make more sense for Mitt Romney to remain in Massachusetts and run against Lizzie Warren?
Doesnt the GOP ever share that one brain cell they have left?
2
No, it wouldn't. No one wants him here. He knew he wouldn't get elected Governor a second time.
4
Now that the steel girders supporting highway overpasses are finally being painted again, we can see how deeply corrosion pitted the steel since Romney quit painting them when he was governor of the state.
1
Romney would not win that race. He has a chance in Utah. Even one brain cell understands that.
2
I can sit here and tell you I will never vote Republican. But if some national politician would wake up and address the real ills of our country, I might surprise myself and vote for that person regardless of party. The Democrats, even Bernie and all those who are elbowing to get in the furthest left lane, somehow don't seem to really see us, out here in the dying Midwest. We need help. We need jobs that give us a hope for the future, where we're not slowly going backwards.
5
When you vote Republican, you vote against all jobs funded by taxation.
4
Odd that you don't think the left understands your problems in the Midwest. The left sees the middle class being crushed by medical expenses. They support single payer. Education is the long term fix for the job problems, so the left proposes free college tuition and generally supports spending on education at the federal and national level. The infrastructure in flyover states is crumbling, which places the region at a competitive disadvantage. The left has been supporting infrastructure spending since Bush 2. What do you think the left needs to do? Say it's OK to say Merry Christmas?
5
Agreed AND the Left never stopped saying Merry Christmas. We are sensitive enough to appreciate that not every is Christian, but everyone celebrates the holidays give or take few Christian denominations like Jehova's Witnesses.
1
You're being overly optimistic about Romney. You leave out that he met with Trump after the election, apparently looking for a position reporting to the man he had just opposed. Romney doesn't have backbone and will do whatever it takes to get ahead.
11
Kent, die-hard democrat here, but I must disagree with you. Trump invited Romney-- though he never had any intention of offering him a job. He wanted the revenge of not making an offer to a qualified person, he wanted Romney to kiss his ring (which perhaps he did). But I give Romney this: perhaps he did this dog and pony out of patriotism, thinking that he could save the nation from trump if he was in the administration as a counterweight.
1
Trump humiliated Romney in that meeting. I've never seen Romney looking more sheepish than he did afterwards.
1
Mr. Douthat, what you describe are Democratic values. Welcome to the Democratic party! It's a big tent.
16
For those with short memories Romney may now look good compared to the current pack of sniveling opportunists that comprise congressional Republicans. But Romney exposed his own sniveling opportunism (not to mention stunning naivete) when he went to share ketchup smothered steaks in Trump tower with the "president"-elect in a never-gonna-happen attempt to get the secretary of state job. That would make Romney a sniveling opportunistic fool. Not good.
Sad fact is, under Trump, we can now confirm that there are no good Republicans- none.
18
Romney is spineless. He is the perfect replacement for Hatch.
14
Anybody smell a primary challenge?
2
Hatch is retiring. Common sense tell you there can be no primary challenge.
I’m talking about challenging Trump
Now with Hatch announcing his retirement, Romney is calculating his run as Utah's next senator. Usually once a politico voices that they wish to run for a representative or senator in Utah, it is assumed that 1. they are members of the LDS church 2. and they have received the unstated blessing of the higher rank and file of the church. With Romney its a walk in the park as far as his being elected as Utah's next senator; (that being a 99.9%) he'll win. How Romney conducts himself in his senatorial position is entirely another issue.
3
Yes, Romney is generally decent.
One of his unfortunate episodes of appeasing a nationally misguided Republican groupthink was when he disavowed the success of Romneycare established in Massachusetts when he was governor.
Is his character strong enough now to not back down from his real beliefs?
7
Some good insights here...but one great flaw: Mr. Douthat, in a burst of unrealistic optimism, floats the possibility that the Republican Party might evolve to “becoming genuinely pro worker.” The Republican Party is now and always has been a party in favor of business and corporations, viewing and treating workers as no more than assets to be exploited. The chances that this will change are minuscule at best.
Right now there is a small caucus in the Republican Party for a different way, for a conservatism that seeks to cure itself of Romney Disease by becoming genuinely pro-worker rather than waiting for a worse demagogue than Trump to come along.
6
Another Liberal looking to deflect blame for Trump from themselves to somebody, anybody else. Trump is President not because of Romney (!) but because of Obama and his divisive and highly partisan leadership style that created a huge backlash among those that he targeted for ridicule (who Hillary eventually labelled as deplorables) and because the Democratic Party conspired to anoint Hillary Clinton, a deeply flawed candidate that played strongly to the partisan backlash fueled by Obama and also tapped into by Bernie Sanders, as the DNC nominee. Hillary Clinton then ran the worst campaign in US history, to win the popular vote but to lose the electoral college.
Democrats need to focus on self reflection and self criticism. Their message isn't resonating with Americans, and rather than reflect on why, they blame Americans for their own failure.
2
Uhm, no...
3
Divisive and partisan?
You got that backwards. It's the Republicans who are divisive and partisan.
Regressives always get things completely backwards.
4
First of all the good people of Utah should consider that Mr. Romney is a carpetbagger - until yesterday his online profile said he was from Massachusetts but gee, today it says he is from Utah -how convenient. That aside, while Mr. Romney looks good when compared to Mr. Trump, no one should forget that his economic policies as proposed during his Presidential campaign were not worker friendly. His candid comment about the "47%" revealed his true opinions. I have no doubt however, that if Mr. Romney runs for the Senate he will be elected. As for me, until the Republican Party actually displays through policy their support for the average American, they will never get my vote.
10
Consider what Conservative means. Could it possibly mean spending over a trillion dollars too much each year on healthcare in America? How does this relate to Mitt Romney? While governor of Massachusetts, his signature accomplishment was an attempt to rein in healthcare costs while making access much broader. After his visit to Israel, during his presidential campaign, he praised their system which combines universal healthcare with private healthcare upgrades, resulting overall costs half as expensive as in America.
The single most damaging problem in America is not Donald Trump tweeting away in his lunatic bubble, although that is plenty dangerous. It's not racists marching and murdering, although that too is incredibly frightening.
The single most damaging problem in America is wasting over a trillion dollars a year on healthcare. Think of it. You want to invest a trillion on infrastructure? That's one years savings. Republicans want to give a trillion to the wealthiest Americans? One more. You want universal healthcare. The money is there.
Healthcare costs are distorting everything in the American economy. Mitt Romney is the only Republican conservative who has shown any interest in this great American scandal.
3
I'd say it's wasting several trillion dollars per year in the military budget.
3
When one refers to social security recipients as takers I am not sure that there is a brain that can learn. Wage earners pay about 7.5% of all their wages (plus 7.5% match from employers) to qualify for social security. They cannot take what they have earned.
What Romney should have learned is that unless you appeal to the white supremacists in the GOP, you cannot get elected. Utah may be a little different, but not much. The Greed is so high in Utah that they are willing to accept that racism in their fellow GOP. Therefore, the are complicit in that racism.
8
As a Republican searching for redemption, Mr. Douthat wistfully casts Mitt into the savior role. But Mitt is no ray of light glinting through the Republican darkness.
We know this because the Republican ideology is not of the light, it is entirely dark and from beyond the abyss; an antithetical corrosive force intent on terminating humanity.
Republicans are reptiles - not one of them is human, so don't be fooled by the makeup, "Mitt" is not one of us.
The only way a Republican can claim redemption is to ask forgiveness and become a Democrat.
6
How can you say stuff like that when you look at your Democrats and they're behavior? Republicans look the more honest, decent party!
Your goal for the Republicans to care about the working man is admirable, but it is totally hollow because there is no real history in the Republican Party of truly caring about the working man.
The Democratic Party is much more the party of the working man. Any Republican attempt to co-opt that role, no matter how sincere, is ultimately smoke and mirrors if it relies on traditional Republican cut-throat capitalism economics, where power is with the corporations, unions are emasculated, debunked trickle-down economics is still believed in, taxes are not progressive, higher minimum wages are scoffed at, myopic resistance to alternative energy and environmental protection leaves us technologically behind, obsolete jobs such as coal mining are protected instead of the workers themselves, unfair tax advantages are maintained for avaricious private equity barons, the financial industry is allowed to steal money from unknowing Joes because of opaque outrageous fees, the consumer protection agency is pilloried, affordable health insurance for all is not a goal, and too little money is put into the public schools that workers' children attend.
How, may I ask, does the Republican Party ever help the working man?
9
Yes Mitt is a decent fella. But the republican party adherents are no longer decent people. They have broken through their varnish of politeness, probity, and token nods toward gender and racial equality and now engaged in bare-fanged white christian nationalism. Mitt may win in Utah or not, the republican voter is too far gone toward a dystopic combination of theocracy and oligarchy run by bible thumpers and robber barons - to return to anything resembling a concern for a thriving republic.
Trump is only the catalyst, not the cause; the movement toward degeneration of everything holy in America, such as separation of church and state, such as concern for justice, education, healthcare, the environment, and investment for the future - are sadly now reference worthy only in the past tense. Trump supporter agree that he is a terrible fella, but how is destroying everything useful is a very good thing.
Mitt cannot change that. I wish him well.
Kalidan
3
Rubio. Lee and Cotton may be pro-worker but they also share a world view which is dangerous to the US and the world.
2
Tom Cotton is pro-worker? That's news.
5
Mgaudet, Cotton is not only NOT pro-worker he is crazy town. Glad you challenged that statement in this rosy view of the GOP that Ross has presented us today.
2
Trump is the aberration. He's the first Republican candidate who has given at least lip service to the bigoted and ignorant base that the Republican Party has been developing for decades. Romney, Ryan, et. al. are the real Republicans, doing what they have done consistently since 1877. The core Republican Party represents rich people and big business--that's it, all of it. Why does Mr. Douthat think that an establishment Republican like Mitt Romney is going to change his, or his Party's, tune? The only serious question, in my opinion, is whether average American voters will ever smarten up and reject the lot of them, regardless of how personally attractive some are.
5
I am curious about this small sect of Republicans who are "genuinely pro-worker." I had not heard of this before? I need to hear more about this cure for the wise and dignified church elder/captain of finance paternalism Romney embodies. What is this pro-worker platform if it is not immigrant bashing, "job-killing regulation" bashing, or even "right-to-work," and if so, how is this different than Trumpian tribalism without the scowling facial expressions.
I also must say that I doubt that the inexplicably stupid reference to Romney's "1,765 grandchildren" will give Mr. Douthit's opinion much traction in the homeland of the Later Day Saints, but since most LDS are so reflexively polite, most will likely not take public offense to it.
4
As someone who spent 20 years in Utah where I was a University of Utah Ute and continue to count many Mormons as friends (even though I was raised Catholic and am now an atheist) I take exception with Douthat.
1) Mitt Romney has 18 grandchildren although Ross thought hyperbole was hilarious?
2) Utah’s largest paper the Salt Lake Tribune endorsed Barack Obama in 2012 as the editors felt that Romney was a fraud. His 47% speech was real--it’s who he is at his center. His biggest gaffes (?) were that he had NO clue how to understand the common person, the everyday citizen in our country. He made fun of the $1 rain ponchos purchased by NASCAR fans then says how he knows some of the owners. He presented whiteboard ideas for social security. He is most comfortable in board rooms or at the head of Bain Capital.
Just a smoother Trump...but molded from the same clay. Romney also a private prep schooler who attackeda a fellow student who was gay, who thought it hilarious to direct a blind teacher into a closed door.
I returned to Utah to help set up the medical facilities for the 2002 Winter Olympics in SLC. He couldn’t understand why we needed First Aid tents...couldn’t folks who were injured just helicopter down from Park City to their own doctors? I had NEVER met a man more out of touch.
Romney is not liked by most Utahns. Not even liked by its top billionaire,-Jon Hunstman Sr. (Son ran for prez.) Just another Trump but w only one wife.
And Utah HATES Trump.
11
Then run a democrat against him.
"...a conservatism that seeks to cure itself of Romney Disease by becoming genuinely pro-worker...". Come on Ross. You mean the anti-worker tax "reform" bill that these un-Americans just passed. The GOP will never become "genuinely pro-worker" since they have a filthy rich noose around their necks. Romney doesn't even know what honest work is. Then of course there is his catalog of women...
2
It is "binders" of women...binders of them!
You're right Cindi. I imagine they're not actually cataloged!
George Romney, born in Mexico, would have made an outstanding President.....but he was pulled aside at the 1964 GOP convention and advised not to push it....as he did not meet the "natural born citizen" requirement for the office. Ie.....born to american citizens and born on american territory.
.....
The amateur psych analysis of George's son, Mitt, would point towards a personal goal of redeeming his father.
But Mitt Romney lacks his father's single-minded purpose. Mitt has bounced around from Olympic Chairman, Venture Capital Fund Manager, Mass Gov, Presidential Candidate,,,,and now potential Senator from Utah. He lacks a certain strength of conviction.....displayed so often during the 2012 Presidential Campaign.
...
Worse for Mitt......he has un-wisely attached himself to the Bush Family Agenda, which a majority of Americans now recognize was decieptful and definately NOT good for the rest of the country....only good for Bush Family members.
Even WORSE..........Mitt chooses to stand in front of a "Hinckley Institute" banner and criticize Donald Trump.
Those of us old enough to remember.....know that Roger Hinckley of the Hinckley Institute, is a business associate of GHW Bush AND uncle of John Hinckley, Jr who SHOT Reagan and almost made Bush president.
Well, we all know you can't out-Bush the Bush's.
Who cares what mittens has learned.
We have learned how he feels about us the 47%, and WE won’t forget what we learned.
4
Ross, dear, you are much to young to be a curmudgeon. Seriously.
1
What does a genuinely pro-worker conservatism look like? Workers are one of the factors of production that make profits and wealth possible, but the way to make money includes minimizing the cost of these factors. Keeping workers happy can increase their productivity, but when they are no longer needed their productivity does not matter. Companies that stand by their workers will be run out of business by companies that dont.
The conservative problem with workers is to keep them from revolting. Keeping them confused and dividing them by race and sex is cheaper than buying them off, especially since once buying them off starts, they want more. Convincing them that the only answer is the personal climb from worker to entrepreneur, and that anything else is dishonorable, is the preferred strategy. For government or labor unions to protect them from the desire of their bosses to make as much money off their labor as possible, is the Democratic solution.
4
Romney would have voted for the recent tax cut travesty. People like Susan Collins who has spent years trying to sell the idea that she was a moderate gave it all away with her vote for the tax cut. This was the big political issue of the Republicans. They will sell out the vast majority of voters to pay off their fat cat buddies who demand payment no matter what the cost to everyone else.
4
This is one Utahn who thinks Romney should not be the next Senator from this state. He is no better than Hatch, who, as the Salt Lake Tribune noted, is more concerned with himself than serving the people.
4
What I find unfathomable is, after the election, Mitt Romney was at Trump's beckon call. Romney was willing to ignore his own extremely frank and caustic remarks of Trump in lieu of the possibility of a prestigious job. What gives me pause is Romney's appearance of hypocrisy. Here we have Romney, by all accounts, a solemn man of faith, a faithful husband, a good father, who religiously subscribes to his religion's tenets. How does someone of supposedly such moral character justify making a pilgrimage to the see the Wizard who resides in his faux gold tower, to sit at his feet, or more accurately, a table at Jean-Georges, of a false god? How, Mitt, how? Mitt says it was his duty as a citizen who cares about his country to come when the future president calls. Call me a Doubting Thomas.
I accept Mitt's stated duty to country. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, though with much trepidation. Still, how could Mitt agree to interview for a job, no matter its importance, with someone who is, how can I gently put it?: Nuts. An imbecile. Someone who has no noticeable moral values. How does a man who strictly adheres his Mormon faith convince himself, his wife, his family, that a meeting with this unscrupulous businessman can have any good outcome? I see Romney's potential Senate run in the same vein as that of Jeff Flake's tenure. How in good conscience can these men of moral turpitude not wrench in the presence of someone so morally bankrupt?
DD
Manhattan
7
It appears that he has learned that, like Bobby Kennedy, another Massachusetts-based carpet-bagger, can run for an available office elsewhere because of name recognition.
1
With the new tax cut, Romney should be able to run a well, personally financed state-of-the-art campaign to get himself elected to the Republican senate in November. I think it's his time - as has been made abundantly clear, the 1% have suffered enough.
3
You know Ross, if you're looking for a party that cares about people over profit, there already is one: they're called the Democrats. I know it's hard for an out of touch media elite such as yourself to look past your own tribalism, but Bernie Sanders is the future of this country, and the sooner you realize that the better. Not necessarily Sanders himself, but his policies of investing in our own people again rather than demonizing them as undeserving of any benefits.
The Democrats haven't caught on yet, but there's a huge appetite in this country for something new, something different from the neoliberal consensus that has dominated both parties for 40 years now. The sooner they can harness this appetite, the sooner they will form a lasting coalition that will transcend the old partisan divides. And when this coalition forms, you will be left behind in the dust wondering why nobody likes your corporatist party anymore.
The future will be here before you know it, Ross. Embrace it now, or be relegated to even more irrelevance than you have now.
5
I really want Ross to describe what the current GOP run government does that is "genuinely pro-worker." All I have seen is a seemingly endless parade of septuagenarian white men who range from the clueless - the guy who described an "average" family as one making $100K a year with 40% of their income from business - to the contemptible - e.g. the 47% are takers comment. I don't want Romney or Pence or whoever who can pretty up the planned destruction of the poor and middle class with some slick pieties. At least Trump has the virtue of driving all that nasty craziness into the open where it can be resisted by the majority.
3
You really think Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton are pro worker? Rubio is pro millionaire sugar cane growers who are polluting Florida and pushing sanctions that hurt Cuban people, Tom Cotton is all about state religion and war (buy those defense stocks to get rich quicker) and Mike Lee I never heard of but assume he is another Mormon who really only cares about his tribe (but has he defended CHIP?). Just what have they voted for that will truly help workers? And don't say removing regulations because in the long run that will only lead to more Gulf oil spills, Three Mile Islands and Flint water crises to name a few.
3
Romney was correct about "the 47%". the Chavez/ Maduro regime in Venezuela bought the votes of those with trinkets and baubles, promising to punish the rich and allowing antifa style mobs to harass the opposition.
Some democrats have realized that could be a path to permanent political power in America. Just need a few more years of open borders and sanctuary cities.
Seamus LIVES !!!
1
Mitt Romney is yesterday's news.
Romney learned (well always knew) that the Russian threat was real even though he was mocked by Obama and the NYTimes for stating it.
This feels like the beginning of a campaign to discredit future potential Republican candidates. 'Romney Disease'...seriously? Sounds like a strawman for a political add/meme.
To beware of live microphones and hidden recording devices, especially from the " help". Also, how to grovel and lie BETTER. The NEXT Mormon Senator, absolutely. Thanks, GOP.
“Ann and I can produce our birth certificates.”
—Mitt Romney in 2012, obviously riffing off Donald “The-Birther-In-Chief” Trump’s one-note symphony of treason, sedition and racism.
3
My problem with Mitt Romney (besides being a conservative) is that he has shown himself to be an extremely poor judge of character. He continued to suck up to Trump ages after every sane person knew what a vile animal had been elected. That alone should disqualify him from running for any office.
The real question is whether, if elected, he can remain an honorable man. We continue to see Republican Senators caught up in supporting Trump - perhaps because they fear his ire, fear being primaried on the Right, or fear losing their donor support. John McCain, Ben Sasse, Susan Collins - to name a few. Power corrupts.
1
The real question is whether or not he was ever an "honorable man". People who can turn their opinions on a dime like he did with Donald Trump in order to get a job in the administration, generally are not.
Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and Tom Cotton aren't "becoming genuinely pro-worker" at all. Like the rest of the party, they heavily back policies that are terrible for the average worker and are to the benefit of their wealthy donors.
2
While Romney is willing to jump back into the political arena while other moderate Republicans are heading for their multi-million dollar lobbyist paydays, Mitt has shown the a commitment to his ideals with the same consistency as a watered down pancake batter. Romney's flag waves in whatever direction the political winds are blowing and it is subject to change direction at a moment's notice. While I don't suppose he will be worse for what America supposedly stands than is Orin Hatch, I do not envision Romney standing for any principle which will enhance the lives of the common civilian. I would like to be wrong about this.
2
Here's a truth that critics of Romney and Republicans here will find hard: The Republican tax bill is the best tax bill when it comes to helping the struggling middle class. Lower tax rates on investment are the kind of medicine international economic organizations prescribe to countries with low productivity and employment. If you don't understand this you don't understand how economies work. If you do understand this then you will come to see "tax breaks for the middle class" as a suboptimal use of tax savings for those very people, a populist sop you have to toss them because - well, because too many of them read letters to the NYT.
That doesn't mean the best tax bill is the only bill that's needed. A lot needs to be done to promote education for the 21st century workplace in rural and low-income America, to tackle opiate addiction (and yes, punish the companies who profit from encouraging their overuse), and that requires well-conceived policies backed by lots of money. Republicans aren't even thinking in these terms.
But Democrats don't serve these Americans any better when they fight vouchers and charter schools and talk up the supposed virtues of unions, including teachers' unions who make the kind of policies we need impossible, not to mention unaffordable.
Both parties need to take off cherished ideological blinkers and assess the country's social and economic policies objectively. Then maybe we can get back to being a problem-solving country.
1
You need to take off your blinkers about education. Investors have found a way to take taxpayers' hard-earned money and line their own pockets while pretending to educate children through charters and private schools. How? They suck up the money and, unlike truly public schools, do not have to be accountable for how that money is spent. There are hundreds of reports of charter school scams from California to Florida. Everyone loses in these scams except the criminals. Don't be duped.
This calls for a Show-me attitude, not for cautious optimism.
Romney's core is probably pretty good, but it is always sullied by flattery and self-interest. This is the guy who puts his dog on top of the car. And I cannot forget the images of him dining with Trump. He may have the Mormon core of values, but it fractures too easily when Ambition is in play.
If I know this, so does Trump. So tone it down.
1
If Ross had lead with the idea that Republicans, even a small caucus of them, were "pro-worker" I would have understood the basic nature of his delusion from the very start.
1
I lost what little respect I had for Mitt Romney once he had his dinner with Trump where he begged to be the Secretary of State for the guy he had bashed throughout the campaign. No integrity. The car elevator in La Jolla and Seamus strapped to the car roof never helped him either.
1
It also would be interesting to know whether Mr. Douthat has learned anything. Because he doesn't quite see in Mr. Romney, nor in himself, their complicity in supporting a party that has lost interest in facts, and now seems willing, if Mr. Mueller's investigation so far is any indication, to ignore patriotism.
Tom Cotton is the "worse demagogue than Trump" who we hope won't come along. In no way is he "genuinely pro-worker" - he's got the same Chris Christie/Donald Trump agenda of the mean in spirit, and the same "I know in my heart I've never be wrong, so anyone who points out anything they think I've done wrong is just an enemy of America" attitude that we're suffering with now. To make matters worse, Cotton served in the military, so he'd be just off-the-charts insufferable about that too.
1
It would be good to hear from the man himself about "The Education of Mitt Romney." As Douthat says, he (mostly) has a record of honor and accomplishment, yet his run from and then cravenly and embarrassing towards Trump (in pursuit of being SoS) makes one wonder what he has to offer in public life. As a respected Mormon bishop, he'll get elected to the Senate in a heartbeat, but what does he stand for? What does he want to accomplish? And do we really need another over 70 rich white male in Senate?
Let me see if I understand the conservative (and much of the media's) mentality. If Hillary Clinton gives a speech somewhere about an issue she cares about, she should "just go away, she lost"
When Mitt Romney makes noise about running for office again, he "shows an old-fashioned spiritedness."
Got it.
2
Once (not if) elected as Senator from Utah, Flip Flopney will billow and bluster, just like Flake, McCain, Ryan, and a host of other phonies. Then he will do what they all do over 90% of the time...vote in lock step with what Trump wants.
1
..."a man of honor, decency and serious accomplishment". Mostly. I hope he learned to take into account that forgotten 47%. The same one that Hillary called "deplorable". I can only hope that if he wins he will stand for his said principles and avoid thinking that Trump is his boss. After all, many will not forget Mitt's audition with the president-elect who by the way, teased him publicly and did not appoint him Secretary of State. Did he learn from that audition in the past year?
Romney was simply being honest about the republican policies that trump would eventually be able to enact after deceiving the masses!
The GOP is Trump's party. Trump is the GOP.
The only place in America that Romney could still get elected is Utah. Romney has a history of trying to be all things to all people to win votes. After all, I live in Massachusetts and Romney is thought of here as the Father of Obamacare. But, Romney is out of place in today's GOP. He, like say Susan Collins of Maine belong to a party in their minds that no longer exists. Whatever Romney has, is or will be in the future, he is not a racist, xenophobe, misogynist, etc, etc., etc, meaning, he has no real place in the Republican Party. That Republican Party died a long, long time ago, and had been replaced by the foul wretched wreck we see today.
It's sort of ironic that Mitt Romney, the epitome of the country club Republican who worked for Bain Capital, shipped jobs overseas and helped close factories, is being presented as some sort of sane alternative to Donald Trump, who based his campaign on representing all the people whose votes Romney rightfully lost. Really??? Seriously? Romney better than Trump for everyday Americans? Are we serious here? Or is this just how bad some people hate (yes, hate) Donald Trump.
Romney completely lost his own self-respect and any fleeting respect I had for him when he was seen so enthusiastically dining with Donald Trump in a shameless and desperate bid to become part of the new administration. The kissing up to Trump was disgusting for a man who was in many ways one of the only members of the GOP with any shred of decency willing to call out Trump for the fraud he was and is. Romney deserves no special treatment or rearview mirror praise. He is desperate to get back into political life and, no doubt, if elected to the Senate, will fall in line with all of Trump's once-critics now-supporters. He may present himself as the square-jawed, upstanding, country-first, family man, but at his core he is merely yet another hypocritical professional politician who will become Tump's sycophantic tool. Retire, Mitt, RETIRE!
Romney “is a man of honor, decency and serious accomplishment.” He is also a hypocrite with a compulsion for self-humiliation in public. First, he made a memorable speech denouncing Trump as a con man unfit to hold the office of president. But when Trump was auditioning candidates for Secretary of State, Romney obsequiously dined with The Donald in Trump Tower, fawning in admiration and unseemly pleading “choose me.” And who can forget the first act of Romney when he won the presidential nomination. Romney ran to Trump and kissed his ring, begging for Trump’s endorsement. Romney is a man of no honor, no decency, and no serious accomplishment. As a senator he would toe the Trump line.
1
Where was that honor and decency when he defended his history of bullying by doubling down? Maybe because it's so funny to belittle and humiliate a fellow classmate.
"Right now there is a small caucus in the Republican Party for a different way....by becoming genuinely pro-worker..." Did we just warp in 2018 into a different universe? In what world would the Republican Party ever become pro-worker? The GOP will always be for big biznez, it is baked into their DNA. Can you imagine the Koch's giving money to a party that is pro-union? History has shown that the only way for the working man to have any power is to band together and raise their voices as one in a union.
Let’s hope he’s learned that posing for photos of you and your fellow corporate pirates stuffing your pockets with cash isn’t the best idea if you intend to run for public office.
Don’t expect Romney to look to the average guy for values and inspiration. As soon as his campaign starts, and each day afterward, he will be kneeling at the alters of Koch, Adelson, and Goldman Sachs. For Republicans, populism is merely a set of focus group tested boasts to confuse the suckers.
Romney is a shameless panderer, but at least he's not a crazy person!
1
When (finally) Mr Douthat got to Tom Cotton, the wave of suspicion that this column was vacuous crested and broke. Seriously?
The image of Romney that most sticks with me is him pathetically sucking up to Trump after Trump won, in hopes of becoming Trump's Secretary of State, and being totally humiliated by Trump. Romney's just another hypocritical opportunist who would have gladly sold his soul to Trump.
Like lemmings, the few Republicans who hate Trump, as well as some desperate Democrats, will all fly over the cliff together in support of Romney. Let’s not forget: Romney debased himself mightily by meeting with Trump in a suck up move to become Secretary of State. If he wins, he will be taken outside the woodshed and beaten with a pile of greenbacks until he acquiesces and falls on his knees in front of Trump, just like the rest of Congress.
Why with all the republicans named in this article, those in office and the wannabes, an image of the devil from corporate hell, Leona Helmsley comes to mind? Her stenciled visage seems impregnated on the entire flock, herd, but certainly not pride of the Republican Party. “Only the little people pay taxes.”
Whether it’s repeal of the ACA, the elimination of sacred cow deductions and the rest of the passed nation destroying tax bill, the republicans have showed themselves as they truly are. Greed mongers. Contempt for the little people.
Some little folks don’t have the wherewithal to know when they’ve been dissed.
That's the guy with the 'Magic Pants' or something, right? Mitt was NG for the job then, and he's NG for the job now.
One is nearly the opposite of the other, which makes both of them NFG. With all that trump has scuttled, can we just bend a few regs and get BO back in there?
"Ayn Randian temptation" indeed. Sort of like naming Paul Ryan, high priest of Ayn Randianism, as your VP candidate...
Mitt Romney has many times shown himself to be a man of silly putty spine, willing to bend to whatever winds he thinks will put him in a position of power. He may be a decent man in his personal life, but he is a hypocrite in his political one. He damned Trump in the campaign and then bowed to him afterwards when he saw an opportunity for power. Even after his Secretary of State game show humiliation, I have no doubt he will do so again once he is in the Senate.
1
Good Republicans will never become “pro-worker,” Mr. Douthat, even if they jettison Trump, the aspiring racist demagogue.
Remember the book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” that asked why working-class voters would ever ally with condescending country-club Republicans?
There’s one key reason: because Republican preachers — libertarians, Tea Partiers, Christian fundamentalists — have convinced many citizens that the Feds are out to pick their pockets, contaminate the US with illegal immigrants, steal their guns, make them bake cakes for gays, and wreck their True American Independence.
Mr. Douthat proposes that the “neverTrump” reps of the GOP could win elections as successfully as crude, dishonest Donald Trump if they proposed economic policies that recognized and sought to help workers.
But if they did, they’d be Democrats.
Clear strategies link genteel Mitt Romney with Trump, the glitzy rabble-rouser. BOTH consider working-class American men and women to be “rabble.” Mitt derided 47% of the citizenry as lazy “takers,” and Trump appointed a cabinet of millionaires eager to tear down important federal agencies. Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate ... a guy who has long schemed to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
In short, country-club Republicans like Romney AND Trump have saved their golf buddies lots of tax dollars by claiming the US government caters to deadbeats and misfits, and true blue Americans would do better on their own.
95
Isn't this precisely Mr. Douthat's point? He believes that a change needs to be made within the ranks if the Republican Party is to survive, and he has faith that at least part of the reason the change hasn't been made is because some people within the ranks don't understand what's required.
I'm not a Republican myself, but, crucial as economic policy is, it's only one facet of what defines a party.
Thomas Jefferson believed in samller government. My guess is that he would "tear down" federal agenicies with a fervor that would make Trump blush. The IRS is the government. The DMV is the government. Do you think of them as charitable, beneficial agencies that routinely provide assistance to them citizenry?
No Ed, I think of them as necessary. Unless of course you’d prefer to see a horde of completely untested and unqualified drivers careening down our country’s roads. As for the IRS, how do you propose to have a government with no money to pay for it? Jefferson lived in a primitive country with a tiny population compared toour own. His views our no longer relevant to a modern behemoth of over 300 million in a world of instant communications, widespread environmental degradation and nuclear weapons.
Mitt Romney honorable and decent? The same Mitt Romney who went to the NAACP and said "If you people want free stuff then I'm not your guy"? The Mitt Romney who claimed President Obama only won the 2012 election because he gave minorities free stuff? The same Mitt Romney who made a speech criticizing Trump only to to genuflect before him when he thought he was going to be Secretary of State. That Mitt Romney? A honorable decent man? Thanks for the joke. It's a good way to start my morning.
186
Trump humiliated Romney with the dinner to talk about him being secretary of state. Humiliated. That's what bullies do. They call in their victims and invite them to lick their shoes before finally kicking them out. Well, Romney can easily survive that because he has been humiliated many times in public life.
1
Only the truth, you don't agree but so what.
One would hope he’s learned to collect cellphones at the door.
Ross over-analyzes Romney’s loss in 2012. As well as anyone can run for the presidency, Romney ran well. He didn’t lose because he didn’t speak effectively as a general matter to America’s varied constituencies. He lost because he was incautious at a donor’s fete at which he was caught saying largely true but unpardonable things – and he may have lost because people held in contempt a candidate who COULD get caught in such an uncontrolled and sophomoric act.
Other things contributed, such as Obama’s spinning of the Benghazi catastrophe, days before the election, in a calculated lie that sought to exculpate the administration from the deaths of Americans through inattention; and for the very formidable desire on the part of many Americans not to allow our first African American president to fail at re-election. But what actually sunk him was that close-to-the-election gaffe. If not for that momentary carelessness, Romney would have been elected president in 2012, and we’d be commenting on a very different history that wouldn’t have needed Trump to fix dreadfully broken politics that by now would have been fixed without Trump.
In 2020, Romney will be 73, one year younger than Trump. It’s probably a given that there will be Republican presidential primaries, and we may be seeing the incremental run-up to one last shot at the brass-ring.
If anything can be said of Mitt Romney, it’s that he’s persistent.
2
Romney suffers from GOP elitism: Noblesse Oblige. He is no doubt more stable and classy than Trump but would he support similar give-aways to the rich? I think yes.
3
That is a misunderstanding not of the man but the term noblesse oblige. Would that more wealthy people felt such an obligation, because it means they would help the poor, not kick them to the curb. Romney's remark about the 47% shows that he feels no such duty.
1
I think he sees himself that way, not that he actually does much for the poor. If he believes he has a public service mandate, that may be good but I doubt that he recognizes exactly how poor people feel or think, or what they need.
The conservative Douthat and his liberal commenters finally agree on a question—is there an economic populist lurking in Mitt Romney? But they have it wrong. They are fighting the last war.
Romney comes from a social class that recoils in horror from the thuggery of Trump and his cronies. If elected to the Senate, the central question for Romney will not be about the plight of the working class, or DACA, or children’s health care. The question confronting him will be how far will he go to help the Democrats stop Trump?
No matter what the issue, that is how it will be framed—loyalty to class versus repugnance for Trump.
If the Senate is split, for example, will he provide the the deciding vote to stop another attempt at dismantling Obamacare? Or to stop an unpopular bill like the tax bill? Or to help impeach Trump if the opportunity arises?
No one can answer those questions now, not even Romney, himself.
5
King Lear, in the end, knew what lesson needed to be learned. Whether "47%" Romney has learned it is unknown.
O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.
5
It's not Romney disease, it's conservative disease. Douthat is trying to offload on individuals what is really a fundamental ideological problem--a fundamental bias--of conservatism.
By the way, there is no call for the "1,765 grandchildren" comment. Why a lame joke in a serious column? In the end, it seems anti-Mormon. One more problem with conservatism--its unease with people who are different.
21
Romney you say is 'honorable.' When he showed up at Trump's doorstep begging to be Secretary of State (to a man who Romney earlier had blasted as a crook and liar), we saw how pathetic, unprincipled and weak Romney was (like much of the rest of the GOP [eg. Christie, et al] ) who came begging for jobs from a man who they all knew to be as unprincipled (kindred spirit).
20
Mitt Romney would not have made a good president and the reason he lost the presidency. I voted for him but would have preferred we had had a different candidate. Of course, he would have been far superior to Barack Obama but it was not meant to be.
Mr. Romney certainly had impeccable manners and pedigree but I think Donald Trump is better for our country at this time. President Trump may not be the most polished of people but he certainly has accomplished a lot since his short time in office. Maybe it has taken a person who is somewhat brash to get things done. He kind of grows on you after awhile and he is very popular with a lot of Americans. He certainly is not shy and retiring and speaks his mind. The people seem to like this sort of personality after having a lackluster man in office for eight years. Mr. Trump is refreshing and has a good sense of self. We need this now.
Mr. Romney will make a good senator for Utah if he does decides to run. He is most likely to win and the people would be getting a very competent and good man. I wish him the best in his endeavors.
1
WPL, Obama never had a chance once the Republicans refused to deal with him an thwarted him at every turn. I yearn for a president and Congress that will act for the good of the nation without thinking about which party gets the credit. Wishful thinking, I know, but our government used to operate in a way that got important things done and that cared about the little man. I’m glad I lived to see it but it makes me sad that we now have so many selfish, narcissistic politicians who only care about their next election.
If you have something growing on you, we have medicine for that; if you think Trump is making America great again, well, we have medicine for that too.
Ross just doesn't get it. Republicans do not believe in the working class dogs. Republicans see themselves as above that class and destined for wealth and greatness.
19
Ross Douthat fails to mention what was perhaps Mitt Romney's greatest failing in 2012: his lack of authenticty, or to put it another way, the absence of backbone. The way he adopted the worst rhetoric of the right wing; the way he walked away from Romneycare; his belated swerve to the center. Romney has shown he will do just about anything to regain a seat at the table (e.g. his post-election, bended-knee visit to King Donald). The person he could and should learn from was a man of real backbone - his father.
23
Funny how once again all the men of the press are anointing another old white man as the savior. Not even a mention of any other candidates? You're doing the same thing you did with Clinton, only with praise not "flaw" mongering.
6
Super-rich people are so cute! The way they get to pick their constituents and look for power-voids to fill.
Where do they live? Who do they represent?
Massachusetts? Michigan? Utah?
Texas? Florida? Connecticut?
Arkansas? New York?
Wherever & Whomever the please.
Just WIN baby!
5
Frank, Ross, I wonder whether you grasp your own role in what led up to 2016 and the election result. Isn't that your party?
7
Mitt the Shameless Groveler. You could see the trap being set a mile away as Mitt made his way to Trumph's lair in a quest to become the Secretary of State. Even then it was apparent that Trumph was as vindictive they come and that Mitt was fodder for retaliation against those who spoke out against him. I had to wonder then why in the world Mitt had put himself in such a compromising position and where was his self respect. So here comes Mitt again. He will fit in well with the spineless GOP supporters of Trumph's swampy game plan.
15
What the heck is a "valorized entrepreneur"?
6
Someone who successful raped and pillaged companies for personal enrichment. Bain Capital. It is the most noble thing a patriot can do, after all.
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them; the first time." M. Angelou
Mitt was willing to suck up to DJT in the hopes of getting the Secretary of State job. Seriously - what more do you need to know about the man's character? Mittens is just looking far another way to run again for POTUS. He will do nothing to position himself as anti-Trump.
13
The snide swipe on his religion wasn’t really necessary or kind
10
John Sidney McCain, III, Willard Mitt Romney and Donald John Trump all made their fame and fortune the old-fashioned way by entitled inheritance.
Each winning 57%, 59% and 58% of the white majority vote in 2008, 2012 and 2016 one Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan and Mike Pence color aka race caste value solidarity over class interest vote at a time. While McCain and Trump both have a history of serial adultery and sexual harassment and assault along with a second and a third wife, Romney has no such baggage.
See "Dog-Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Re-Invented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class" by Ian Haney Lopez; "We Were Eight Years In Power, An American Tragedy" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
5
Indeed, but what has ANY Republican in the forefront learned? Trickle down? Regressive tax "cuts"? Voter fraud? Taking money from the Koch Brothers and the NRA? A cabinet packed with ideologues like Pruitt, Perry, Mnuchin, and DeVos who oppose the very areas they're responsible for? The President's toxic immaturity, his flagrant lying, and the true state of his mental health? And what of Russia?
You have all become abettors. Shame on you.
15
Romney is a complete and utter suckup. He 'll have his nose firmly planted in trump within months...watch and see this sycophant start praising this utter incompetent in short order....time to retire Mitt..and wipe your nose.
6
"Romney . . . shows an old-fashioned spiritedness that his party’s hollow men conspicuously lack."
Never forget that Romney chose the most hollow man on Capitol Hill as his running mate. Not even T.S. Eliot could conjure a more straw-filled headpiece than the one on Paul Ryan's shoulders. We would be hearing none of Trump's many varieties of nonsense under Romney/Ryan, but a vice-president out to gut social security and medicare would likely succeed, even if narrowly with his senatorial tie-breaking vote. Ryan was as horrible a veep choice as Palin and Pence. In his one and only "presidential" decision, Romney failed.
216
Who is Mitt Romney?
Is he the poplar MA Gov. whose visionary RomneyCare was a precursor to ObamaCare, now in ascendancy again? Is he the mean-spirited, out-of-touch .0005 %er and compass-less 2012 presidential candidate who scowled at "the takers?" Is he the guy who did one of the great Trump takedowns of all time, calling out candidate Trump as the fraud, phony and boob that Trump clearly is? Or is Mitt the sniveling toady who shamelessly, embarrassingly begged fraud, phony boob (but President )Trump to be Sec. State, something that was never going happen?
Does Mitt even know who he is?
209
That seems unfair. I could imagine Romney want to be Secretary of State so at least one major department would be led sanely.
As a former Massachusetts resident, I remember that Romney's main contribution to the health insurance debate was to make sure it was not a single payer plan. The legislature was going to pass the legislation anyway. Once he discovered he was a conservative (i.e. when he had national ambitions), he disowned the plan.
All a good candidate like Romney has to do is focus on the actual problems the U.S. faces. If they explain their diagnosis and propose reasonable solutions, they've got a good chance of winning.
Those problems are:
1. Healthcare costs too much, about 1/3 more than Europe. Trump has made that worse with ACA sabotage. Start with a National Commission on Healthcare to get momentum around solutions.
2. We have about 30 million without healthcare coverage. Trump has made that worse with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Go back and expand the subsidies to a wider group of people.
3. We have high premature mortality, particularly in south-eastern states that did not expand Medicaid. By damaging the above two, Trump has made that worse. Encourage the governors to expand Medicaid in the 19 states that didn't expand, about 4 million people or so.
4. College costs too much and we don't have a process for life-long learning. Trump tried to do damage here, but I'm not sure if the final tax plan hurts or not. We can raise taxes on the rich to pay for tuition and trade school, with credits earned over time to support re-education or training.
5. Wages have stagnated for many workers. This is about income inequality, as we have record income and wealth. Higher taxes on the rich to pay for some of the above will help solve that problem, along with requiring wage increases before stock buybacks.
Real problems, real solutions, using the best science we have to fix them.
5
We studied the heck out of every issue on your list already. For decades.
And we had solutions, or more orecisely partial solutions that could be built on.
GUess what? frump's gleefully taking an axe to them.
With Mitt in the Senate and an unpopular presidency, we have the prospect of an interesting Republican presidential primary in 2020. Mike (Pence) vs. Mitt - both religious men who believe they’re on a mission from God - wonder which god wins? Or will the Devil’s Team, led by Steve Bannon, Trump them both.
4
Republican populism?
C'mon.
The closest that the Republicans have come to populism is with aspects of the Trump campaign strategy devised by Steve Bannon, namely protectionism and infrastructure spending.
Frankly, Bernie Sanders does populism better than the GOP ever will. As has Trump, the Republican Party reliably defaults to "slash and burn": meager tax cuts (at best) for the middle and working classes combined with massive decreases in domestic spending and threatened cuts to Social Security and Medicare, all to fund substantial tax cuts for the wealthiest. In other words: trickle down.
It's been close to 40 years since Ronald Reagan introduced trickle down. Save for a brief period in Reagan's first term, the policy hasn't worked. Recasting it as "populism" under Trump, Romney, Rubio or anyone else won't revive this tired and discredited approach.
What will grow the economy and the incomes of ordinary Americans? Federal investment that creates jobs, such as an infrastructure initiative.
9
Until Trump came along, I never saw anyone running for public office that lied like Mitt Romney. When Romney went to dinner with Trump in hopes of being his Secretary of State, whatever dignity the Romney had went down the toilet. Surely the good people of Utah deserve better.
10
I would not assume he will win.
Romney is damaged goods, and his shameless grovelling for Secy of State reveals he ultimately places his ambition over his values. In many ways he's "a young Orin Hatch " with a contrived Utah residency.
Trump and Bannon will smear him from the far right with their support of some deranged toady while the voters of Utah may well pivot to the center and support a Democrat.
5
Trump and Bannon couldn't even beat a Democrat in flipping ALABAMA, and you think these two geniuses are gonna take Mitt Romney in UTAH?
Being a hatchet-man for Bain Capital sure looks badder than giving rubber chicken speeches to Wall Street firms for a few hundred thou a pop.
4
If Ted Cruz can come around to Trump, so will Mitt. Anyways, Romney in 2012 got 47.1% of vote, Trump got 45.9% (Dukakis in 1988 46.1%).
Hope Democrats run a strong candidate, perhaps Mormon and Republican convert, who can appeal to people's decency, peace and sense for the environment which is very strong in Utah. Tellingly Salt Lake City went for HRC and has a lesbian mayor.
3
Who knows? Maybe Mitt will be elected senator and will then secure Trump to the roof of his car and deposit him some where in the deep woods of frozen New Hampshire.
1
Republican? "Pro-worker"? It is to laugh. Uproariously and incredulously.
3
If, in Ross's view, Rubio, Lee, and Cotton are the best "pro-worker" Republicans in the Senate, then the obvious next move by Trump will be his adoption of a Royal Purple rove with white ermine collar and cuffs and a scepter to wave, instead of his uppie-downie index and middle fingers, as he deigns to address his subjects. Mitt will be right at home.
2
Let's also dig into Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as VP running mate.
Ryan of the fake math budgets, slash social security and trash the workers fame.
Ryan of the 2017 tax reform fame.
Romney was not man enough to call out Trump, and he was not man enough to call out Republican policy hucksters.
What's left to like, exactly?
Decent, honorable, accomplished, yes. I'd love for Romney to be my neighbor, not my Senator. But if we have to have a Republican Senator from Utah, we could do much worse.
4
If Mitt Romney has learned anything, it's that having dinner with Donald Trump doesn't mean you'll get the job -- or be forgiven.
After all, this is a president who holds grudges and makes a list of his enemies.
So Mr. Romney will either have to dance to his tune, or end up like Seamus.
1
One of the first actions the Romney administration took in Massachusetts was to end MassHealth funding for psychiatric day treatment (an action reversed after massive and noisy protest). His contempt for our most vulnerable citizens renders him unfit for public service. Thumbs down.
3
If Romney wants to do some real good for America, he should admit the Obamacare and Romney care are close siblings.
3
Dear Ross
You forget that Romney didn’t want to release his tax returns either and after he did he defended his 13% “carried interest” tax rate as entirely appropriate for someone of his class and means. He was scathing about the 47% because -he said - they pay no taxes. That’s anther mainstream republican canard that is used to try to increase taxes on the poor and/or strip them of hard earned benefits like social security. When you add up real taxes no one pays less than Mitt Romney under Trump. . If you truly believe Mitt can pivot to being a man of and for the people there is a free bowl of young garlic soup with sautéed frogs legs going begging at your local three star Michelin restaurant, Jean Georges.
3
Congratulations Ross. You have now divorced yourself from the unholy union of corporatists and Roman Catholics. Abortion/Birth Control/Divorce issues were co-opted by the plutocrats and you fell for it. But the real goal was to destroy the power of the Federal Government and avoid taxes and regulations.
Results have been deathly: ruining public education, exploiting workers, and now tossing out all environmental responsibility. They have fostered false Christianity, racism, and hatred.
Sexual issues need to be private choices, Ross. Religion now must persuade. Christ rejected domination of the world and so must the church.
1
Romney cannot reach the 47% of the population who he identified as “takers”. He did kiss Trump’s ring twice. And he could easily have been the understudy for Barnum....just add a top hat.
Then there is the Mormon thing. The walking dead Christian Evangelicals who cling to Trump are tolerant of racism, sexism, sexual assaulters, and ignoramuses, but Mormons may not be able to make the cut. The subservient role of women common to Mormons and Evangelicals and Catholics does resonate but may not be enough. Those who find religious distinctions objectionable should consult all Muslims, and Buddhists for fairness rules.
Republicans who want a winner should read a biography of Eisenhower for a reference point of character and probity. Sadly, just seeing Gingrich on TV is enough for normal people to resign from the Republican Party. Rubio reminds us of the kid who never gets picked for the game even if it’s his ball. Cotton has $700,000 from Israel and penned the letter to the ayatollahs, and wants to fill Guantanamo, Mike Lee wants to repeal the 14th, 17th Amendments and make FEMA, Social Security, and the FDA unconstitutional. Love Ross’s choices!
3
I suspect he's learned that he can run successfully for the Senate in Utah, where there is a base of Mormon voters to back him.
2
I seem to recall the former Governor of Massachusetts brought his binder full of women to supplicate himself in front of Comrade in the Oval, seeking the position of Secretary of State.
Evidence, he has learned nothing.
The GOP is a criminal organization. This is what Romney and others are silent about and profit from.
1
A "pro-worker" Republican is a walking oxymoron.
2
Fact check, and I hope correct, 1,765 grandchildren.
I'll answer the somewhat rhetorical question. Romney has learned nothing. He's a #RINO cut from the same cloth as Douthat, Stephens, and Brooks. We'll all be somewhat less for Hatch's retirement.
1
Trump populism equals racism, hatred of non- Christians, stealing money from the poor and middle class to give it to the ultra wealthy, destroying the environment their children inherit, robbing their own children of schools and healthcare out of spite so black and brown children can't have it, decimating tourism from other countries that helped to fund our economy and our colleges, killing all hopes of their own low income wage increases, and perhaps most importantly, destroying faith in honest journalism so that they refuse to believe these rotten things Trump and his complicit GOP do to them...so that the 'populism' never ends.
2
The Republicans are doomed. Not quite like the dinosaurs but really, can their demented state and depravity get any worse? The rapidly changing demographics favor fair social management not "corporations are people", bought elections, gerrymandering and white man supremacy - the Republican Arsenal!
1
MR is a right wing ideologue who will never oppose Trump. Thinking so is a fool's errand. Hatch and Romney are Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
He's a glad hander happily accepting Trump's tax cut for the wealthy. His goal in life is to defund PBS. He's a real "visionary."
His VP choice was cipher Paul Ryan who lusts to destroy Medicare and Social Security.
2
republicans becoming genuinely pro-worker? Ha!
And rapists becoming genuinely pro-women?
And trump becoming genuinely pro-anybody-but-himself?
and douthat becoming genuinely pro-reality?
1
Wouldn't it be sweet if another deep red state elected a Democrat instead of Romney? Like winning the lotto.
2
The subtext and manipulative potential of this piece are disturbing, but on the surface, this is the most honest and insightful contribution that Douthat has ever offered.
Douthat is wrong: We do not need more like the extremist Sen. Tom Cotton, who violates our nation’s laws by conducting foreign policy contrary to that of the governing Administration, in direct communication with foreign powers.
3
Republicans haven't respected working Americans since Reagan. It was the same with the Bushes, and with Romney's 2012 campaign. Their tax policies redistribute wealth upward, they do nothing to help working families, and they attack the public institutions which we all rely on. Are you just criticizing Romney for being a Republican?
5
You've glossed Romney's biggest flaw -his seeming belief that the end justifies the means, where the means is his personal success and ascension to the presidency. I believe this is the central reason he lost the presidency -he had no apparent core beliefs (aside from the belief that he would be a good president) or if he did have core beliefs he was completely willing to claim otherwise to win. To someone familiar with his time as governor of Massachusetts, he came across as a shockingly Zelig-like and utterly fungible creature who was willing to deny reality as much as Trumo was. The plan he put together for MA health care, a Heritage Foundation-based set of ideas that formed the basis for ObamaCare, was something that he should have touted as a great example of his moderation and ability to get things done. Instead he ran as if he had never been governor and cynically denied that his plan has anything to do with Obamacare. This cynicism and denial of reality hurt him a lot among moderates and independents who saw someone who was willing to sacrifice every principle to win the nomination.
2
I was in Iowa during the Obama - Ryan campaign. Every where I went I saw nothing but Obama signs. This was in white blue collar farm country. In a restaurant where the debates were playing on the big screen white men in overalls and John Deer hats were booing Romney. Being from the rich suburbs outside of Atlanta where Obama signs were rare this was quite a sight to say the least.
Romney has an elitist problem. The 47% comment played well with the white collar crowd living off their dividends. But it enraged the working class.
Romney didn't get it them so what makes anybody think he gets it now?
5
Mitt Romney, for me at least, will remain the uber rich man who said that 47% of us are moochers and takers who feel entitled to welfare and expect handouts from the government. While it may be that 47% of Americans don't pay income taxes they do pay payroll, sales, and other local taxes. And they are often elderly, poor, handicapped, or not making a decent salary while working full time. Romney is the man who endorses keeping people poor in order that he and others like him can remain rich. The GOP is the party of rich white males who lack any compassion or understanding for lives that don't look like theirs.
They are incapable of thinking outside their own frame of reference. They have no idea what it's like to search for a job and not find one, to have a handicapped relative that needs constant care, or a handicapped child who will need constant care that the government refuses to provide at an affordable price, to be harassed by law enforcement for being the wrong skin color or religion. They have never removed the silver spoon from their mouths to see what disappointment, depression, or frustration taste like when lived day by day.
The GOP is destroying America for most Americans. The "tax overhaul" was the start. Next, with Romney's able assistance, they will gut every social program that helps us because little people don't deserve any help: only the uber rich deserve it.
11
Mitt is the exact opposite of Donald in at least this regard - Mitt is at his worst when campaigning and at his best when he gets down to work. When campaigning, he morphs into all kinds of Mitts because he struggles to get "approval". As for getting "clicks", he has absolutely no idea. But, give him a job and he will roll up his sleeves and do it and likely do it well. Here in Massachusetts, 98% of us have health insurance because of RomneyCare. Romney is a fiscal conservative but one who, unlike the Republican majority, is willing to address social issues i.e., willing to do the whole job. And, it's very unlikely that any of Romney's sons have been hanging around with Russians.
4
The only thing they have in common is both Trump and Romney don’t drink alcohol. Romney’s gets his caffeine from chocolates and trump gets his from drinking obnoxious quantities of Diet Coke. No recreationally drugs either. They both put business before people although for Romney family is more (important than people but his vulture capitalism cancels that as well)
1
I was wondering when someone would raise the famous “47 percent” remark, because the newly passed GOP tax bill will increase that percentage.
1
I doubt that Romney thinks about anything but himself . He is a mega narcissist who uses good deeds and political speeches to get attention.mIn the Nd he would just sell out to the highest bidder...
1
Hey Ross,
You know what you call someone who is genuinely pro-worker?
A Progressive Democrat
8
The race to fill the one seat in Utah will be entertaining for sure. Will Trump throw his support to Romney's challenger(s), assuming there is at least one Bannon-backed sycophant in the race? Or will he mend, at least temporarily, the fences and support Mitt? Perhaps another lavish dinner similar to the one where Trump dangled the Sec of State job at him, only to pull it back whenMitt reached for it?
2
Mitt Romney – he has learned how to debate.
In 1994, Mitt ran against Ted Kennedy for a US Senate seat in Massachusetts. Prior to the first debate at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall, some polls had Romney in the lead.
The debate took place on October 25 and those of us watching on TV were stunned by Romney’s under performance. As the NY Times noted, “Mr. Kennedy managed to make his opponent look inexperienced in the intricacies of Federal finance and the way legislation is enacted. He forced Mr. Romney to admit he did not know how much his ideas on health care would cost.”
Did not know about costs – and he a businessman? It was weird.
Subsequent polls saw Kennedy move out strongly in front and he took the race 58 – 41 on November 8.
As a side note, we were still in an era when debates were civil. Ted Kennedy with his “baggage” from Chappaquiddick, his first wife wanting to open their divorce settlement and his being at the bar in Florida with his nephew the night in 1991 when the latter was accused of rape (although he was acquitted of all charges) - ran the risk of receiving cheap shots.
Mitt didn’t bring any of this up. I doubt if he would today. Mr. Trump, on the other hand…..
3
One wonders if a Mitt Romney can bring the Republican senate back to its senses. With people like McConnell in charge it's quite likely that either Romney will be muzzled considerably when he takes his seat or that he will intensify the civil war going on within the party. There is a third possibility and that is that he will become a Collins/McCain/Corker/Murkowski Republican in which he tees off on his party while voting along with it in every instance.
Remember this?
"Corporations are people, too, my friend."
4
This statement completely flies in the face of reality " Right now there is a small caucus in the Republican Party for a different way, for a conservatism that seeks to cure itself of Romney Disease by becoming genuinely pro-worker..."
Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Tom Cotton - pro worker? Seriously??? Base on what pro-worker actions?
4
If Romney had as much integrity as suggested here, he wouldn't have flip-flopped on the question of whether it's acceptable to encourage people without health insurance to get treatment in hospitals. For Governor Romney, it was unacceptable, for presidential candidate Romney, it became the preferred policy.
1
"...which would mean steering a different and more populist course..."
Ross, if by "populist" you mean the dwindling 35% of folks that still support Trump, I think you need to go back and study mathematics. This is a minority of voters. And, keep in mind that the base will probably not move much lower even in impeachment for Trump. Even Nixon, the day he resigned, still had a "silent majority" of 25% of voters' support.
1
Ross, fact check, since when did 23 = 1,765? Where did that 4 digit number originate? Governor Mitt Romney holds an important position in the Mormon Church. Does that mean the number of progeny is of Biblical proportions like the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of Ancient Israel? Has Governor Romney become a legend in his own time? And what will 45 say about the number of progeny in his family given his tendency to exaggerate for the purpose of self-flattery; 1,766?
1
As to Mr. Douthat's last paragraphs, the Republican Party, and its conservatives in particular, will and could never, ever be "pro-worker."
The Republican Party has defined itself by fighting against everything any worker could ever need, like a decent minimum wage, health and safety workplace standards, child care/sick leave, pension plans, health insurance, and protection from corporations who send their jobs oversees (after making workers train their replacements).
Mitt Romney and his binders full of women, his grovelling at Trump's feet for an appointment, and his disparaging, disrespectful remarks about the 47% (that would be workers, by the way) make him the poster child for the GOP: rich, white, privileged, Christian male who has never had to get a real job on his own in his entire life. In other words, Trump Lite.
4
By insisting on the fantasy that Trump rose on a wave of economic populism, Douthat completely misses the lessons that Romney, or anyone else, should learn from that rise. I certainly understand that Douthat doesn't want to think of his party as the party of white nationalism, but the fact is that Trump rose on a wave of white nationalism - the defense of traditional white male cultural supremacy against the incursions of the "other," the emblematic incursion being the tenure of an African-American president. Had Obama never been president, Trump would not be president, and pretending that economics had anything to do with it is worse than useless.
Moreover, the insight (hindsight?) that Romney could have won on economic populism is founded on the fantasy that Romney could have convinced the electorate that he was the opposite of who he actually is. Voters would have seen straight through the ruse, and Romney's loss would have been a landslide.
I would prefer that Romney learn this lesson: if the Affordable Care Act was a good idea when it was Romneycare, then it's a good idea when it's Obamacare. Romney should stop running from his own legacy and embrace the ACA.
Unfortunately, I see no reason to believe that Romney has learned anything at all since 2012. Indeed, it's only because he failed to get Trump's appointment as secretary of state that we're even having this conversation.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
4
Shall we place bets on Romney's chances of becoming a "thoughtful Republican" (an oxymoron these days)? I would bet about $1. His predecessor, who'd been somewhat thoughtful, certainly jumped into the gutter with relish. Trump has brought out all of their true colors. Not a pretty sight but at least an honest one.
2
At this point I'd happily take back an old-fashioned Republican -- hailing from a religion with a history of hateful bigotry, motivated by misguided disdain for those less fortunate than he is, but pragmatic, fiscally responsible and possessing undeniable administrative skills. If this is what Douthat calls "honor, decency and serious accomplishment," it's certainly something the GOP has not seen for a while. Maybe Democrats should welcome the person that implemented the precursor to Obamacare.
1
"Maybe Democrats should welcome the person that implemented the precursor to Obamacare."
Agreed (originally from MA). But is that person still alive somewhere, deep, down inside of Mitt Romney? That's the question.
"If Romney joins the Utah Senate race...he could also perform a service by showing that he has learned something from watching Trumpism succeed...whic would mean sterring a different and more populist course."
Ross, have you bought into Trump's brand of populism? What is it? Talking tough against trade? Salvaging a few hundred jobs in Indiana...at taxpayer expense? Talking about abandoned factories and ravaged towns and then taking what action? Giving a tax cut to corporations that is almost a 50% reduction and then finding a way to give a measley 2% raise to middle class Americans?
Republicans and Trump believe that by merely mentioning the beleaguered American worker they have done something for him/her. SAD!!!
3
Romney might be the methadone the GOP requires to survive its fatal Trump addiction and return to Kasich sobriety.
2
"Republicans for 21st Century Reality with a Plan to Ensure America Exists in the 22nd Century"....of course, if they embraced the ideas necessary to fulfill that slogan, they'd no longer be "republicans". Let your party die, just die and go away: give the Nation a chance to heal, to find its way back to truth, facts, science, education, kindness, good faith, fair play, fairness and that revolutionary notion that the Union exists to promote the "general welfare" of the nation, that government "is the people" not "the enemy of the people". "We The People" the document says..and it is does not go on to say "and our Corporate Brethren Wannabe Overlords"...although that's where it's at. Get back to me when "The Party" gets over itself, its greed and need for power at any cost. Time for "republican leadership" to each do a year of "Trading Places".....you can call it a "national service".
3
Romney, another silver-spoon-in-his-mouth kid like Ryan and Trump, will be an enthusiastic participant in Ryan's efforts to take financial support away from the 47% of Americans that are lazy moochers (the poor and middle class).
2
Here's a guy who was born into enormous wealth, never took a real risk his entire life and who openly admitted to his "base" (during the 2012 presidential race) that 47% of Americans are freeloaders. One can't come up with a more vile, dis-compassionate, anti-populist individual than Mitt Romney.
To underline the quote from "the Romney Disease," - You bet the public "still rejects them (him) because they find their ideas even more unpleasant than Donald Trump's odious personality." Anyone paying attention knows that Romeny, Trump, Ryan, McConnell and all the rest of the republican elites couldn't care less about people and, indeed, if you are really paying attention you would know that Romney's ideas are as anti-populist as it comes. He can't help it because he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth and knows nothing about the struggles of normal people. To him, we are nothing but takers, low-lifes and parasites.
Allow me to answer Douthat's question: Why shouldn't the cure for Romney Disease begin with Mitt himself? Answer: Because he's a soulless oligarch whose most passionate ambition is to be president someday. He's just like the power-drunk, man-child whose currently in office.
2
Once upon a time I thought Mitt Romney was a good and decent man, one who could be counted on to do the right and honorable thing when the chips were down. But he gave lie to all that when he denigrated his own state’s popular and successful healthcare law just because Obama copied it, when he groveled for a shot as Secretary of State at the feet of a man he convincingly said her deplored, when he divided the American populace into “makers and takers” with cold, surgical steel.
The American public is so thirsty for true leadership—leadership of integrity, leadership of honor—we are to the point of drinking the sand, to paraphrase the speech in the movie. But like Corker, when personal wealth or ambition are at stake, when push really comes to shove, Romney is all sand. And contrary to what the movie president said, the majority of us do know the difference.
4
Mitt Romney lost to the most vulnerable incumbent since Hoover. Hillary Clinton lost to a buffoon. It's not at all clear that either major party has taken a lesson from those humiliations.
The great discontent of the Trump voter is that we had a Black president and that other minorities, especially Latinos and Muslims are in the U.S. in greater numbers. Will Romney welcome all people to the U.S. and tell the Trump voter the truth?
1
Compared to Trump, Romney looks pretty good right now. However, I remember the "you didn't build that" smear/lie that was the main message of his campaign. He chose Paul Ryan as his VP and hammered home his favor for "job creators." He also lied repeatedly about Benghazi and a host of other issues. He is at his core a liar and an opportunist. He will win in UT and will conform nicely to the new fascist GOP. As you state, there are few Republicans who are genuinely populist or care about the working class. So he won't have to work too hard in his sweet retirement gig. I bet he's bummed he wasn't in there to vote for the tax heist.
1
Wait a second! Did I just come across an enormous typo? And if not, a statement in this article deserves some detailed explaining. I know Mormons often have lots of children, but the in-passing mention that Romney has 1,765 grandchildren calls for further details. How many children does Mitt have? And how many children does each of his kids have? If Romney is solely responsible for a massive population explosion, the rest of us need to know how he did it.
Wait! Isn't this the guy that they photographed GROVELING to Trump about the Secretary of State job? This man has no integrity just like the rest of the Never Trumpers who moaned about how horrible a president he would be but then changed their tune when they realized they could line their pockets and those of their donors and friends with a lavish tax giveaway.
1
Romney is the solution for nothing. As a life long citizen of Massachusetts I know that the ex Gov is as two faced as every other of the Zombies that call themselves Republicans. I refer to them as Zombies because they are the walking dead. Persons without souls. Paul Ryan has voted to repeal the school lunch program, stating that we may be giving them food, but in doing so we are helping them lose their souls. These are elementary school students who are in need of a good meal in order to concentrate and learn. This is probably the one good meal they get each day. Then he calls himself a Christian. Romney and his crew of high earning Republicans passed "Obama Care" in Massachusetts and then later turned his back on it when he ran for President. While Governor, he attacked the brother of criminal and removed him from being the head of Mass' highly successful University system, solely for political reasons and with no evidence the man did anything wrong, except being born Whitey Bulger's brother. Mr. Romney's 47% quote exhibits his real self. Romney as a populist? It would be another lie.
If you want a man who made his money buying business, selling their assets and closing them, all while putting thousands of people out of work, then he is your man.
2
How do you spell ''carpetbagger?" That's easy, M-I-T-T--R-O-M-N-E-Y. Truly, an opportunist at heart. One thing for sure, he won't be able to blame another carpetbagger, Hillary Clinton, for all of the country's problems, since he will be accused of hypocrisy. If he cares.
2
I sometimes wondered how much of Romney's "Please The Party" position was rooted in a sub-conscious need to "Make Dad Proud". The pattern seems to fit: Ignore, disregard, or play down one's real accomplishments while feverishly monitoring the position of the needle on the parental approval meter. In this case, the Republican establishment having replaced Father George.
Nevertheless, given the current state of the Republican Party I find myself in an alliance with Ross Douthat that, a mere 3 years ago, I would not have thought possible. Small steps toward redemption, indeed, when Mitt Romney is the bellwether of Republican salvation.
I know people like Romney. Good parents, hard workers, honest, faithful spouses.
And they say things like, "my kid's not going to a state university. No matter what."
Or "you don't want to be like the losers making $50 an hour."
They use the word "loser" freely and frequently. And the word means "not like them." Or their families. Or their friends.
On a personal basis, they are great. As national representatives, they are repulsive.
25
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the most successful mutual aid society in the US. This cult was invented become its own government.
I am not consoled by the thought that our best hope lies with a man like Mitt Romney whose integrity is fluid, who seems to have very few positions on anything that are not subject to change as he tries to discern which way the political winds are blowing. Unfortunately, his judgment is often flawed and he ends up just doing damage and making a fool of himself.
I suppose that, set beside Trump, Romney might look like a hero. But, oh dear, has it come to this?
8
Everywhere one looks the "elites" are systemically incapable of understanding this "populist" thing they're up against. Gob-smacked, un-comprehending, confused.
Left or right, young or old, even among my own friends and family.
What a strange moment in history!
2
I don't see anything redeeming about this man's policies, religion, or world view. He is just another moralistic, conservative poser. He might be a little more dignified than Trump (who isn't?), but he has always been, and will always be, another Republican puppet of wealth and privilege.
22
At this point, I don't think there is a Republican "way" that Romney can hang a hat on. I can't see Romney going full force after entitlements given his background, not follow Trump's methods (can anyone?), so less regulations business oriented person.
No matter what path he takes if he makes it to the Senate (another presidential run later, anyone?) he is much better for a progressive person to accept that most Republicans since I don't see how any Democrat can win in Utah.
2
When is the Times going to hire a conservative commentator? This column sadly capitulates to liberalism’s goals and forsakes the party’s libertarian roots. No Ross, we don’t need another RINO, someone who will give a pseudo conservative stamp to program or entitlement this and that. We need fewer programs, entitlement cuts, more individual responsibility, including the ability to fail, and less progressive taxes allowing individuals to keep their own money and not be penalized for success.
2
But libertarians are simple minded, reducing complexities to over simplified caricatures. It is not a workable, nor desirable ideology. So we do need to set them on the margins.
1
Yes, we've seen how wonderful the "libertarian" approach works: Kansas. And Paul Ryan's still pining for Randian America. Both are fiction.
2
"Pro-worker" is the opposite of the extreme. Socialism and Communism are "pro-worker" (at least it is what they claim). I want a President pro-American dream. Complencency and entitlements are huge problems. People are losing the can-do spirit. "Not-my-fault" and "not me" are the common excuses. Somebody made a false claim that loyalty was dead. Now, everyone is trying to make the most by doing the least. I just don't believe any company will fire a loyal, proactive and productive worker who takes care of the interests of company and who constantly learns new skills and knowledge. Of course business must generate profits. One of the best ways to cut cost is to hire the right people. Because of labor laws, hiring contractors initially makes sense. But it should not become a cost-saving business strategy.
I miss the good old days too, when people honestly work hard and American dream was the force of upward mobility. Now, the country is divided into different tribes and each tribe is taking care of their own interests. This is wrong and stupid. For big coporations, wake up. Do you really want a revolution? Have some decencies and treat workers and consumers better. Even parasite knows not to kill its host!
The best pro-worker policy is to cure the crony capitalism disease. I encourage people to watch "Saving Capitalism". I am for capitalism. But what we have is crony capitalism instead.
2
You first argue that hard work is rewarded, then illustrate that in today's world that, indeed, is not the case. And the GOP further has enshrined that reality with a masterful heist of taxpayer dollars to reward corporate and oligarch greed where those who actually don't do what America used to consider real, honest work, giving more of the Welch to money changers and hedge fund champions.
Romney is a true political player. He will win the Utah senate seat when Hatch retires and then become John McCain #2; I do not like or trust him. He is a has been but will lead to the demise of the republican party. He is a true phony.
5
He’s learned it’s time to jump on the gravy train.
4
Mitt is out to save the party from itself.
He should take a page from the AA handbook “ an addict won’t help themselves till there is no other choice and they hit rock bottom.
The bartender Donald is still serving... “belly up to the bar and have a tall one” I say.
Utah is a dry state only in humor.
2
Even the modest praise awarded Mitt Romney here is too much. Romney is no different from other Republicans in his support of tax policies that favor the rich, and his business strategies have too often featured punishing policies toward working people in order to fatten profits before "harvesting" companies that were bought cheap. It's too much of a stretch to imagine Romney truly noble after he groveled before Trump's offer of a job in his administration. Romney, like other members of the Republican establishment, is still smarting from the Trump smackdown. It's his ego that's wounded, not any sense that the party itself needs a new platform. Most of all, establishment Republicans hate looking in the mirror that is Donald Trump, because his daily presence reveals the truth of who they are and what they stand for.
7
So Romney valorized entrepreneurs, ignored ordinary workers, and wrote off struggling Americans as losers? That's simply the Republican agenda. There's a reason the pro-worker caucus in the Republican party is so small, as Mr. Douthat notes. Republicans have always praised entrepreneurs and have never supported policies to help workers, while advertising their contempt for poor people.
Trump didn't just come out of nowhere to take over the Republican party.
7
Exactly. Ross names several "for the people" supposed members of congress. Their voting records align with the rest of the GOP. Maybe not on the con man level of the con man in chief, but, when it comes to their actual jobs, they line up with the oligarchs and vote the company line. Trump may be unfiltered, but he's GOP for me all the way.
Sometimes I wonder where Ross Douthat comes up with these ideas. There is no such thing as "Romneyism" -- that's as much a Republican invention as Clinton "colluding" with the Russians. Unreal. Yes, Romney put his foot in his mouth in 2012, but he was a typical Republican nominee going back to Gerald Ford, excepting, possibly Reagan himself. But Ford, Bush 41, Dole, Bush 43, McCain, and Romney ALL followed the GOP mainstream path.
If ANYTHING is "Romneyism", it's Obamacare, because the ACA was formulated by the Heritage Foundation as an alternative to Single Payer, and was test-driven, successfully, in Massachusetts under Gov. Romney.
Realistically, there's no way that Senate seat in Utah can be turned blue, though the 50 state, 435 House Seat Strategy calls for a solid meaningful challenge. But given the odds against it, Romney is certainly a far, FAR better choice as far as Liberals and Democrats go than the perpetually 2-faced Orrin Hatch, or the extremist Tea Partier, Mike Lee.
I'm not sorry to see Hatch's back, and, I think, for the nation, if Utah cannot send a Democrat, Mitt Romney is probably by far their best for the rest of us.
3
I thought the idea was to get rid of these antiquated politicians and return to a simpler America. Why would anyone consider a failed politician to be put in a position that if he wins would be nearly impossible to remove?
1
"And his willingness to re-enter public service at a time when other Trump-skeptical Republicans are running for the exits..."
Funny how the 67-74 year old Hillary, Biden, Sanders and Warren are continuously described by the MSM as too old and out of touch for our times, but the 70 year old Romney is full of "spiritedness" and "pretty boy" looks.
Marco Rubio is totally bought and paid for by billionaire Norman Braman (former owner of the Phily Eagles) right down to a job for his wife and, literally, food on the Rubio table.
Tom Cotton is even more in collusion with the enemies of America than Trump, having sent a letter signed by every Republican senator to the ayatollahs in Iran telling them to ignore President Obama because any overtures he makes, they will reject.
Mike Lee? Wasn't he the guy who, after the Access Hollywood video, said he would not support Trump but then did support him?
Conservative like Douthat need to stop with the fake news that there is anywhere one can look in the Republican party and find honor, decency or accomplishment.
5
"have learned little from the way he beat them and then beat the Democrats" It is false that Trump won because somehow he tapped into something valid in the minds of voters. It has been shown that his voters were not convinced by conservative principles, or a concern for the 'little guy'. They had a correct belief that, by and large, white people were losing their majority status, and Trump, by any means possible, could protect that status. There were no grand principles involved, unless lies and propaganda are high-mindedness. This is important for conservative Republican politicians to get; someone has to tell the electorate the truth about how our country and culture is changing, and lead them through these changes. Someone has to tell them that America is still great and not given over to dark voices because gays, woman, and people of color are now in positions of power. One of the dumbest things Russ and other conservatives have asserted is a belief we are in a post Christian America. Really? We are not following Jesus because we are striving for inclusion of those who have been systematically excluded? You will not be excluded from Heaven because you baked a cake for gay couples. Heavens tasks are far more difficult than this; loving your neighbor as yourself does not mean excluding them on some cooked up principle, that is meant only to protect status. Trump appealed to the worst possible traits in us imaginable; stop saying he saw something important in the voters.
6
The most devastating assessment of Mitt Romney (back in 2012) came from The Economist.
They asked some lady her opinion of Mr. Romney. "He looks" she replied, "like one of those corporate types that fly into town--announce the closing of a local factory (that supported half the town)--then flies out."
Ouch.
To say nothing of that notorious 47% speech!
Mr. Ryan, I believe, has publicly disavowed the so-called philosophy of Ayn Rand. Well--YA THINK? He is, after all, Roman Catholic. Ms. Rand was an atheist. OBVIOUS PROBLEM HERE.
But in a deeper sense--as you remind us, Mr. Douthat--the philosophy of Ayn Rand HAUNTS today's GOP. A detestable philosophy! Not only the atheist part. EVERYTHING. A philosophy that falls down and worships our rich people. The rain-makers. The doers. The creative people. The Atlas's--ever repressing (or not repressing) that inveterate urge to shrug.
And the rest of us?
Don't ask.
How this odious mindset can be expunged--extirpated--eliminated I don't know. I have heard no mea culpa's--mea maxima culpa's from any prominent Republicans. Maybe you have, Mr. Douthat. Maybe I just wasn't listening.
But I'm afraid my hope (not meaning to sound cruel or uncharitable)--my hope is: these guys get CREAMED in election after election. That the voters of America rise up and throw 'em out of office.
Now THAT'D bring about some change, I'm thinking.
I'm hoping.
3
There have not -- in any material or economic sense-- been any genuinely pro-worker Republicans since the death of Republican moderate New Dealers like Dewey and Eisenhower that ended somewhere between Goldwater-64 and Reagan-80. Not smiley neo-liberals like Jack Kemp. Not militarist Keynesians like Reagan. Not the fetus demagogues. None.
4
Mitt Romney is not the answer for Utah nor for the United States. Romney has the "disease" and it is incurable. The 47% line is there to stay.
2
I don't know if Douthat really believes the GOP can actually turn around, but the reality is that the best we're likely to get out of them is Trump Lite: talking a populist game, and then promptly ignoring the needs of the working class once in office, but without the repulsiveness of Trump. They'll put the bullhorn back in the closet, and pull out the dog whistle again. But at the end of the day, they will remain unwilling to actually do anything to meet the economic needs of the bottom 95%. Because doing anything substantive to create good jobs, shore up SS, Medicare, Medicaid, and improve access to decent education would require raising taxes on the wealthy, shoring up unions, and enforcing labor laws. None of which is going to happen as long as the possibility of getting primaried by billionaire funded astroturf-roots supported candidates.
3
I’m a Democrat. I trust Romney. He got elected Governor of Massachusetts, not a small success in Kennedy, Catholic and Harvard University country. What bothers me about Mitt isn’t whether he’d be a good Senator, he’d be as good as any that are in DC now, it’s who he’d take direction from, the people or his Mormon Church. There’s no doubt in my mind that, if elected Utah’s Senator, he’d be on the phone with the higher-ups in the Mormon Church, and they’d be subtly telling him the Church’s position on issues. That’s the way it is in Utah now. The Mormon Church says it stays out of politics yet the Utah State Legislature, ninety percent Mormon, will not go against the Church. Utah is a political theocracy. Romney needs to be clear who he represents, how he’d handle Mormon Church pressure, a question the press dodged when he ran for a President.
2
In recent years, Massachusetts has had Republican governors besides Romney - including today. Don't give him credit for being an exception. We already have a "businessman" in the White House. Mitt may have more self-control, but, like the others, how likely as a senator would he be to oppose policy Trump supports. The fraud of a tax cut bill - which likely will benefit Mitt's net worth, still passed with every GOP senate vote. So much for not-Trump.
Perhaps enough of the same names and faces.
I feel about this news the same way I feel about Dianne Feinstein (D) of California running again for her senate seat. How can you develop a new generation of leadership when the same tired actors are continually recycled?
4
In outlook, ideas, and worldview, Romney is more suited, not to be president of the United States, but of the local Chamber of Commerce.
4
I find it exceedingly strange that Douthat and his ilk are now trying to convince us (and perhaps themselves) that Republicans actually are pro-worker. Come now, do you really think Mike Lee is pro-worker? This is the latest refuge of some of the scoundrels who realize that there is no path forward for their beliefs or their party. If they can only convince the Trump supporters that they are some sort of populist for poor white people, they might be able to regain some power. And as for Romney being some sort of principled country club Republican, dream on. The only defining characteristic of Romney's character is an abiding willingness to do anything to gain elected office. And that includes prostrating himself before Trump.
2
The effort of conservatism to become genuinely pro-worker is destined to fail. Fundamentally, the programs favored by the conservatives disfavor workers and favor capital. Its all window dressing designed to build an election base which will allow them to do what Donnie is doing. Let's take stock:
Draining the swamp- (the conservative swamp isn't the league of lobbyists we progressives see, but the career federal workforce.) CHECK
Reduce federal regulations across the board. CHECK
Reduce taxes on the upper income earners and those who get income from capital, not labor. CHECK
Increase the spending on the military-industrial complex. CHECK
Eliminate the backlog of judicial appointment artificially created by McConnell with extreme conservative men who will act as a backstop for their policies. CHECK
The caucus in the Republican Party might not like the overt racist signaling and efforts by Donnie. They also might not like the cozy, and treasonous relationship between Donnie and Vlad, by hey, they got a bunch of judges, some of which are qualified and a tax cut.
If there are conservatives who believe trickle-down or other pro-worker policies put forward by their party they are fools and not to be given any type of influence or power.
3
There is little doubt that Romney would win an election in Utah given he has the right credentials-membership in the domineering faith, white, male and a political hack who will go the direction the political winds blow him.
He will succumb to the Trump con game and fear the tweet as many other politicians that belong to the party of Trump.
4
"The best of the current Republicans (the Paul Ryans"?
If he's one of the best I can't think of anyone worse.
Isn't this the same Paul Ryan that wants to take away the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? I've never been a big fan of yours, Ross but you have lost me for good unless of course I want to have a good laugh..
4
Ambition, ambition, ambition. Despite his excoriating attacks on Trump( a "fraud" whose word is as "useless" as a degree from Trump University, etc., etc. ) he willingly prostrated himself before Trump in an attempt to be nominated as Secretary of State. Why would anyone at his age, with an ailing spouse no less, wish to enter the current dysfunctional Republican asylum?
Romney has never put his loss to Barack Obama forever in his rear view mirror. He desperately thirsts for a second political act. His so-called "conservatism" is as malleable as the shocking disavowal of his signature Massachusetts health care act when he ran for President. Just another empty, but well-tailored suit.
There's one thing some of these comments illustrate: people have really short memories! Politicians probably depend on it. All of a sudden Mitt Romney is a "decent, principled man" - well, he probably hasn't assaulted any women, perhaps that's sadly all many of us require nowadays.
However, what I remember about "Mr. 47 Percent" is that he flip-flopped on every issue almost every day. It was hard to tell what he stood for, seemed to be related to the latest poll numbers. Then, after "refuting Trump," he groveled to him, hoping to become Secretary of State. I don't accept these "Not As Bad As Trumps" -- even though about 90 percent of politicians are that. Have we forgotten what a representative with consistent principles is?
And, Ross, you lost all credibility with your last paragraph, extolling the regressive Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton and Mike Lee as some kind of hope for the future. It says to me that if we were in a safer conservative zone -- that is, if we didn't have an insane man as president, your true reactionary Republican views would again come out.
5
We learned the truth about Romney when he thought the microphones were turned off. Did he learn to make sure they are off so we won't know what he is thinking?
2
Romney cannot save the GOP's soul if he remains beholden to the donor class who push tax and government policies of heads they win, tales we lose. I abhor Trump, but have no illusions that the tax scam just passed would have been the same under Jeb, Rubio or Cruz. I hope Romney lives up to the hype that he is honorable. I fear, however, that he is simply opportunistic, as demonstrated by his shameless shift to the right in 2012 and his near groveling to be Trump's Secretary of State.
As a student of history I find that a very unfortunate aspect of human behavior is that people will follow a mentally ill leader into destruction. Why? Why does an intelligent and productive society willingly destroy itself?
As a hard-core lefty, I never thought I would be rooting for Romney.
The question is whether he would continue to stand up to Trump, or whether he would start licking his boots, like all the other so called principled Republicans.
Given the complete lack of backbone and principles Republicans have shown in Trump’s presence, I am not optimistic.
2
Ross has correctly diagnosed some of the underlying causes of Romney Disease: the malignant Republican policies that have allowed a parasite like Trump to latch on to the electorate. But the cure—organizing a pro-worker faction within the party—seems too little too late and too great a stretch . . . like treating bone cancer with cough syrup.
1
Mitt Romney is an empty suit, an abject opportunist, a man who condemned Trump as a fraud and then begged Trump for a Cabinet post. His business career consisted of stripping companies of their assets, loading them with debt and selling them in markets that were rigged to rise. He keeps his vast wealth in Switzerland and off-shore tax havens. Like Trump, he refused to release his tax returns. If he is elected to the Senate, he will follow the Republican line that rich people don't have enough money and that poor people have too much. Of course, he may lose, because even in Utah obvious phonies seldom succeed.
"The 2012 G.O.P. presidential nominee is a man of honor, decency and serious accomplishment."
Really? Really, Mr. Douthat? I must be confused. I actually thought this was the guy who went to Trump and asked, on bended knee, not only for money, but for his endorsement, as well. Silly me.
Mitt Romney will make a few pointed comments about Trump and then support 100% of the time Trump’s agenda. He’s a paper tiger just like Corker and Flake. There are no decent people in the GOP and the conservative movement. An agenda devoted to racism, intolerance, misogyny, greed, homophobia and religious fanaticism tends to destroy people’s souls.
1
Romney's no white knight!
Mitt did nasty things via Bain Capital, including taking over businesses and throwing people out of work.
He delivered his well-crafted, totally factual, and scathing critique of Trump ON THE DAY OF A PRIMARY, not the week before when it could have sunk in and stopped Trump's momentum. Why?!
After all that, and taking the moral high road, and rightfully decrying Trump's immorality, narcissism, vice, lying, and deceit, he still foolishly groveled to try to become Secretary of State, when it was obvious to most onlookers that Trump was doing it to humiliate Romney, not to consider him seriously.
Nevertheless, Romney is smarter, better informed, and more principled than most of the Republican cretins now running Congress. He ran Massachusetts well. After all, his state Romneycare became Obamacare!
He should run, win a Senate seat, and be a thorn in Trump's side, checking his excesses (well, everything Trump does is an excess), and working with Democrats to restore something of a moderate agenda.
I am confident he would vote to convict Trump, if he were impeached by the House! And, that is a good thing, even for us progressives!
The one campaign stop that I will never forget from the 2012 election is the one with Romney standing in front of the hospital in Detroit where he was born and saying that there is no doubt as to where he was born. Without saying that Obama was not born in the USA, he nonetheless, got that little barb in there. He let the lie stand. When you know the birther theory is a lie, it is worse to let the lie stand. Sorry Mitt, you did it.
1
Asking the Republicans to be a pro-worker party is like asking a pig to sprout wings and fly. The Republican Party has been owned and operated by big business since the days of Rutherford B. Hayes. Acting-President Trump is just the latest manifestation. And as for Rubio and Lee: didn't they spend the last year supporting Trump's agenda, including trying to end the Affordable Care Act and voting for the egregious so-called tax reform? That's some pro-worker agenda, Ross.
2
"What has Mitt Romney Learned?" He's learned that if you stick around long enough people will forget why they hated you, especially in times like these.
The real questions are:
What has the Republican Party learned?
Have the reasons for Trump's rise evaporated?
Why does Mitt Romney look good only now?
Why are the establishments of both parties intent on recycling old products at a time when it's screamingly obvious, the populace is so desperately sick to death of them, they elected Donald Trump as their president.
How much louder do they have to scream before the Masters of the Universe hear them?
Mitt Romney looks good in a suit, has a ruggedly handsome presidential demeanor, will not offend the donor class, and endeavor to stifle his tendency to offend the other ones. What more can you ask in times like these?
83
Recall how Romney staggered around Europe from one banana peel to another insulting our allies?
Romney will remind us why he was so disliked in fairly short order.
I'm not sure Romney can learn enough to overcome his prior positions:
Energy - he is not sure the climate is changing, and if it is, is skeptical of the human contribution to it; he favors increasing drilling for oil and gas, including offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; favors increased permitting of drilling and mining and foresting on public lands; he opposed the EPA's increased fuel efficiency standards; he called for increased coal production (Energy Plan released 2012)
Healthcare - he called Obamacare an unconscionable abuse of power and has dedicated himself to it's repeal while offering no alternate plan; he favors expanding "health care savings accounts" without realizing most people have no money to save - or that any amount saved would be eaten up rapidly at current medical costs; he wants to keep the private sector health insurance system - with increased competition - forgetting that it was this sector that created the mess that Obamacare sought to solve.
Medicare - "for those under age 55 as of its enactment, it would replace the existing Medicare system with a system where the government pays vouchers (also referred to as premium-support subsidies) to Medicare beneficiaries, who could use them to either buy private medical insurance or to obtain coverage in a plan similar to traditional Medicare." A hypothetical Medicare plan along the lines of Romney would raise premiums for nearly 6 out of 10 seniors.
So much to learn, so little effort.
20
There is little doubt that Mr. Romney can have the senate seat if he chooses. Will it be for 2 years and then the presidential election? It may be the saving act of the Republican party in 2020.
3
Who is Mitt Romney? As a Massachusetts resident, I recall when he ran for governor as a moderate - the only position that a Republican in this blue state can take if they hope to win. He supported and helped implement a universal health care program that became the model for the ACA, and when he did that he seemed to understand the economics and common sense of mandating that everyone have health insurance. But when he ran for president in 2012, it all changed. His views were not so moderate, and it was amusing, although sad, to see the gyrations he went through to disavow his health insurance achievement. Yes - he has spoken against Trump, and certainly brings a more reasonable sanity than many of the Republicans in the senate. But which Romney will we get? Is there a real Mitt Romney?
60
"But which Romney will we get? Is there a real Mitt Romney?" As a Massachusetts resident as well I remember being very disappointed that Romney distanced himself so much from the state while running for president--it seemed very disrespectful to virtually abandon the job he had been elected to do and then try to set himself apart from the state. A couple years back I mentioned this disappointment to someone at a party, who actually knew Romney personally. He said that Romney was not like that at all in private, that he did care about governing the state, etc. I suspect we'll get the Romney that Romney needs to be to get and maintain power.
Mitt Romney has rightly called out Trump as an insubstantial blowhard and fabulist. But with his willingness to write off the less privileged 40 percent of the U.S. population who don't get their government benefits through tax breaks overweighted to unfairly favor the already wealthy as "takers" Romney has also revealed himself to be a perhaps more reliable water boy for the greedy I percent than the unstable and demented Trump. Yes Romney is saner than Tromp, but that arguably makes him that much more insidious, not the lesser of two evils but the same evil in a more effective package.
to be an elitist
52
One other lesson I would think that Mitt has learned about Trump, is that you cannot believe a word that he says. I am sure Mitt remembers being part of the dog and pony show as a potential Secretary of State position in the Trump administration.
Trump clearly showed Mitt his true colors that day, and while I wold rather have a Democrat in that seat, I will take a wiser Mitt Romney over a fire breathing Trump acolyte.
With the tax deal, as bad as it is, a done deal, perhaps Mitt can be focused on a more moderate way, one that isn’t in lock step with the GOP.
One can hope.
49
If Mitt Romney ever makes it to the senate his dream role would be to cast the 67th and deciding vote to convict Donald Trump! Now that would be justice!
11
Nothing more need be said about the wretched state of today’s Republican Party than to describe a shameless, value-free twerp like Paul Ryan, whose sole motivation is self-advancement at the expense of the national well-being, as being among “the best of the current Republicans”.
107
Hear, hear.
Remember the 47%.
21
To be the party of the working class shouldn't you aggressively work to get rid of the distinction of class?
8
Do you really think that Marco Rubio is pro-worker? Really?
15
Mitt Romney should run for president as a Democrat. When elected he could craft and sponsor a modified Massachusetts type health care plan and give both parties four or eight years to redefine themselves and get their acts together. This realignment would push the far right out of the drivers seat they have kidnapped from the majority. This acceptance of radical minority power has gone on too long. It's not just Trump. He is being used by the "here first" right wing radicals but not smart enough to see it. The Dems on the field are not strong enough to prevail. The Republicans are obsequious to their donors and letting us drift towards Apartheid. We need a joint effort to end this nightmare.
6
well, that's an intriguing idea!...I might go along with it if Mitt commits to a number of programs in the Democratic platform...
Does Ross Douthat really expect anyone to believe that Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton, all of whom voted for the tax bill, are "genuinely pro-worker"?
Sure, they may hate unions, labor workplace protections, environmental regulation, defined benefit pensions (except, of course, for themselves) and a higher minimum wage, but they love workers, manifested by their determination to cut "entitlements", so as to free 85 year-old moochers from their government dependence?
And this passes for mature political discourse?
897
Excellent. Thanks .
1
Yes, since defined benefit pensions are so bad, isn't it time that Congress eliminated pensions for themselves? I'm sure we could set up a nice IRA for them to contribute to.
6
Very succinct summary of the Republican Party philosophy in your second paragraph. Just add disenfranchisement, and racial and class hatred. We can call it the party of Wrong-headdedness and mean-spiritedness.
A "pro-worker" Republican Party? How is that not an oxymoron?
24
He will not run. The seat will be passed to his group of special interests and he will be their spokesmodel as was Hatch.
3
Douthat writes as if workaday men and women are idiots who are uninterested in goodness, right, or working towards something bigger than themselves. As if we are not susceptible to calls to goodness and decency. This is exactly wrong. Misguided or not, moral consideration is why an underemployed Baptist in Florida will vote for an anti-abortion candidate at predictable personal economic cost. It's why economically-depressed small towns wave the American flag and feel proud of their country even while they themselves suffer. We can be led - misled, frequently - into personal sacrifice on behalf of a nation, a principle, an idea of moral uplift. Republican rank-and-file are not morons who accidentally vote against their interests. They do it eyes-open, believing they are a part of something bigger and more important than their own small problems.
So yes, Romney's economic ideas are big-business-friendly, not populist. I don't agree with them, and don't agree with him on most issues. So what? The contribution that Mr. Romney can most obviously make comes, at this moment, from his character, his decency, and his unwillingness to pander to an indecent President. (Sure, he took Trump's endorsement years ago. His brave 2016 speech made up for it.)
Instead of asking him to pander to the worst instincts of a mean electorate, why not encourage him to encourage them to embrace goodness and decency? People are easily led. Mr. Romney seems inclined to lead us in the right direction.
2
I'd like to vote for a true Democrat Mitt Romney, but, of course, I do not see one yet...
Let's toss out the thought that Romney can be grafted onto the Republican tree and things will just go forward, with reason and decency.
No, the Congressional Republicans have demonstrated that they are of lowly stuff, eager to take from the poor, and give to the super rich. But Romney could, and here I mention a wild eyed dream, take over the White House if both Trump and Pence get kicked out. Maybe he wouldn't lie when asked if he would pardon the crimes of Trump, if crimes are indeed proven.
I dare to dream of a end to this monster tenure in the White House, though it would mean putting another super rich theocratic patriarch in charge.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
3
Maybe he will have learned that when he releases his income tax returns that he should not sneakily remove, (as he did in 2012 as to his 2010 return), IRS Forms 8938 and 114 which specifically detail where his offshore holdings are and how much he has stashed away there.
Maybe he will have learned that when he transports his dog on a family vacation that depositing the dog in a box which he ties to the roof of his car is cruel and inappropriate.
Maybe his wife will have learned to not refer to the rest of us as "you people".
23
I'm really struggling to square the image of a principled man who cares about his country with one who squirms and writhes in public and talks a very cynical, contemptuous line behind the scenes.
12
A vulture capitalist. A corporate raider. Another 1%er with zero empathy for the 99% below him on the economic ladder.
What has Mitt Romney learned? Likely nothing beyond the necessity of confiscating the cell phones of wait staff at any function at which he plans to speak.
21
Had to stop after the second sentence. When Mitt revealed his true colors during his famous 47% speech it was a serious accomplishment alright but I wouldn't call it honorable or decent.
Mitt looks good now for one reason: we have the greatest embarrassment of my lifetime in the white house as a point of reference.
And if elected to the Senate you can be sure he will not do anything of consequence to contain Trump.
452
Comments such as this prove Romney's 47% comment was actually spot on. His comments have been so removed from context, most overlook the point he was trying to make: That, on both sides of the aisle, there is a large percentage of people who won't vote for the other side no matter what the other side proposes or represents, so one should focus on that small percentage in the middle to win elections. This does NOT mean (as it has been interpreted) that any politician on either side is indifferent to the needs of the entire voting populous- it was simply a statement regarding what one must do to win.
3
Yes of course the truth gets you eliminated rather than set free. It is truth that many don't pay federal income taxes under our system. And no senator can constrain any president.
1
My take on this article is kinda like, ho-hum. If Romney runs, gets elected, nothing will change in the Senate, for now. So why write about it.
Write about the Senate races in 2018, Dems vs Repubs and my attention would perk. What are the chances of the Senate flipping? Where do conservatives see their advantage in unseating a Democrat, etc.
Originally from MA. Romney is a decent man. If only he hadn't left the dog on the roof of the car, he might have had a chance in 2012. Thank you Gail Collins.
2
Will Mitt Romney be another complicit republican rubber stamp or will he be the voice that stands up to Trump?
Mr. 47% who wants to keep his carried interest loophole chose Pau Ryan as his running mate who can’t wait to cut Social Security and Medicare next year to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
Mitt Romney wants all the same policies as Donald Trump - he just wants to do it in a less offensive way.
37
Douthat notes that Romney succumbed "the Ayn Randian temptation to write off struggling Americans as losers."
This conveniently overlooks that Paul Ryan and Ross Douthat, among other right wingers, pray at the altar of Ayn Rand themselves.
In fact the entire GOP is infected with an Ayn Randian flu. A pox on all of them.
18
I’m confused, Ross: Is Romney still supposed to do and say things he’s too intelligent and experienced to believe in, to fill this role?
2
Ultimately, this is two sides of the same coin. The core animating principle of the Republican party, since 1980, has been to plunder our nation for the benefit of the 1%. That's pretty much it. Of course, the nature of how the idea is promoted morphs somewhat depending on the candidate and the year but the true goal never changes.
The Republican party has worked tirelessly for decades to sabotage our government from within, strip mine our economy, exploit working Americans and further rig the game, slash vital and well-loved programs and regulations, and hand the spoils to the 1%.
Mitt Romney and Donald Trump want the same thing. As do Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and any other prominent Republican you can think of. Their differences are superficial. While Trump is brash, arrogant, sadistic, and openly racist, Romney is chilly, patrician, and old school. But at the end of the day, any one of them would be happy to slash our social safety net to ribbons, keep wages at poverty levels, and under-fund education, infrastructure, and healthcare. Republicans would be happy to let most of us die in the street. Just because some are more polished than others doesn't change that.
32
"Romney succumbed, before an audience of Richie Riches, to the Ayn Randian temptation to write off struggling Americans as losers."
Until Romney stands up to their dark and silent power why should we assume he isn't one of the Ayn Randian visionaries seeking a government that only serves successful capitalists?
None of the Koch club speaks out in the open about their blueprint for America because public awareness is the enemy of their cause. Lying to the public has become an essential tool of the GOP because they are so far to the right of most Americans. To dismiss what Romney says in conversations he believes private is naive.
477
alan,
Ayn Rand was a hippie. Ayn Rand was what every upper middle class American expects for their children the entitlement to drugs sex and rock and roll.
I do not understand the liberal reaction to a brilliant philosopher who simply preached her gospel of total selfishness and her right to live life as she chose and it not being anybody else's business.
1
I regard that '47%' as his equivalent of Mrs Clinton's 'deplorables'. They both showed complete disdain for a very large past of the US voting population. As such, they deserved to lose.
Whether it is recoverable for Mr Romney I have no idea. I'm sure we shall hear it many times more, if he runs.
He was an effective governor, apparently. That would make a positive change after two presidents in a row without any executive government experience.
3
Memphrie,
Ayn Rand's mind was thrown out of whack by the Russian Revolution, of which she was a real victim. She spent the rest of her life thinking the government was coming to take away her hard earned income.
There is something positive about her ideas. Essentially, it comes down to this: "Take pride in what you do and don't let anyone push you around." That's a good message for everyone.
But her vision for society has been proven false. Look at what works in places like Germany and the Netherlands. Those countries are not sinking into the Third World because they redistribute wealth.
1
Mr. Romney is by all accounts a far better person than either Mr. Hatch or Mr. Trump. Is he a better person than Mr. McMullin? Romney is more competent than Trump but that goes without saying.
Mr. Romney's MA health care program was a principal source for the ACA. McMullin would not have given it to us.
Like McMullin, Romney opposed Mr. Trump during the election. I myself believe we can count on Romney to support Mr. Mueller and call for impeachment if it is justified.
Yes, 5 years ago Romney asked for Trump's endorsement, at which time he said nothing about Trump's racist birther lie. No doubt, as Ross says, he hoped it would fade back into the woodwork as it usually does. Instead, the racism metastasized.
And, yes, he ran in 2012 as if he were promoting the very tax cut for the rich that is likely to decimate medical care, Social Security and Medicaid for tens of millions.
If Romney had honestly and wholly channeled FDR in 2012, he would have done much better. After all, Trump's populist promises sounded like a combination of FDR and Mr. Sanders. Of course, Trump has broken all of those promises.
Mr. Hatch will be forever tainted by his performance last week: his "there isn't any money left" quip vis-à-vis CHIP, and his immoral groveling praise of Trump.
3
Romney is no man of honor, nor is he a conservative. What we saw in 2012 was an opportunist without a moral compass. He disassociated himself from his major legislative achievement while Massachusetts governor, affordable healthcare. We heard him on tape belittle 47 percent of the country. And he was genuinely nasty towards Obama, much like Trump was towards Clinton. What we don't need in the future is a reality show grudge match by two ultra-privileged draft-dodging man-boys who inherited their privileged positions in life.
13
Donald Trump talks bombast, but every moves sinks the people who voted for him. They don't care, because they want the bombast. Some have faith in him, and some just have faith that if they are suffering, the people who made that suffering real are suffering too.
Mitt Romney is part of the problem because as talked of the 47%, he busted up companies, sold them for parts and shipped the work to China Then he told people that trade policy is the problem. He was ready to bust up regulations and give himself a tax cut too, but he couldn't wreath the policy in talk that made people who have been left out of the economy feel like they were getting something back, even if it is only sour revenge.
No one, *no one* at all, has a plan to restore rural economies or to restore economic vitality to the middle class. We are driving wages down for most and skimming wealth for others, we are consolidating everything from farmland to craft bourbon and beer to communications into a few wealthy hands; we are reducing the workforce and replacing it with technology or foreign labor; we are looking at 3 month window for the result of every decision; and we are blaming China for success that is the result of a long game.
Our capitalists are strip miners - they take the wealth and leave a mess behind.
7
Prey tell, Mr. Douthat, what evidence there is that anybody in the GOP, including Trump himself, has any real interest in economic policies that will help the middle class and the working class?
What I am seeing behind the rhetoric of caring for the middle and the working class is tax cuts primarily for the "jobs creators," concerted efforts to destroy unions, continued hostility to the idea that the middle and working class should have any government help in obtaining affordable health care, the continued assault on public and higher education (the institutions we need to educate our children for the global economy) and hollow promises like the one to bring back jobs in the coal industry.
Does anybody seriously think that Romney is not on board with any of this?
512
Exactly - remember Bain Capital - Romney is all about raping and pillaging, just wrapped up in a “slicker” package.
2
I seriously think Mitt Romney believes in affordable healthcare and widespread access. He passed the pre Obamacare laws in Massachusetts. He also strongly endorsed the Israeli system that includes universal care, while running for president. He has not spoken against higher education. While running for president, he abandoned much of his former moderate, thoughtful Conservative stances but we might ascribe that to catching the "Presidencial Bug", a delusionary fever that has infected many.
Thomas Jeffesron believed in smaller government. I "seriously" beleive Mr. Romney is on board with that principle and thinks that government bureacracy is equally, if not more, harmful to the U.S economy and its citizens than the supposed autocracy of the GOP. The goals you state are laudable, but the government is a behemoth that wastes more time, effort and money pursuing those goals rather than raising the economic of everyone.
Ross is having a fit of melancholy, delirious in his reminiscence that things could be like they were in the "good old days" that actually weren't. Ah, the days of binders full of women, Gail Collins regaling us with Seamus on the roof, and Mitt himself, just slightly more animated than Max Headroom, stiffer than Gerald Ford and wearing magic underwear. He's but 1 year younger than DJT, hardly an "organization kid". But who knows, maybe this time around the 47% of us who are moochers, slackers, malcontents and malingerers will see the light.Romney is viable the same way W. looks better and Nixon looks good, in comparison to Trump. Once the criminality, and the GOP complicity, becomes more widely understood, they'd have a tough run against a 3 toed sloth. As presently constituted, congress would treat Romney worse than they did Bob Dole.
What we need is someone who is Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Meryl Streep and Kermit the Frog rolled into one. Good luck with that. Maybe Bill Richardson would step back in if we asked nicely?
5
The US political theater is very entertaining, Almost Roman in its depravity and Shakespearean in its cast of characters. The US continues to amaze, offend and confuse. Pundits can't agree whether it is a farce or a tragedy? Stay tuned.
12
Mitt stated that trump was unfit to be president, then turned around and groveled for a job in trump's dysfunctional " administration"
Aside from that, he made a living buying up companies and laying people off.
In that sense he fits right in with trump.
If you think Ross, that this man has an ounce of integrity, you are fooling yourself.
But he's not fooling the rest of us.
75
The modest optimism for Romney expressed here is misplaced. Utah voters will hold their noses and vote for Romney. In the Senate, Romney will hold his nose and vote with Trump. And the smell will remain.
13
Economic populism is as far from Romney as the Moon from the Earth. The guy is a corporatist and business-worshipper to the bone.
And Rubio? He showed no backbone in the campaign, he was an empty vessel, filled - ineptly - by his aides. Doubtful that he really changed since then. For a Republican he is unusually poor, so he will probably be even more corruptible, and craving for the favor and adulation of rich America, than the others.
The GOP does need a real populist who does what Trump only promised. Such a candidate would easily beat the Democrats obsessed with their identity politics and fringe issues. Someone like that might even win as a Democrat although it would be harder to vanquish the liberal party activists. But there is nobody in sight in either party who could fill that gaping hole in the political landscape.
131
Also in all the years Rubio has been in the senate he has done NOTHING. He barely even votes. Maybe if the democrats ran alan grayson instead of a republican lite/corportists against Rubio they would have won in Florida.
3
I'm so tired of this false straw-man characterization of Democrats as "obsessed with their identity politics and fringe issues." Caring for the middle and working class is a core Democrat issue! Such distaste for what you call "identity politics" is really nervousness that White, straight, male identity politics may no longer be the implicit policy behind all governance. There are other Americans out here whose lives count as well. Expanding rights for all does not mean fewer rights for those who already enjoy them. Also, I wouldn't call the protection of our air and water a fringe issue. To all commenters: Please stop with this ridiculous partisan shorthand and say what you mean. Then back it up; you may find your straw man crumpling into nonsense. You'll then need to build an honest argument based on facts rather than flashy bywords. We all need to hold ourselves to higher standards of critical thinking!
4
Enough with the bomb throwing comments about identity politics. It was identity politics that forced this country to recognize Black identity as American identity. It is the same practice with gay and other rights. This is who I am, respect me because of it. If I don't tell you who I am, then you're likely to discriminate against me because I'm not you.
4
I'm sorry Ross, but would you please explain how Rubio, Lee (!), Cotton, etc. are pro-worker?
Are they in favor of higher federal spending and deficits which would get more money to workers?
Are they in favor of better enforcement of workplace safety regulations and, indeed, better and more regulations on industries like the chemical industry?
Do they favor a more efficient health care system like that enjoyed by all the other industrialized countries so that workers will not be a sickness away from bankruptcy or death?
Do they favor restrictions on the corporations' mostly successful war on unions?
Do they favor allowing workers who happen to be women to have control of their bodies?
Do they favor federal financial support of education so that workers can see their children become doctors, scientists, lawyers, engineers, etc. as many have in the past?
Are they in favor of federal support for research in many areas such as medicine, physics, space exploration, biology, etc.?
And, perhaps most important, are they in favor of leveling the political playing field so workers can compete equally with the Rich?
156
Mr. Douthat:
I thought it was the current tax bill that offered little to the middle class.
2
Is this the triumph of hope over experience? Well, I hope that the good quallities in Romney overcome the timidity and whatever else it was that made him scurry from Trump's approval in 2012. John Qunicy Adams had a poor presidency but a wonderful post presidential career as a member of the House of Representivies, fighting against slavery any way he could. Let that be Romney's example. Please.
4
As a mature, life-long Independent leaning-left voter, I sincerely hope the GOP can be rescued from its current leadership trioka by a person such as Mitt Romney.
Our country needs a viable center-right alternative led by a credible GOP conservative to counter the center-left politics of the Dems, if nothing else to allow us to have honest debates about the direction of our country going forward.
190
"center-right?"
You must have missed his 2012 presidential run when he vowed to destroy PBS, while his running mate Paul Ryan lusted after the destruction of Medicare.
3
"Center-left politics of the Dems". Surely you jest. Republicans have pushed the center so far right that Dems are in the same place as Republicans were from 1950 to 1975.
3
Our ship has its starboard gunnel deep under water. No we do not need centrists sitting on the fence honestly debating our direction. We know what direction we're headed and its not good.
What's desperately needed are Far Left doers, revolutionaries unafraid to make mistakes, loud people who push non-mainstream leftist policies, like a $25/hour minimum wage.
However wild it sounds to a centrist, when your ship is sinking you don't think - you act.
3
Most voters vote on their emotions. To blue collar workers, Romney looked like the guy who fired them.
22
After his supposedly principled opposition to Trump in the primaries, Romney joined other Republican never-Trumpers in groveling before Trump in an attempt to join Trump's administration. Like so many Republicans, Romney's principles wax and wane depending on what's in it for him. Yet Ross upholds Romney as a "man of honor." Give me a break. There are no people of honor in the Republican party.
40
I'm not a republican. Romney has his faults, but he's a decent and honorable man. I might disagree with him on many things, but he means well. For me and in these times, those adjectives are pretty amazing: decent, honorable and well meaning. We can't apply those words to many people. So I'm in. Go Mitt go...
1
Mr. Romney is a corporate raider - nothing decent or honorable about that - and corporate raiders are as far from well meaning as you can get.
Even if he was once decent, honorable, and well meaning as a kid, becoming ultra-rich shrivels your soul. They live outside humanity and do casual evil without a second thought.
Romney is no different that Hatch in his policies, but he is not as transparent about his beliefs.
6
Mr. Douthat,
You are very hard on Governor Romney with regard to mistakes made during his failed 2012 campaign for the presidency, particularly in your comparison to Mr. Trump's victory.
But Romney worked with what he had... a jawline, good hair, a fair complexion... and did not enjoy the active, under-the-table support of a foreign power.
5
The problem with Mitt Romney is that he is a republican. The only way he could help America would be if he became a non-republican. Sure, he would be improvement on trump (most humans would be), but he would still be offering tax breaks to the growing number of people earning $10/hr with no savings as a side to huge corporate giveaways. What is really tearing this country apart is growing income inequality, and this tax bill has just shown us what all republicans think about that.
44
What makes Tom Cotton (and Rubio) any different from the rest of Trump’s sycophants? They are different because they are younger? Come on. Cotton was one of Trump’s most vocal defenders. They will not save your party Ross.
4
A 70-year old Romney is considering a new career in Congress, and Utahns will, sadly, elect him.
2
Donald J Chaos & Co. are the party of wrong. Everything they have pushed forward is a solution looking for a problem. Highest corporate profits? Solution: Corporate tax rate cut! Most powerful military? Solution: Give them more money they can spend efficiently! Workers caught in an economic shift? Solution: Cut income tax rates and federal training programs!
As for Mitt, he is smart and seems to care something for some people, except the 47%. His vehicle for making money, Bain Capital, was an LBO-type company which would buy a company, charge huge financial fees then if it was crushed under the debt incurred, shutter the dump! Some champion of the people. Mitt lost because he is not a man of the people. He was out there wielding the sword of creative destruction. He will be pilloried in a national election with his "Let GM fail" comments. Hundreds of thousands would have been out of work. He may not like Trump, but he can keep his recipes for national disaster thank you very much! Elizabeth Warren 2020 Yeah!
4
There is only one group that approaches the Republicans in being odious, and that's the equally pro-capitalist Democrats. As long as people suggest tinkering at the edges of either of these two parties, we are doomed to continued degradation of the environment, aggressive militarism that favors only those who profit from wars, and internal strife and discord that promotes ignorance of our mutual oppression. No thank you, Mr. Douthat. We need to throw the two-party pro-capitalist system into the waste bin to find an alternative that promotes the common welfare and eschews nationalism. Until we do, we are reduced to bickering over the crumbs that are not-so-generously left by those who are making out as bandits.
8
why should Romney be any different than other republican presidential candidates who have made their deal with the devil. George W, George HW, Reagan, and Nixon have all flirted with questionable parts of their base just to curry favor. The only candidates that stand out who were willing to draw lines were John McCain (except he agreed to have Sarah Palin on the ticket), and Barry Goldwater who wanted to distance himself from the John Birchers.
And by highlighting Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton, maybe you should just write off the republican party altogether and look to the democrats as being the only party that can actually deliver for the people.
6
Mr. Douthat could add that this time, Romney needs to not run away from Romney. In his 2012 campaign, Romney could have run on his two examples of successful governance, first as director of the 2002 U.S Winter Olympics and second as governor of Massachusetts. But instead of being his own man, he succumbed to Republican pressure not to boast of the first because he had, gasp, rightfully sought government subsidies for the games. When Romney took over, they were in shambles from corrupt mismanagement. He turned them into a stunning success. But in a nod to the party that believes government is always the problem, he seldom if ever brought them up. And then there's Massachusetts, where he headed the prototype for the Affordable Care Act with a program that remains popular in the state. For Republicans, that was a non-starter. So although Romney was running to govern, he assumed today's Republican disdain for government and wise governing. I kept waiting for the Romney who spoke so movingly at the end of the Olympics of all the unsung volunteers who run the year-to-year competitions in the various sports, thanking them for giving the athletes venues to perfect their skills. But he never showed up.
340
Agreed -- I found the fact that he ran against his own record of accomplishment really unsettling and suggested a lack of real commitment and integrity. Astonishingly, this seems trivial compared to the character defects of the current occupant of the oval office.
1
No, what we got was the Bain Capital Romney who got even richer than he was by taking over distressed companies and, rather than improve them, stripped their assets including pension funds and sold the carcasses to China, putting thousands out of work with no pensions.
3
Romney was not any success as Governor of Massachusetts. He spent 1.5 years passing his version of Obamacare and the rest of the time running for President while never missing a chance to criticize the state in which HE was governor.
1
As a DEM and a person who is no fan of trump I would welcome Romney to the Senate. I really do not believe that the man knows what the believes or has a plan to just go with the flow. I use health care as a example. As Governor he establishes the ACA for his state and it was a great success. As a GOP candidate for president he promised to repeal it for the nation and campaigned on how bad it was. I believe he will march behind Mitch and the GOP however I also believe he is a decent guy who can make things better. He deserves a chance. As a side note, I never though I would say this however I am getting to like Rubio.
2
Please. "a conservatism that seeks to cure itself of Romney Disease by becoming genuinely pro-worker ..." Conservatism will become genuinely pro-worker when they don't try to quash unions and collective bargaining. Conservatism will become genuinely pro-worker when they stop the gerrymandering and voter suppression. None of the above will ever happen. Ever.
9
That Paul Ryan, Ben Sasse, and Mitt Romney are considered the "best" of the current Republicans is quite telling. Their "ideas," such as they are, seem to be identical to the so-called "ideas" of the little guy currently occupying the oval office.
10
And how bad have things become in this country that ANYONE can seriously be discussing that Romney - ROMNEY, of the 47% are losers remark - is in ANY way an improvement? On anything.
To me, the only difference between Trump and Ronald Reagan is that Reagan was a better actor.
No one in the GOP called out Reagan when he said that trees caused more pollution than factories.
1
I have to agree with L. Eisenburg on this one.
Tom Cotton was entirely against fixing the ACA in a manner that would help the middle and the lower middle class. He has no clue when it comes to the actual lived lives of those making $15 dollars an hour and less.
Ditto for Paul Ryan.
Mike Lee is way too far to the right to alleviate the struggles of families in Utah, let alone anywhere else.
This isn't the group that will lead the Republican electorate to a better life.
1
" Right now there is a small caucus in the Republican Party for a different way, for a conservatism that seeks to cure itself of Romney Disease by becoming genuinely pro-worker rather than waiting for a worse demagogue than Trump to come along. Did I say small? I meant very small: It basically consists of Marco Rubio of Florida"....
Would that be the same Senator Marco Rubio (R FL) who said that "the tax plan probably went too far in helping corporations"? ( This comment was made after the tax plan was safely passed.) Senator Rubio is obviously a very serious, genuinely pro-worker, principled person who can be trusted. Not.
9
Ross, How do you label these men "decent" when every one of them voted to take away health care from 20 to 30 million Americans ? There are no "decent" men in the Republican Party.
8
A clever way of showing new populist stripes would be to pressure corporations to pass on their tax cut windfall in the form of price cuts to consumers.
4
Mr. Douthat, you write that the personal decency of Romney, Ryan, et al. would be appealing to low income voters, if only they didn't embrace the corporatist agenda. Please investigate Romney's background at Bain Capital. His deeds were extremely hurtful to those very low income voters and he knows that. Secondly, the tax schemes of those men, especially Ryan, deliberately take from those very voters and IS exactly what the Republican stands for. Then you mention, Mr. Cotton, who is currently setting the public up for the day when we can invade Iran. Who do you think will be doing the fighting? Yes, low income voters. The Republican party hide their agenda, which is horribly detrimental to low income and middle income citizens, behind a veneer of fake patriotism and values. Hopefully, the lower and middle income citizenry, particularly in light of Donald's bait and switch on taxes, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, DACA, the list is endless, will wise up and vote for the party that, for all its faults, is and always has been on the correct side of these issues.
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Unfortunately Ross, you have not accounted for two very real truths about the Conservatism of the current Republican party. 1) The abject lack of any truly creative policy proposals other than trickle down economics. 2) The Conservatism of the Party, despite its populist rhetoric, has been bought by and its agenda framed by the uber wealthy. The Mitt Romney you call for will be isolated and of little influence.
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Do you really think that a man in his late 60's can change? Come on now. The real issue is if and what the American people have "learned." It makes little difference how a struggling working person views Romney and/or Trump. They need to learn how not to be conned by either. That would be a valuable lesson.
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A man of honor and decency? You mean the man who tried to run for the senate to the *left* of Ted Kennedy, then suddenly became an ultraconservative upon deciding to run for President? Methinks that Mr. Douthat has not closely observed my former governor, who’ll flip-flop to become Trump’s best buddy lickety-split. A competitive sort, he hates being second, and will fight like heck to do a 180 on his position towards Trump even faster and with more vigor than Lindsey Graham.
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Perhaps FDR was the exception, but I do not believe that those born with silver spoons in their mouths can ever really understand the day to day life of the working class, even less the class that would like to be employed but cannot find work.
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What's important is not whether a GOP Senator likes Trump or not, but whether he'll form a united front against the Democrats.
The GOP, including Trump, does not have any form of populism in its DNA---to go down that road would require an almost religious conversion to believing that 47% of our country are hard workers, trying to make ends meet with their families, and deserve some help from the government to make their lives more liveable. But for this GOP it is just a bridge too far for them to cross..
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What makes Ross think that Romney will be anything other than a lockstep vote with trump once in the senate? Please. So he may give a quote finger wagging about a quote from time to time. Then Ross will write about what an honorable man of character he is.
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Out of curiosity, how is a voter to tell the difference between a politician succumbing to an “Ayn Randian temptation” and one expressing a view they actually hold?
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Should we, as Americans, more forward, or just adapt the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing as the new standard? We now have an opportunity to stand out from the political “business as usual” rhetoric and forge ahead to what it really means to make America Great Again.
How can we do that? First, by taking off the blinders that don’t allow us to see simple truth and reality. I believe that we’re all better than that! I used to believe in Bill Clinton, regardless of his sexual behavior as “boys will be boys”. Every politician does these things so what’s the big deal? I was much more concerned with the so-called good he was doing for the Democratic Party. I feel that this is the biggest hurdle that All Republicans are now facing. Change has to happen first within the individual before it can influence the group. Has Mitt really changed? Does he really still believe in the 47% theory? I think he does, regardless of his personal feelings about Trump. What you see is what you’ll get with Mitt.
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"But he could also perform a service by showing that he has learned something from watching Trumpism succeed where his own campaign failed — which would mean steering a different and more populist course"
But he hasn't learned... that's the point.
He really does think that Corporations are People
He really does think that a person should just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps with a small $1million loan from their parents
He really does think that he helped the little man when he asset stripped companies, put them into bankruptcy, and walked away with millions as they were left without jobs. (he calls that "creative destruction" and "right sizing")
He really does think that shoveling tons of money into the rich so that they can invest it in tax shelters is a good thing.
there are only 2 types of republicans these days
group 1: the "cut taxes and spend like drunken sailors" kind who focus on the rich. (Ryan, McConnell, Romney, Cruz etc)
group 2: the "cut taxes and spend like drunken sailors" kind who focus on the rich while lying and pretending that they care about the poor. (Trump, Rubio)
Romney couldn't win because he had the tiniest bit of decency left inside of him and perhaps a bit of Asperger's or cluelessness, which left him unable to lie about what he was going to do.
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This is a very apt description of Romney and is factual for those who would be hoodwinked - again - by voting for a Republican.
Douthat really needs to smell the coffee and realize that those Republicans whom he is touting as the redemption of the party still stink like a days-dead fish.
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Having exited the Republican party long ago I am fascinated and sickened that the "small caucus" as you call it is literally only a few people. Even Susan Collins had the opportunity to distinguish herself and failed. When is this Party going to suspend its dependency on opportunism and get back to patriotism? There has never been a need for "so few to do so much" in our country as now. Until this Party wakes up and acknowledges, because they already know, the threat to democracy that is Trump we truly run the risk of becoming the antithesis of that which our fathers fought for in WWII. We are no hanging by a thread.
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Rarely if ever do I agree with Ross but his criticisms of Romney are right on point.
As for Ryan,whether or not he's a family man, he's despicable.
I actually read an article today in which Rubio expressed misgivings on on the Republican tax "reform" legislation. He stated he thinks they may have given too many tax breaks to both corporations and the wealthy. You think?! That didn't stop him from voting for it.
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The real news story of 2018 will be progressives getting out to vote. Everything else is just noise. The only way to start rectifying our current national tragedy is to *do* something about it, not just to continue talking about it. The only way out is with our votes.
If 47% of voters in Utah see the light of Romney's wisdom, perhaps we can get another 4% to join in. Then we won't have to worry if Mitt Romney has learned anything at all.
Romney is a Republican and will vote Republican. (He'll wind up as another Trump sycophant -- recall the SoS dinner debacle.) The best outcome will be for the Democrat to win. And that doesn't just apply to Utah.
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Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and Mike Lee? THIS is your hope for the future of the Republican Party?
I don't think so. For one thing, Trump would shred them ( he already did it to Rubio). And I don't think any of these guys has any genuine concern for ordinary Americans, i.e., people who are not Big Donors, or, as they see it, Makers rather than Takers.
A handful of Republicans have spoken out against Trump. But then they immediately fell back into line! Corker is the worst in this regard. In the end, he sold his soul for a real estate tax break. So much for putting country above Party or above self interest.
I suspect Romney would do the same. He has the potential to be different, but most of the time, he too has fallen in line, and has very seldom sided with the struggling "losers." After all, he's the one who chose Ayn Rander Paul Ryan to be his running mate.
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Mountain Meadows, car elevator, 30 plus Cayman Island accounts. What has he learned, not much. The man is tone deaf.
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A man of honor? Come to Massachusetts and you’ll know you’ve got the wrong guy. Until Trump came along, I didn’t think there was a bigger phony than Romney (for whom I sadly voted when he first ran for governor). He ought to leave us all alone.
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"His attempt to rally Republican opposition to Donald Trump in 2016 was an exemplary act that threw the cowardice of his party’s establishment into sharp relief."
Some might characterize his actions as the cowardice of someone who never acts on principle, but merely for tactical advantage to exploit a targetted victim. That seems to have been his unifying theme as Governor of Massachusetts, and as a candidate opposing Teddy Kennedy.
Having almost won a Senate seat by becoming a wild-eyed liberal, he later renounced every principle he had enunciated. He did the same thing on being elected Governor. He did the same thing to acquire all those businesses he acquired in order to make strong and vibrant again ... only to break them up and sell them off.
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I hope that in a future column Mr. Douthat offers some examples of how conservatism is "becoming genuinely pro-worker". It seems to me that if there was ANY conservative who was at all "pro-worker" they would have slipped SOMETHING in the tax bill that helped workers. Or they might have fixed the national health insurance plan that was based on Romney's Massachusett's legislation. The last tim I looked Rubio, Lee and Cotton all voted against "Obamacare" and for the tax bill... and all are going to be joining the conservative chorus that will call for "entitlement reform" now that their beloved tax bill ballooned the deficit. I look forward to Mr. Douthat's explanation of how any of this is "pro-worker".
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It's OK the Republicans are entirely pro-business. The travesty was dressing it up as faux populism when Trump intended to fill his gov't with plutocrats and pass sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy. To write a column in which the author says the R's must show they are pro worker is the height of gall and self deception. Come out of the closet Douthat, call a spade a spade, and stop wasting our time with platitudes and your pious self deception.
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It's telling that Ross Douthat details how Mitt Romney was "part of #HowYouGotTrump" without even mentioning his degrading attempt to become Trump's Secretary of State. Romney publicly trashed Trump in 2016--eloquently, and for good reason--and then erased that fleeting brush with integrity by sucking up to him a few months later.
And thus is revealed another reason why Romney lost in 2012: he was, is, and always will be viewed as a political opportunist of the first order. His bumper sticker for the Utah Senate seat should read as follows: "Romney 2018--and Then Again in 2020."
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Mitt Romney has learned, much to his humiliation, that the president is not a man of his word and cannot be trusted. As the GOP's failed choice to unseat Barack Obama, Romney could have used his considerable influence to mute, if not entirely stall, the businessman's meteoric rise to the party's heights when the sitting president announced his plans to run for that office. Simply put, Romney waited much too long to voice opposition to the opportunist who tapped into a rich lode of white resentment.
Romney's "never movement" only aroused the president's ire and resentment, for which he repaid Romney with public embarrassment, of which this president has visited on friend and foe alike. Should Romney win Utah's Senate seat, he could indeed hold a trump card should passage or failure of a Senate bill be decided by one or two votes. No wonder the president is disappointed at the prospects of a Romney Senate candidacy.
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Romney is way too private and reserved to withstand Trump's showmanship and command of media.
But these men -- Romney, Lee, Sasse, and yes, McCain -- would be and are unwilling to bluntly say, No, Mr. President. i will not go along with you for the sake of reelection (of course, McCain is not in the reelection camp) or even for broad principle, until you, Mr. President begin to behave like a president and speak for the country, and not a slice of it. I will vote against your defense plan because I am voting against you. None of them will do that as we saw with the awful tax bill. They wanted a tax bill and held their noses to vote for something they knew was wrong for America in the long run and maybe even in the short run.
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"The 2012 G.O.P. presidential nominee is a man of honor, decency and serious accomplishment."
Does no one remember the honor and decency that Mitt demonstrated during the 1980's? His serious accomplishments were built on the backs, bank accounts and retirement plans of thousands of everyday workers whose employers found themselves as targets of Mitt's corporate raiding and gutting.
Sure its (some how) legal in America . . . but it is not the vision and soul of a person that is the President of the people, for the people and by the people. We have one of these types in the White House now. How do like him so far.
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I do not doubt that Romney would roll over and play dead if Trump asked. As to whether Romney is a viable presidential candidate for 2020, he looks good only in comparison to Trump. The real issue is the faux populism of Trump and Romney and whether Trump supporters recognize they were conned and whether Romney supporters recognize they would be conned.
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It won’t take long for Romney to cozy up to Trump, even before his election (a reasonable assumption if he runs). We’ll see his true character when he feels his political future within his party and for his self interest is at stake. It’s very easy to be forthright and critical when you’re on the outside. I’m skeptical, based on his catering to the socially conservatives during his 2012 campaign that he really has the integrity to maintain his previous stand against Trump.
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He doesn't have the integrity. His governorship of Massachusetts was a form of what was called "carpetbagging" after the Civil War. His unforgivable "47%" comment forever taints him (at least in my mind) as genocidal. He implied that some 150 million fellow Americans are "life unworthy of life."
We've seen where that sort of thinking got Hitler's Germany and Stalin's USSR. Yet today's Republicans keep it up in two abortive "healthcare" bills which remove access to healthcare from 22+ million Americans and failing to fund CHIP, which removes nutrition and healthcare support to nine million poor American children. A victim class of 31 million trumps the six million of the Holocaust and 30 million deaths attributable to Stalin from 1930-50 (and that number does NOT take into account the World War II dead).
Romney's primary loyalties are to himself and his party, and the party has become dishonorable, to put it mildly.
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You forgot to mention Romney's total turnaround and groveling attempt to become Secretary of State, while a jubilant Trump got the chance to humiliate a rival and inflict massive pain as retribution for "the Romney speech."
Alas, Ross, your beloved GOP is really on the rails. Romney would join others afflicted by "Romney Disease," good looking and well spoken but plutocrats in the end.
Flake, Corker, Collins: a few shreds of principle but just a lot of noise in the end. Voting for a bill with 26% popularity.
Donald Trump claims that the little people, including DACA kids, will learn to love Trump and his agenda when they see how the Democrats use them to shut down the government.
His is a cruel,survivor mentality that ignores the very issues the "little people' need.
Who knows what is going through Mitt's minds now that he knows a seat from Iowa is virtually assured? Will he be different from Flake and Corker? Or will he follow his moneyed interests and vote for "reform" of Social Security and Medicare--which is to say, deal the final blow to the middle class?
I'm not betting on Mitt to betray his class.
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@ChristineMcM: Ross also seems to have forgotten that Romney was pro-choice when he was governor of Massachusetts. He's not sincerely passionate about that consumingly crucial issue, abortion.
When extreme social conservatives like Douthat espouse "pro-worker" policies, they're talking about male workers. The agenda is to make "underclass" men breadwinners. If they earn more, theoretically, they''ll be able to afford to marry and support economically dependent, chronically pregnant stay-at-home wives. Douthat and co-author Reihan Salam spell it all out in their book Grand New Party. Never gonna happen.
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"Who knows what is going through Mitt's minds now that he knows a seat from Iowa is virtually assured?
You mean Utah, don't you? Also, Mitt thankfully only has one mind.
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You miss one other point. The agenda is "to make (white) male workers" breadwinners. No one else need apply - except for pick-up jobs as stand-ins on campaign stages to showcase the "big tent" face of the Republican party.
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Mitt Romney in the Presidential primary against Trump is plausible if Romney can win the Senate seat in Utah. There's no Democrat on the horizon that can win a Presidential election imo. I voted against Romney in 2012 but I would sure vote for him in 2020. I may even switch parties to vote in the primary if it came down to that.
Romney has the national recognition to win moderate GOP support as well as moderate Democratic support -- particularly after what we see now in the White House. I know, it's a similar argument made for voting for Clinton versus Sanders, but I don't see a Progressive run to the White House succeeding in this environment. Romney doesn't have the baggage Clinton had, he's a better campaigner than Clinton, and he did make progress on health care when he was Governor.
The U.S. needs to put someone in the White House who can better unify and move the country forward. It has to be a moderate of some stripe who can address working class/middle class angst while not undermining economic growth. Romney has the credibility, savvy, and smarts to best accomplish this imo, given the current dangerous political environment.
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I'm afraid that Romney looks good only in comparison to Trump. I don't see any difference between the two when it comes to policy, except that Romney would be more discreet.
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I know. You make a point. But there is a difference. Romney succeeded in Massachusetts, a relatively progressive state. The health care plan was in fact innovative. Romney can intelligently adapt to a political environment different from his party's. Trump seeks to impose his will on whatever environment he finds himself with no apparent moral compass, no civility, and no interest or understanding in what social or political goods he may be undermining. Policies -- along with everyday political practices -- are inevitably impacted negatively by such a person. Romney -- whatever his faults -- is not like that. And right now, that's a enormously significant plus. Anyway, Romney wouldn't have policies that reduce the U.S.'s role as a world leader on climate change and international trade policy, at the very least.
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I believe same-sex marriage got passed in Mass under Romney's watch as well.
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Why do we even call the changes in the GOP economic plan populist? That term has been so battered and bruised over the years that it no longer means "support for the concerns of ordinary people." Now its use has become more like naked appeals to mob mentality instead of more sophisticated thinking. The tribalism, the protectionism, the revanchism that has come to define our politics IS populism in its real-world form. Just as communism looked idyllic on paper and horrific in practice, so too does "populism."
And what really galls me about describing the antidote to plutocracy as "populism" is it still carries that judgmental connotation of a class war depicting the proletariat as the aggressors. This reverse robin-hooding was Paul Ryan's life work for the last 25 years! They go state to state banning unionization; literally blocking the organization of interest groups for middle and lower class workers. The big debate in this tax bill was whether to take 3 lumps of flesh or 2 from liberals by attacking higher ed along with blue states with higher tax rates.
We don't need populism and appeals to our own identities as "not one of them" to oppose that behavior. Just as we look down on autocratic self-enrichment around the world that doesn't effect us, we can reject this behavior as the sheer abuse of power that it is. At the end of the day this is something Brooks gets right: good stewardship of a society isn't from populism, its an appeal to something higher than that.
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Trumps populism is his greatest con.
His policies are pure GOP: tax cuts for the wealthy, budget cuts for the rest of us along with decreased regulation, decreased workers rights and silence on wages.
Trump is populism for the wealthy.
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Opposing plutocracy by prosecuting a class war better is clearly not the ideal of democracy. The issue is whether it would, nevertheless, constitute an improvement.
Republicans decided, long before Trump, that winning was what mattered most. The Faustian bargain they made led to where they, and we, are now. The opposition will have to decide whether winning the class war amounts to selling its own soul or merely acknowledges that the perfect may be the enemy of the good.”
My first thought is that holding out for the ideal is utopian. My second thought is that Republicans probably got to where they are today by thinking the same thing.
I think you are being simplistic in the meaning of populism as few politicians try to get elected without claiming to support what you call ordinary people. Populism is also a rejection of what these ordinary people would call "the elite" and their ideas/skills/experience. Furthermore, populism of late also includes heretofore shunned aspects of society such has white nationalism.
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Rubio, Ryan and Mitt
i don't like this trio one bit
Ryan the Ayn Rander
Rubio the grandstander
And Mitt on the sidelines did sit.
The tax cut bill horror they backed
An ounce of compassion they lacked
rRght wing retrievers
Poor folk deceivers
They made trumpian chaos a fact.
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Larry, this ditty pretty much sums up what's just happened. Thanks and kudos!!
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Once again, well done, but this one: extremely well done!
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Definitely one of your best. And so true it makes me cry.
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