Et Tu, Mitt?
Today the roles of Bob Corker and Jeff Flake will be played by the freshman Senator from Utah, Willard Mitt Romney. Romney is previously known for playing the role of Brutus in the play Julius Caesar
Perhaps President Trump should be as wary of entering the Senate chambers as Julius Caesar should have been that fateful day in the Roman Senate. While Trump’s physical safety is assured, character assassins like Romney await. Romney, the 2012 loser, has trashed Trump, the 2016 winner, in a Washington Post Op-ed, President Trump’s stability and competence, in the process demonstrating Romney’s lack of both:
It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the Republican presidential nomination. After he became the nominee, I hoped his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion. His early appointments of Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Kelly and Mattis were encouraging. But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions this month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.
Somehow Willard forget appointments like Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, appointments to the Supreme Court that will affect the course of this nation and our democracy for generations, not just until the next election. Romney forgets that the first duty of a statesman is to get elected. Running your campaign like you are running for class president is a losing strategy for presidential politics. Running one like you are in a bar fight for the future of this nation as Trump did is a winner. I want Trump on my side in a bar fight. If I need to figure out which fork to use at dinner, I’ll ask Mitt Romney.
Romney must have missed the last election where Donald Trump, despite Hillary Clinton’s $1.2 billion war chest and the support of a sitting president mobilized a grassroots army that broke the Democrats’ vaunted “blue wall” against all predictions. That by itself shows that Trump does understand the character of a nation which is tired of career politicians more interested in keeping their job rather than doing their job. Trump’s business career demonstrates an ability to cut through bureaucratic BS and red tape in the proud tradition of Larry the Cable Guy’s mantra of “get ‘er done!”
If the America people ever wonder why their deepest concerns and wishes are never translated into legislative action, why the phrase “we the people” has become a hood ornament on a decaying and ignored Constitution, and why, consider the words of freshman Utah. Sen. Willard Mitt Romney. Just what the blazes does “rising to the mantle of the office mean”?
The American people want more than someone who looks good in a suit. They want a President who gets things done, who enacts their agenda. Yes, Trump called people names, including Romney, but they were probably the same names that not fully ripe bevy of governors, senators, and whatevers were called by the American people as they squandered away trillions of our tax dollars to accomplish nothing except getting rich in office.
Remember, we still have the remnants of ObamaCare, because the likes of fellow RINO John McCain were more concerned about “process” and “regular order,” more concerned with “reaching across the aisle” than giving the American people what they were promised for almost a decade. The McCains lied. Trump’s promises were made and kept. Where are those little facts in your value system, Mr. Romney?
Readers of this space know I had extreme reservations about Trump’s abilities and judgments and initially supported Ted Cruz for President. Trump first won the nomination and then my vote because he pursued and enacted policies as conservative as Reagan’s, if not more so. He cut taxes, regulations, environmental restrictions, and prohibitions against energy exploration and development, all to free the American entrepreneur and worker from the chains of creeping socialism. He’s rebuilding the military, but in a sensible way. Yes, we need to fight terrorism and we can beat ISIS, and have, but we don’t need to spend our resources and manpower chasing random jihadists through Middle Eastern deserts while China and Russia test hypersonic missiles.
Trump is transforming the courts at all levels, restoring them as bastions protecting the originalist interpretation of the Constitution of the Founders. The words of the Constitution will be interpreted as they were written in the context of the times they were written, not interpreted in the heat of contemporary passions or the finite wisdom of the Washington Post editorial board.
Resentment? Enforcing the nation’s immigration laws and building a border wall is not racism. Just ask the family of police office Ronil Singh, a legal immigrant whose dreams were shattered by an illegal alien. And how many times must Trump denounce racism in all its forms to satisfy Romney and the others? This is the President in his Inaugural Address spoke of race in terms Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King would echo:
“A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots,” he said.
“We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American flag. And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, the look up at the same night sky. They fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator,” Trump added.
It might be a while before Trump dines with Romney again. President-elect Trump dined with Mitt at a French restaurant in Manhattan:
Speaking to reporters after the meal, Romney offered a glowing review of Trump’s transition thus far and his winning campaign.
Romney said “it’s not easy to win,” adding that Trump offered a vision that “connected with the American people in a very powerful way.”
Yes, he did and still does, in a way you never will or will ever understand. Now climb back on the wedding cake, Mitt, and leave us alone.
Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.