Michelle Goldberg has written an op-ed for the New York Times, Biden Is Trying to Jolt Us Out of Learned Helplessness About Trump. I found it well worth reading. In her essay, Ms. Goldberg refers to statements that Mitt Romney made last Friday.
After Joe Biden’s speech on Friday marking the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection and laying out the democratic stakes of the next election, Mitt Romney pronounced himself unimpressed. “As a Biden campaign theme, I think the ‘threat to democracy’ pitch is a bust,” the Utah Republican told a New York Times reporter. “Biden needs fresh material, a new attack, rather than kicking a dead political horse.” [Emphasis added.]
I find Romney’s above-quoted statements infuriating.
Supposedly, Romney understands the threats that Trump and Trumpism represent. If he does, then Why The Hell is he willing to dismiss Joe Biden’s warnings about those very same threats as Yesterday’s Papers?
In Mormon lore, there is something called The White Horse Prophecy. According to one version, Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, once said that a time would come when the Constitution of the United States would hang by a thread, and that Mormons would rescue it.
In this year of 2024, the Constitution really may be hanging by a thread. The Presidential Election may be extremely close. Trump will surely do almost anything and everything that he can to win, because a victory would be his Get Out Of Jail Free Card.
If Trump succeeds in pulling off another win in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote by several millions, the results will be disastrous. Trump is already rubbing his hands at the prospects of becoming Dictator for A Day, and of exacting retribution from all who have dared to oppose him.
If Mitt Romney really does care about the future of this country, then, rather than dismissing President Biden's warnings like a slogan from a stale ad campaign, Senator Romney should be embracing the President’s message, and should be putting himself out there, on a regular basis, to amplify that message.
Mitt Romney should even endorse Joe Biden for President, although I can see why he might want to wait to do that until after Trump has succeeded in getting the Republican nomination, or at least until after Trump has gathered sufficient RNC delegates in his column to ensure that he will receive the Republican nomination at the Republican National Convention this Summer.
As the old typing exercise puts it, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.”
Both Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have clearly seen the need. Both of them are putting themselves out there, despite the risk that some armed Trumper will decide to exact retribution on behalf of The Barking Yam. As much as I have disagreed with each of them about various policy issues over the years, I must give a tip of the hat to each for standing up for our country and for our Constitutional System.
Now, Mitt, it’s your turn. Real leaders help shape public opinion: they do not throw up their hands and capitulate to it.