Mitt’s not gonna do shit.
On the one hand, it’s amazing to me that a couple of quasi-stern tweets from Senator Mitt Romney are enough to make people think he might support the impeachment inquiry into the president’s web of dumb corruption. On the other, this is what the political center always does. The same naïfs who got horny fantasizing about a buff, shirtless Robert Mueller locking Trump away in a squalid prison cell are now looking for another of that mythical species, the Noble Republican, to stand up to the White House and bring this age of chaos to a tidy conclusion.
By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 4, 2019
Mitt Romney’s gonna vote for Trump’s removal from office & be the first Republican Senator to speak out about it – watch.
— Liddle’ LeGate (don’t forget the hyphen) ?? (@williamlegate) October 4, 2019
Anyone else tired of telling the American public that the sky is green should join Senator Romney. There's no credible defense of this blatant misconduct. https://t.co/B1SVhjr7yv
— Rep. Gregory Meeks (@RepGregoryMeeks) October 4, 2019
This ??. Retweet and let @MittRomney know we support him. https://t.co/UAK6by73O9
— Ken Olin (@kenolin1) October 4, 2019
Yeah, of course. The guy who ran and won a seat in Congress, for the GOP, in Utah, two years after we put a transparently unfit Republican in the Oval Office: he’s set to become a compelling voice for removing that very head of state. Absolutely. The man so appalled by Trump’s 2016 campaign that he made the moral calculation to instead support… Ted Cruz? Oh, you bet he has what it takes to turn the party against its leader in the name of higher duty to this country.
Q: "You're one of the loudest critics of China and its human rights abuses. I mean, is it OK for [Trump] to ask?"
…
Rubio: "I don't think it's a real request, again, I think he did it to gig you guys. I think he did to provoke you to ask me and others and get outraged by it." https://t.co/KIu9QwqoAt— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 4, 2019
Young Ben Sasse…just inches from actual integrity.
Go for it, Young Ben. https://t.co/Ydr8YfBgji— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) September 25, 2019
The FDA's intention to ban flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products is progress, and FDA should act ASAP to remove these flavored products from the market. (2/2)
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) October 1, 2019
Hey, maybe Romney can team up with some of the other reasonable, moderate Republicans in the Senate, because that is for sure an actual group of humans who exist. I’m talking Marco “The President Was Kidding” Rubio, Ben “Politics Is Bad For Politics” Sasse and Susan “Hero of the Kavanaugh Confirmation” Collins — assuming she can take a break from the vaping issue. These are the gutsy allies who could help Mitt get to the bottom of all these troubling, concerning, disturbing allegations of crimes that Trump is loudly confessing to on TV every day. Except if any of them were the type to give one single whoopity-fuck about crooked government, they wouldn’t belong to the party of gerrymandering and voter supression, the party owned by the NRA and the fossil fuels lobby, the party that maybe, at its most empathetic, feels a little awkward that we’re killing migrant children at the border.
There’s a reason Republicans love to remind you that Lincoln was a Republican: no one alive and currently in power who goes by the label is interested in meeting that standard again. At best, they can only pretend that men like John McCain exhibit some form of independence.
People, if we crap on the Republicans who do a good thing, the message that is sent is that crossing Trump doesn’t get you anything but scorn. We need to create a permission structure for movement against Trump. Support the steps they take. Scorning them is counterproductive https://t.co/hb458YMufI
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) October 4, 2019
We’re so desperate for adults in the room — not only our preferred progressive leaders, but a few dignified and principled conservatives to pair them with — that we mistake the most timid dissent within the ranks of the GOP for crusading bravery. I suppose this is a better show of resistance than all the chickenshits who quit rather than face re-election (and so they could, after abdicating any responsibility, continue to whine on the sidelines), but Romney saying “huh, sure looks bad” to earnest replies of “thank you, sir,” feels like outright farce.
Would I like to be proven an unjustified cynic? To see Romney push for a thorough investigation of Trump, his family, his finances and his cronies? Too right. But I bet you’re struggling to picture any of it.
Mitt Romney succeeded at everything he did in life: academics, business, family life. The presidency eluded him, but he can gain a place in history greater than many presidents by his actions over the next 12 months.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) October 4, 2019
So, as with impeachment fever in general, try not to get your hopes up over cautiously worded, practically focus-grouped statements of vague disquietude. These lizard-brains may not care for Trump’s foul demeanor or ripshit tweets, but they love his base, and they support almost every plank of the regressive, late-capitalist dystopia platform he represents. If they do want him gone, it will first and foremost be a matter of insulating themselves, their party and their horrible policies from the fallout. You’re a chump to expect anything else.
We’ll be watching, Mitt.
Miles Klee
Miles Klee is MEL’s resident tank-top dirtbag, shitposter and meme expert. He’s also the author of the novel ‘Ivyland’ and a story collection, ‘True False.’
