We are now witnessing how ringing declarations about how someone is a threat to the way we’ve conducted our democracy wind up being just that — ringing declarations where principles are discarded as soon as power is dangled temptingly. The “Never Trumpers” who took such sharp issue with Trump that they vowed “never” are increasingly echoing a famous expression of Lucy in the classic sitcom “I Love Lucy.”
Now that the election is over when it comes to serving in a Trump administration or supporting her the word “Never” has been replaced by “Wellllllllll….”
Nowhere has that been more glaring in the case of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. In March he made big new when he delivered a withering speech blasting now-President-elect Donald Trump during the primaries. Read the full text HERE. But then Trump talked with him and Romney met with Trump for dinner amid reports that Romney was under consideration for the Secretary of State job. After the dinner, Romney praised Trump and said: ‘America’s best days are ahead of us.” It wasn’t just a statement about how if called it would be his duty to serve his President and country. Suddenly, with a dinner, all the things he said in March were seemingly swept away. Plus, Romney had been a seemingly earnest moderate Republican Governor, who suddenly had seemingly jettisoned his moderate stands to run unsuccessfully for President in 2012. So this could be seen as his second major flip flop.
In politics, principles are fluid and relative. A photo was published of Trump and Romney at dinner and the Internet had a field day: on Twitter the photo was run with often-hilarious reactions (GO HERE to see some of the best).
So perhaps this little known song by classic satirist Tom Lehrer (who wrote the music, lyrics and sings it) should be Mitt Romney’s new, defining theme song. Just substitute the idea of money for power.
NOTE: Tom Lehrer wrote incredible songs and lyrics and had enormous pizzazz when he performed his work. The bulk of his work is available on Amazon.com and is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Here’s what they have.
A collection that offers a CD and then the other disc is a DVD with rare recording of him performing his songs before live audiences:
And on these CDs (some CDs contain different versions of songs that may appear on others so check the content):
Romney photo credit: Gage Skidmore Mitt Romney via photopin (license)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.