On Monday Willard (Mitt) Romney announced that he wouldn’t seek a second term in the US Senate.
If you are at all clued into media (normal, not MAGA-fried) you have no doubt seen an unending paean of anointing about the sad walking off of one of the last “good” Republicans from the before times.
Sure, Romney was the first Senator to vote for impeachment of a president of their own party1. And I will admit that is impressive.
But there is a lot of shady shit in Romney’s background.
During his time at Bain Capital, he was a principal in an organization that bought companies, broke them up, selling off the valuable parts, larding the others up with debt, and directly leading to hundreds of thousands of jobs being eliminated. All in the search for value.
People who’s lives were upended by a douchebag vulture capitalist loading up their personal fortunes.
Make no mistake, he was a vulture, and he fucked a LOT of people.
Then there’s his time as governor for Massachusetts, where he had to be fairly centrist to win and govern. He created “Romney” care, a flawed model, but far better than the status quo for healthcare in the state. Hell, it was essentially the Heritage model.
But when he ran for President in 2012, he portrayed the ACA2, modeled on his brainchild in Massachusetts, as the worst fucking thing ever. Did he have any fucking pride? Apparently not.
No, he had to become a caricature of the right-wing leader that was expected. His chosen VP, Paul “lightweight” Ryan was touted as a serious thinker and a rising Republican star. We of course have learned that instead of being a heavyweight, Ryan is a sniveling toad, chased from his cushy “Speaker” role by the big bad Trump, who now parks his pathetic ass in a seat at the board of Fox News.
Romney’s being caught on a surreptitious recording at a donor event whining about the 47% of the population who are just net drains on the treasury (because they don’t pay any taxes) was probably the nail in the coffin for his campaign, but he probably wasn’t going to win.
No, what is bugging me is all the hagiography, the fond memories, the idolization of Romney as one of the good ones.
Seriously, fuck that guy.
Yes, Romney was the sole Republican who voted for impeachment in the first round in 2020.
I refuse to call it by the pejorative “Obama Care”