{"id":82707,"date":"2020-02-07T15:29:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T22:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=82707"},"modified":"2020-02-10T22:07:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T05:07:34","slug":"mitt-romney-a-rino-a-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/mitt-romney-a-rino-a-democrat.html","title":{"rendered":"Mitt Romney a RINO?  A Democrat?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33747\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33747\" style=\"width: 597px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/05\/631px-Gilbert_Stuart_Williamstown_Portrait_of_George_Washington.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-33747\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/05\/631px-Gilbert_Stuart_Williamstown_Portrait_of_George_Washington.jpg\" alt=\"Gilbert Stuart's Washington\" width=\"597\" height=\"727\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33747\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 1797 portrait of George Washington, a forerunner to President Donald J. Trump, painted by Gilbert Stuart \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Of course, nobody really expected graciousness from President Trump:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/videos\/trump-hits-romney-as-democrat\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cTrump Hits Romney as \u2018Democrat'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And, quite predictably, many infuriated Trumpists have been denouncing Senator Romney as a \u201cRINO,\u201d a \u201cRepubican in Name Only.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is flat nonsense. \u00a0It is either ignorant or dishonest or some blend of the two.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My friend and neighbor Tom L. Pittman VII posted a refreshing bit of sanity on Facebook the other day and has kindly given me permission to steal it for use here:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">There is a certain group of people who have convinced themselves and each other that Mitt Romney is a RINO, anti-Trump, and has to go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">As fervently as they believe this, they are actually wrong \u2014 both in their perception, and in their behavior.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">The truth is Mitt votes with Trump 81% of the time \u2014 making Mitt Romney a bigger Trump supporter than Mike Lee (74%) and Rand Paul (70%).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"text_exposed_show\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Moreover, contrary to the mean-spirited attacks from this bubble, Romney is not a closet Democrat. No sitting Democrat votes with Trump more than Joe Manchin of West Virginia (54%) \u2014 a LONG way behind Mitt Romney.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">If you struggle to believe these *documented facts*, then maybe you should ask yourself, \u201cIs my contempt based in reality? Or on hate?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Obviously Romney was very vocal in his criticisms of Trump. I too thought Romney seemed petty in this <span style=\"color: #000000;\">[we disagree here \u2014 dcp]<\/span>, but TO HIS CREDIT Romney dialed that way back. Nevertheless, this Trump bubble continues to lash out in retaliation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Which brings me to my point:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Mitt Romney is not what is wrong with America; political bigotry is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Whether it be Trump\u2019s refusing to shake the hand of Pelosi, or Pelosi ripping up Trump\u2019s speech, political intolerance is counterproductive and flat out immature.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Good people of *all* political persuasions should just decide to be be above that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Thanks for listening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">p.s.: thanks to\u00a0<a class=\"profileLink decorated-link\" style=\"color: #800000;\" title=\"Shelby Saget Rampton\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/shelby.rampton?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R&amp;eid=ARBVF7zlXhbBzLhbCMEaHNX3xB5QYo7qEr50UdxBK_6vc7AlTKtMcWxvV6yoYa2p38T3by0QVwtvsKrL&amp;fref=mentions\" data-hovercard=\"\/ajax\/hovercard\/user.php?id=1305733694&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22__tn__%22%3A%22%2CdK-R-R%22%2C%22eid%22%3A%22ARBVF7zlXhbBzLhbCMEaHNX3xB5QYo7qEr50UdxBK_6vc7AlTKtMcWxvV6yoYa2p38T3by0QVwtvsKrL%22%2C%22fref%22%3A%22mentions%22%7D\" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Shelby Saget Rampton<\/a>\u00a0for bringing this data to my attention.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And please permit me to clarify something else:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My praise of Senator Romney for his vote on Wednesday should not be interpreted as an endorsement of impeachment. \u00a0Although I haven\u2019t been shy about the fact that, in my judgment, Donald Trump is a phony who is pretending to be a conservative and that he is intellectually unfit for and morally unworthy of the presidency, I actually have mixed feelings on the specific recent case for removing Mr. Trump from office. \u00a0Moreover, like Senator Romney, I support more of the Trump administration\u2019s policies than I oppose. \u00a0I\u2019m <em>happy<\/em>, for instance, that Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh now sit on the Supreme Court. \u00a0I will <em>never<\/em> vote for Joe Biden or Pete Buttigieg, let alone for Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My praise of Senator Romney for his vote on Wednesday derives from the moral courage that he manifested in casting it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m proud of him, and I don\u2019t flinch from saying so. \u00a0I\u2019m sorry that I\u2019ve lost friends over this. \u00a0Still,\u00a0<em>Padre no me arrepiento.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 Of course, nobody really expected graciousness from President Trump: \u00a0 \u201cTrump Hits Romney as \u2018Democrat&#8217;\u201d \u00a0 And, quite predictably, many infuriated Trumpists have been denouncing Senator Romney as a \u201cRINO,\u201d a \u201cRepubican in Name Only.\u201d \u00a0 This is flat nonsense. \u00a0It is either ignorant or dishonest or some blend of the two. \u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8223,7650,8211,8208,326,8220,8214,734,8217,4802,719],"class_list":["post-82707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conservative","tag-donald","tag-mike-lee","tag-mitt","tag-mitt-romney","tag-name-only","tag-rand-paul","tag-republican","tag-rino","tag-romney","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mitt Romney a RINO? A Democrat?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; Of course, nobody really expected graciousness from President Trump: &nbsp; &quot;Trump Hits Romney as &#039;Democrat&#039;&quot; &nbsp; And, quite predictably,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/mitt-romney-a-rino-a-democrat.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mitt Romney a RINO? A Democrat?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; Of course, nobody really expected graciousness from President Trump: &nbsp; &quot;Trump Hits Romney as &#039;Democrat&#039;&quot; &nbsp; And, quite predictably,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/mitt-romney-a-rino-a-democrat.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-07T22:29:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-11T05:07:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/05\/631px-Gilbert_Stuart_Williamstown_Portrait_of_George_Washington.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/mitt-romney-a-rino-a-democrat.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/mitt-romney-a-rino-a-democrat.html\",\"name\":\"Mitt Romney a RINO? 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