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Republicans Need to Avoid Becoming Democrats on Purity
Townhall.com ^ | January 9, 2020 | Derek Hunter

Posted on 02/09/2020 3:32:31 AM PST by Kaslin

It’s tempting to jump on the bandwagon and attack Massachusetts Senator by proxy Mitt Romney of Utah, but what does it get you? Nothing. I was initially disgusted by his decision to vote guilty on the first article of impeachment, then I realized I simply didn’t care what he does or thinks about anything. And seeking retribution for something that ultimately doesn’t matter actually takes away from a very powerful weapon the GOP has against the Democrats: their demand for purity.

Democrats are the party of absolute uniformity, demanding conformity from its members. Pro-life Democrats are silenced until they can be run out of the party. Oppose socialized medicine? Better keep that to yourself or else you’ll find yourself with a primary challenger embraced by your colleagues. Refuse to denounce capitalism as a cog in the racist oppression machine that is the United States of America? Good luck holding a town hall meeting without being shouted down as history’s greatest monster.

The Democratic Party has created an outrage mob in which someone who supports their agenda 99.9 percent of the time is their 100 percent enemy, and it is hurting them with voters. Americans don’t like drones, we like winners. That someone disagrees with us on something is not cause to never speak to them again, unfriending/blocking people over a single issue/tweet/post is the domain of the left. Normal people have experienced this firsthand when they read the unhinged comments on Facebook from “friends” when they post anything positive about President Trump, the economy, killing a terrorist leader, or anything insufficiently “woke.”

The Pavlovian freakouts occur constantly, and being able to weaponize this demand for absolute obedience to progressive groupthink is a powerful tool Republicans have effectively used to turn people off to the Democrat mob. That’s why becoming them is a bad idea.

Mitt Romney is an idiot. Changing one’s mind on some issues, even slightly, is expected over the course of your life. Experience always does that, or at least should. But Mitt has done 180s, 360s, 540s, and 720s on so many issues over his political career that he either has no idea what he believes or he “believes” in nothing and will do whatever he thinks will help him at a given moment. Whatever his rationale happens to be, it doesn’t matter.

Romney voted to convict the president on one article of impeachment – so what? We all knew it was possible, even likely. The president was still acquitted. That’s what history will record. You remember who won the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, World Series, etc., not the score.

My father taught me that it doesn’t matter if you win by one or one million, what matters is you got the victory. President Trump got the victory. Democrat journalists praising Romney as a hero will be forgotten by history because it did not matter, it didn’t make a difference.

I didn’t believe him either when he was moral-peacocking on the Senate floor about how his faith led him to this decision, but I also didn’t care. When I started seeing people wanting to expel him from the party or ridiculous and constitutionally impossible calls to recall him, I thought they were equally dumb.

Romney votes with Republicans the vast majority of the time, and he’s not up for reelection until 2024. There’s nothing the GOP can and should do to him. It was one vote, one time. Yes, it was a big deal, but it will also be forgotten by anyone not served politically by remembering it by tomorrow. Unless Republicans spend the rest of the year seeking revenge over it and make Mitt into a martyr.

Romney craves attention, don’t give it to him. Ignore him; freeze him out. When asked about him, on any issue, the response should be a simple, “I don’t really care what he does.” The media will elevate him, we don’t have to play along.

But don’t try to run him out of the party either. Be bigger than Democrats. Don’t be them. Use their inability to accept differing opinions, to tolerate someone not conforming, hurts them. The endless stream of videos of speakers being shouted down, of people being harassed, is one of the greatest election advantages we have. The “party of tolerance” being intolerant of dissent differentiates us from them. If we join them, we lose that advantage.

We’ve known we couldn’t count on Mitt Romney since he ran for president in 2008, so his vote really surprises no one. It also changed nothing. President Trump is acquitted, period. Democrats are still unhinged, demanding absolute loyalty to policy and ideology or else. We don’t beat them by becoming them. You want to go after Romney, do it when he’s on the ballot again in 2024, the only time it can be done.

Until then, welcome his vote when we get it, and ignore him when we don’t. With the exception of a very few, history doesn’t remember senators, no matter how beloved they were by the media. Let them write books praising him, they won’t be read because who cares? Keep your eyes on the prize. November is coming. Elections are about the future. Focus your energy on what’s to come, not what’s come and gone. No amount of anger will change his decision, and since it wasn’t even close to being the deciding vote, no one will remember it, or him, either.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: mittromney
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To: Kaslin

We have plenty of variation in the GOP but people like mccain and romney are traitors, pure and simple. As are anyone covering for them. Burn in hell.


21 posted on 02/09/2020 4:44:41 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Kaslin

Rand Paul and Matt Gaetz are diverse thinkers in the GOP.

Romney is a smarmy, treasonous, inbred traitor.


22 posted on 02/09/2020 4:58:55 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Kaslin
My father taught me that it doesn’t matter if you win by one or one million, what matters is you got the victory

This idiot is an idiot.

Sometimes it matter that you win by a a landslide. Then the issue is put to bed forever. Furthermore, it shows Romney is a vindictive little bitch - we all knew that. As the author says, you need to win by one vote. Well Romney has shown himself to be the one vote we will lose by. Just like his brother McLame who was the last man standing to rescue us from Obamacare repeal making him a hero for all time among the big winners of Obamacare - K street and those it advocates for.

Eff Romney and eff anyone who thinks there is an excuse for his sorry tail.

It's not about ideological purity. It's about America, and being wrong on America is not an opinion.

Maybe Ilhan should marry him since they share religions that believe in polygamy.

23 posted on 02/09/2020 5:04:43 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: Samurai_Jack
aslin i’m tempted to agree with the guy about becoming democrats on purity.

It's not about purity. It's about America are we going to be a first world country with rule of law or are we going to be a corrupt 3rd world shithole. Impeachment was about corruption, front and center, and Romney voted for corruption. It's what you would expect. He was a global vulture capitalist.

24 posted on 02/09/2020 5:08:18 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: Kaslin

The issue here is not that Willard is some Senator that has an independent opinion. It’s about loyalty. Trump supported that creep for President then Willard has a speech bad mouthing Trump before he became President. Then Trump endorsed the scumbag again in 2018 for Senator. Next thing you know he’s always criticizing Trump on all kinds of issues and then the coup de gras, he stabs Trump in the back with a guilty vote that anybody that was honest could see was a sham impeachment. No folks, Willard is not someone that is being virtuous,he’s just a plain old ingrate. And that’s putting it mildly.


25 posted on 02/09/2020 5:09:54 AM PST by HighSierra5
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To: wastoute

The traitor in your own foxhole is the most dangerous enemy you will ever face.


26 posted on 02/09/2020 5:10:00 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson

Cicero. IIRC.


27 posted on 02/09/2020 5:10:47 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: kingu

What is coming by March 17th?


28 posted on 02/09/2020 5:10:57 AM PST by nfldgirl
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To: Kaslin

The Romney’s vote was delivered to remove the President Trump from office! That is the main reason Romney is a very dangerous person for the GOP. Need to get rid of him. His vote was not against any of debated policies-what will be accepted.


29 posted on 02/09/2020 5:14:09 AM PST by cambyses
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To: Kaslin

Most of what you post is crap.


30 posted on 02/09/2020 5:15:06 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Kaslin

Sorry, this is not a purity test. Here comes the pearl-clutching.

What good is it when you can not trust or count on “your friend”?

Examine Romney’s past deeds, then examine his motives. I’ve made up my own judgement.


31 posted on 02/09/2020 5:15:53 AM PST by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = USSR; Journ0List + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey)
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To: Kaslin

What a BS article! Pierre Delecto, the back-stabbing, lying, traitor is worse than any vermin alive. He’s like a John Kerry clone except John doesn’t pretend and deceive like Romney does.

He’s a good example why I respect Democrats more than RINO’s. At least most of them tell you they want to destroy America.


32 posted on 02/09/2020 5:27:29 AM PST by Old Man From WV
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To: Kaslin; All

33 posted on 02/09/2020 5:30:47 AM PST by HotHunt (Been there. Done that.)
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To: nfldgirl

That’s the announced publication date for John Bolton’s book; I’m assuming whatever Romney has concocted will be related to that release.


34 posted on 02/09/2020 5:30:48 AM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: Kaslin
Under normal circumstances I’d be inclined to agree with the author, but certainly not in this case.

This wasn’t a case of a moderate Republican in a “blue” state like Susan Collins casting an “impure” vote for the sake of political expediency. Mitt Romney represents one of the most reliably Republican states in the U.S., and there was absolutely no downside for him to cast the correct vote to acquit President Trump.

Something else to consider here is that Romney cited his “religion” and “conscience” in his explanation for why he voted the way he did, but gave no explanation of the legal or moral principles that underpinned his vote. As such, we should keep in mind that he has now become the most unpredictable and unreliable person in a legislative body where political principles are absolutely critical in winning the confidence of voters. In other words, he’s an utterly unprincipled and dangerous man who should be treated as a Democrat in every political process from this point forward.

35 posted on 02/09/2020 5:38:15 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: Kaslin

What a load of horse crap from Derek Hunter.

It isn’t “groupthink” that causes conservatives en masse to despise Romney.

It is disgust at a repellent decision by Romney to convict a man on charges that he knows are completely contrived on a partisan basis and to do so as a result of his bitterness and personal animus towards President Trump.

Sheesh. He thinks we are like them in denouncing Romney with his “That’s why becoming them is a bad idea” comment.

What a stupid article.


36 posted on 02/09/2020 6:46:30 AM PST by rlmorel (Finding middle ground with tyranny or evil makes you either a tyrant or evil. Often both.)
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To: Kaslin
Mitt Romney is an idiot.

Derek Hunter says Romney is an idiot.

Romney craves attention, don’t give it to him. Ignore him; freeze him out. When asked about him, on any issue, the response should be a simple, “I don’t really care what he does.” The media will elevate him, we don’t have to play along.
But don’t try to run him out of the party either. Be bigger than Democrats. Don’t be them.

In this instance I say Derek Hunter is an idiot.
If POTUS were your child and Romney were a child molester...or is that a bad analogy?

It's how I see it anyway. Choose your own analogy if mine doesn't suit you.

37 posted on 02/09/2020 7:01:29 AM PST by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: stanne

The word used was “purity” and not “unity”...
We have far too many “principled purists’ on our side who would rather lose it all rather than vote for a 85% decent pick.


38 posted on 02/09/2020 7:36:19 AM PST by trebb (Don't howl about illegal leeches, or Trump in general, while not donating to FR - it's hypocritical.)
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To: trebb

I see

Well whatever republicans need to be or not be, according to Mr. Hunter here, he would do well to be informed about Romney.

Why did a Romney vote that way? Why did he not question Obama on Benghazi and his Secretary of State Hilary on allowing the murder of our ambassador in country on 9/11 (2012)?

Why did Romney allow cansy Crowley to interfere in the election on behalf of the democrats?

Rush says Romney didn’t throw the election. Ok. That does not answer those questions

Now is not the time to stand back and say oh well that Romney sure doesn’t like trump

Now is the time for answers like how is Romney tied in with dealmaking with foreign enemies of state.


39 posted on 02/09/2020 7:46:45 AM PST by stanne
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To: Kaslin; AndyJackson; Samurai_Jack; Alberta's Child

Rand Paul comes to mind as someone who veers away from the party and the president occasionally and honorably — out of genuine conviction and commitment to solid values.

Romney does NOT.


40 posted on 02/09/2020 7:47:04 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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