While loyalty may not be a particularly common attribute among politicians, it still counts for something. Politicians are still human beings and can distinguish between those around them that extend a hand when they are in trouble and those who take pleasure in putting their foot on their back during times when they are down and out.
In the midst of a very difficult campaign when Donald Trump was being attacked from all sides with accusations of racism, sexism, of being Hitler, and anything else that made him a less attractive human being, Mitt Romney reappeared from the wilderness and squarely placed his foot on Trump’s back.
His attack speech on Trump in March though may have actually helped Trump as it reminded voters that he truly was an outsider that threatened the political establishment. Many voters took the position of supporting Trump not because they particularly liked him, but because so many in the political and media classes, on both the right and the left, disdained him.
There’s nothing more satisfying than disappointing those in power who insult the candidate and those in middle America he supposedly represents. Romney, during that speech, represented all of those inside the corridors of power who mockingly predicted that Trump and his pitchfork revolution would fail. There’s nothing like supporting an underdog and watching him pull off a miracle with all the world seemingly against him.
Trump, attacked from all sides, was the perfect vehicle for this narrative; a rich, brash New Yorker who didn’t need anyone’s money, who had never held or ran for political office before, and who spoke in the parlance of a normal, working-class guy, not a career politician. He was everything Mitt Romney was not as a candidate in 2012.
Romney’s speech in March simply highlighted this contrast and with his stiff and country club persona reminded the voters that perhaps it was a time to take a chance on someone who didn’t spend most of his adult life doing nothing more than flying around the world and giving speeches.
It also didn’t help that Romney spoke as though he knew better than the people he was speaking to. No one likes to be lectured to on why thier concerns and values are misplaced and why they should reconsider them. Romney’s appeal to those voters fell flat and most probably aggravated them even more. Trump wasn’t on the stage during that speech, but he was certainly the beneficiary of the lecture.
And when you look at what Romney actually said about Trump during that speech, you do have to wonder if Trump realizes how much credence he will give to those words if he appoints Romney as Secretary of State.
“Here’s what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.”
If Trump–who promised to drain the swamp in Washington of the very people Romney represents–goes ahead and appoints him as his Secretary of State, that warning from Romney in March that Trump’s “promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University” may very well have been a fair warning.
But if that wasn’t bad enough, Romney also told voters that when it comes to foreign policy, Trump is “very, very, not smart.” Those words alone should disqualify Romney for the position.
Why Trump would consider appointing Romney as his Secretary of State has made many who voted for him very nervous, indeed. If, in fact, Trump does go forward and chooses Romney, many will believe that Trump has broken his promise to embark on a new, fresh foreign policy, free of the stale, neocon thinking that has been such a disaster over the past fifteen years. Rather than draining the swamp, Trump seems to be considering replenishing it.
This is not the start his supporters expected.
