Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has expressed dismay over his party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump — and over what he calls Democratic Party and Republican Party populism and demogogery. He’s now one of the GOPers hoping that those who don’t want to vote for Trump or the Democratic nominee will have a third choice, a third party candidate. And he praised the man who ran as Vice President on his 2012 ticket, House Speaker Paul Ryan, for saying he needed more time before he could endorse Trump. The comments came at a dinner in Washington Thursday night:
“I see way too much demagoguery and populism on both sides of the aisle and I only hope and aspire that we’ll see more greatness,” Romney said.
Asked about a possible independent run, he said, “No, I’m certainly going to be hoping that we find someone who I have my confidence in who becomes nominee. I don’t intend on supporting either of the major party candidates at this point.”
Earlier in his remarks, Romney cited a commencement speech former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg made last week in which he blasted demagogues.
“He basically said, look, on the left you have this demagoguery saying all these problems in the country is because of the bankers, and people of wealth, successful people,” Romney recounted. “And on the right, demagogues saying, ‘Well, no, these problems mostly involve these Muslims coming in and the Mexicans and so we’re scapegoating, which is a characteristic of a demagogue’s approach. And clearly that’s not going to solve the problems that the country faces.”
AND:
“I don’t know what happens when we elect somebody to the White House what they’ll do as opposed to what they’re saying, but I certainly think this is a critical time for freedom, a critical time for America. I think it happens to be an inflection point in our history as we go through this dramatic change economically and militarily, socially, all those things … And I happen to think that the person who is leading the nation has an enormous and disproportionate impact on the course of the world, so I am dismayed at where we are now, I wish we had better choices, and I keep hoping that somehow things will get better, and I just don’t see an easy answer from where we are.”
Yes we’ve seen a major deterioration in out political system. Part of it, as Neil Gabler points out, is to the role of social media (and I would add radio and cable ideological talk shows), and the decline of the mainstream media. But the dangers as cited by Romney and by Andrew Sullivan who notes that America is ripe for tyranny are r-e-a-l.
And the unfortunate part: Romney’s comments will fall on people with their fingers in the ears when it comes to Trump. They’ll only think of sound bytes about Romney and respond with snark. But Romney has been on track about Trump’s danger to his party — and to the country — in recent months. Which some say helped Trump get more support.
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.