Why Mitt Romney’s Call for Moderation Is Dishonest And Dangerous

In an essay published on July 4 in The Atlantic, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, sounded off on the political polarization tearing apart the nation. In expected fashion, he directs the most ire against Donald Trump-supporting conservatives for making the United States “a nation in denial.”

Specifically, he says these Republican voters deny the seriousness of climate change and January 6, 2021. He somehow absolves Joe Biden of any blame for our nation’s current messes and instead blames Americans: “President Joe Biden is a genuinely good man, but he has yet been unable to break through our national malady of denial, deceit, and distrust.” After making his case for compromise, Romney concludes with the hope that a future leader not named Trump “will rise above the din to unite us behind the truth.”

To say that Romney’s essay is banal, insipid, or shallow would be an understatement. At this point, under this leadership, and with major problems plaguing the country, Romney’s argument is outright dangerous. He completely mischaracterizes the situation, acting as if both sides are at fault and a middle ground can be found when it’s clear Democrats are fully intent on wrecking the American constitutional order and putting the country at risk of disintegration.

You Don’t Compromise with Extremists

In every regard, Biden and the Democrats have been a disaster, and not accidentally either. The economy is headed toward a recession, with inflation spiraling out of control. The U.S. southern border is not secure, is a major national security risk, and smugglers are committing human atrocities on a daily basis, such as the 53 illegal immigrants who were effectively cooked to death in an abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio. Crime continues to surge in U.S. cities, along with homelessness and drug overdose deaths. On top of all this, the gargantuan national debt continues to grow.

Worse, there seems to be little recourse for all this. Normally, Americans could appeal to lawmakers’ better judgment or vote them out, but this hasn’t worked for decades. Politicians are more beholden to billionaires, corporate media, and special interest groups than the Americans they’re supposed to serve. And as the 2020 presidential election showed, there are many ways to rig an election and put an ineffective partisan hack into office.

Furthermore, Democrats have routinely violated the Constitution, refusing to enforce laws against violent criminals, weaponizing government agencies against political opponents, and denying Americans their basic rights like free speech and owning a firearm. Even though Romney has hurt feelings because “MAGA loyalists snicker … and celebrate that most people weren’t watching” the Jan. 6 show trial, he should pay attention to the hundreds of Americans rotting in a D.C. jail as they await their day in court for committing the misdemeanor crime of walking into the Capitol at the wrong time.

Quite understandably, many Republican voters are not just upset at this situation, but fearful. They see their country turning into a tyranny that wants to silence and oppress them. Today’s left increasingly believes in nothing except power. Consequently, they lie about everything, introduce chaos and dysfunction into society, demonize and ruin all dissenters, and hoard as much power and money as they can.

That’s why Romney’s anachronistic calls for compromise and unity can’t be tolerated. They will inevitably lead to a one-party state that serves an elite class of Americans while driving everyone into dependency on government. Already this can be seen in Democrat-run states and cities, where politicians do what they please and continue being reelected despite their obvious corruption and incompetence.

It’s Happened Elsewhere, It Can Happen Here

For anyone who doubts this could happen on a national level, they should take a look at the recent election of Columbia’s new president, Gustavo Petro, a former narco-guerrilla and avowed socialist. On the surface, there was absolutely no good reason for Columbians to elect him.

As Monica Showalter explains in an aptly titled article for American Thinker, “Columbia’s Election: How could the voters be so stupid?,” Columbians knew better than anyone what electing a leftist populist would do: “If the shambles of the country weren’t enough, they have millions of Venezuelan illegals in their country who have fled the socialist hellhole to tell them all about it.” Sure, their country wasn’t perfect, but it could’ve been far, far worse.

Nevertheless, they went ahead and essentially voted for the inferior sequel to the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Why? It wasn’t because Petro had something to offer — quite the contrary — but because conservatives in the country had failed. They failed in their response to Covid, growing the economy, maintaining law and order, and stopping leftist indoctrination at the schools and universities.

Much of this was the result of following Romney-like advice to compromise with a left intent on national destruction. The conservative party aimed to please all sides and ended up losing everything because they couldn’t understand that their opponents only use compromise to buy time to accomplish far worse.

And once the radical left takes control, it becomes very difficult to remove them. Like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro, extremist left politicians will quickly dismantle any system that checks their power and holds them accountable. They rig elections, confiscate property, brutalize and imprison dissenters, brainwash the masses with propaganda, and impoverish the country to the point that citizens become helpless.

This is why conservatives should stop paying any mind to ostensibly “moderate” Republicans like Romney, Rep. Liz Cheney, and Sen. Susan Collins. They are more than mere nuisances who are unreliable and out of touch; their work in hampering conservative policies and trying to win favor from Democrats enables a grave threat to the nation’s constitutional order. They are appeasers of the worst kind, treating all sides as if they all negotiate in good faith and claiming the moral high ground while their country goes up in flames.

Contrary to Romney’s argument, it is he and his fellow moderates who are in denial. They are pushing the lie that today’s conflict is between two parties who have alternative approaches to achieving the common good for all Americans. In reality, one party wants to destroy the country, and the other party doesn’t (to say that the GOP wants to actively build up the country might be too kind). There is no middle ground right now, and the sooner Americans realize this and respond appropriately, the sooner our dysfunction and polarization will diminish.

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