A serious talk with grownups.
Mitt Romney explains why he voted YES on the Omnibus bill.
Good for him.
I write in praise of Mitt Romney, what he said, and how he said it.
It seems unexceptional. There should be nothing special about a U.S. senator explaining a vote. What is exceptional to me is how normal it was. It felt like time travel, back to an earlier day, before Trump. Before Gingrich. Back to when being a legislator was about the resolution of competing interests. No partisan sneers. There are no subordinate clauses alluding to Joe Biden's age, Hunter Biden's addictions, the trouble at the southern border, left wing radical communists, or any of the "usual suspect" shots. Those are the devices which allow a Republican to say something neutral while still assuring GOP voters that the person is an angry partisan.
Romney praised money going to Utah projects. He assured voters that defense spending would go up 9% while domestic spending would only go up 5%. An urban coastal liberal might think Romney emphasized the wrong things. He isn't trying to please them, but he isn't picking a fight with them either. What he is doing is unfamiliar because it is so normal sounding. He sounds like a serious man doing a serious job of governing, not posturing. Here it is, a three-minute video.
This report would not be complete without showing the immediate comments posted on Twitter, which is where he posted this. In multiple posts I have described my dismay at the behavior of GOP officeholders. They have tolerated and enabled Trump, giving him credibility and status as the voice of the GOP even when he makes unhinged rants. (See yesterday's post showing his Christmas greeting.) I consider this cowardly and dangerous for American democracy. I keep hoping GOP candidates and officeholders will reclaim the GOP, but they don't. There is an explanation: A majority of GOP voters appear to prefer demagoguery. GOP voters don't like what Romney is serving up. Twitter is not a representative sample, but representative samples in polls show that an overwhelming majority of GOP voters still like Trump, Trump’s pugilism, and his message.
Here are the first ten comments that followed his post: