Posted on 07/07/2015 6:17:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Not a very good Fourth for The Donald. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R), a candidate for president in 2016, stated it plainly: "He's running to be president of all of us. It takes a level of maturity and thoughtfulness and demeanor that's not being exhibited here."
But this episode might be seen in hindsight as a definitive and serendipitous moment in the American chronicles. Because Donald Trump angered former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. And Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has become a commanding voice of moral leadership in the Republican Party. "I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans," said Romney. "And it's unfortunate."
The language — "severe error" — resonated with nuance. Subtle and understated, it brought to my mind a scene from "The Godfather": Don Corleone at the head of the table, cat dozing on his lap, about to make a fateful pronouncement.
Trump is now a casualty of the campaign. He can play along or he can go home. But did he really think he would be elected president?
The quiet authority of Romney rises today above the others and it is authentic, but it is new. It may be instructive that the first thing to rise from the benighted sea of unconsciousness that is the blogosphere when FIFA was seen to be rife with corruption was that that could be a job for Romney. It is what he does, no? Fix things that are broken. The question could not be far away: Then maybe he could fix us, no?
We have come to appreciate Romney and grant him this moral authority because of how we have come to know him. As we see him, it would not occur to him or his wife and family to advance with treachery, duplicity or deception. Because they are inherently honest. Because they are inscrutably moral and have a distinct, historical, American work ethic.
The Romneys are all the things today so many of us used to be so long ago and it all seems to come so naturally to them; as if they were a holdout from our past — or a vision of our future. And that is why we think of them in an emergency like FIFA; to fix the things that are broken — that we broke — in a world that is always breaking. Almost as a child would call on a parent.
And status rises today for presidential hopefuls like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) or anyone else invited to his retreat in Wolfeboro, N.H., as these two were this Fourth of July weekend.
His authority is palpable. When he tweeted, "Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol," it was a done deal.
If America today ever suggests a time, it might be the early and mid 1800s, when it could be fairly said that America had become unhinged. Possibly we are unhinged again today. Constitutionally protected freedom of religion was taken to heart shortly after the Revolution. Bronson Alcott and Mary Moody Emerson were teaching the Vedas to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and they in turn to New England's Transcendentalist preachers and poets. New religious movements were rising spontaneously across Vermont and western New York, bringing radical new sexual mores and marriage models with them, as in religious cults in which all members were married one to the other.
But it flipped almost overnight under the influence of British evangelicals and moral crusaders like William Lloyd Garrison, who virtually rebooted America as a fighting force against slavery. This might be considered a classical collective reaction. The Sixties' stunning new awakenings brought moral and personal chaos in its wake as well. But President Reagan would soon return America to a tradition of public responsibility when he carried 49 states in his 1984 election.
If again we flip back to order in 2016, as we have done in these past eras, I've no doubt to whom we will return: Romney or the lucky chosen ones the Godfather cultivates on our behalf in his New Hampshire visits and Western soirees like the E2 Summit in Deer Valley, Utah, which Romney hosted this June, described as an opportunity for "'influential business, political and global policy leaders'" to talk about the country's future.
History runs in epic periods; from Jefferson's colonials to Andrew Jackson roughnecks, from Victoria on to the Roosevelts and then to what political analyst Larry Sabato correctly called the "Kennedy half-century."
The "Kennedy half-century" is now passing. President Obama might be figuratively seen as the "last Kennedy." We face a new half-century now rising. It could be Mitt Romney's.
*********
Quigley is a prize-winning writer who has worked more than 35 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and reviewer. For 20 years he has been an amateur farmer, raising Tunis sheep and organic vegetables. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and four children. Contact him at quigley1985@gmail.com
And Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has become a commanding voice of moral leadership
I’m sure Romney holds some sway with the checked pants Republicans, but in flyover country we wish he would just shut up and go away.
I see them on the couch, in their sweaters, looking all cozy like, as Ann Romney assures the interviewer that they are pro-abortion, Ann was the first one of the two to be elected to political office.
Illustrating a real nasty temper and a little chutzpah would make Romney the nominee. That was his biggest problem last time. His wife was more brave than he was.
“We have come to appreciate Romney and grant him this moral authority because of how we have come to know him.”
I would appreciate it if Romney and his ilk- northeastern gungrabbing liberals who support same-sex marriage- would disappear from the planet altogether.
“And Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has become a commanding voice of moral leadership in the Republican Party”
Leftist writers on drugs.
This reminds me when National Review said that terrorist Mandela had more moral authority than anyone else on Earth.
I find nothing particularly objectionable about Romney’s morality, but I think he’s inappropriate to engage in a political battle with the left.
Insofar as this being a “Kennedy” era, I find that to be unsupported.
It would be more appropriate to say it’s the continuing era of Roosevelt, but even further to the left and with absolutely no sense of history or morality nor national pride.
In other words it’s mob rule.
Any new era will be in 100% opposition to it or the country will be lost forever.
some conservatism might have helped
My prediction is that the pre-convention process will not resolve a nominee, and that Romney will be nominated on the third ballot.
His biggest problem last time and every time is that he has taken every side of every issue at some point.
I held my nose last time, but I believed none of what he said.
And Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has become a commanding voice of moral leadership in the Republican Party.
.......................
Did his wife, ala Betsy Ross, stitch the New Flag of the Republican Party?
A White Star on a White Background.
me too, e may be a lot of things but after the crap he had pulled on Palin, moral isnt one of them.
I don’t know if anyone remembers the Princess and the Pea, but here is Ann Romney telling of the hard scrabble college days of her and Mitt.
“They were not easy years. You have to understand, I was raised in a lovely neighborhood, as was Mitt, and at BYU, we moved into a $62-a-month basement apartment with a cement floor and lived there two years as students with no income. It was tiny. And I didn’t have money to carpet the floor. But you can get remnants, samples, so I glued them together, all different colors. It looked awful, but it was carpeting.
We were happy, studying hard. Neither one of us had a job, because Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time. The stock came from Mitt’s father. When he took over American Motors, the stock was worth nothing. But he invested Mitt’s birthday money year to year—it wasn’t much, a few thousand, but he put it into American Motors because he believed in himself. Five years later, stock that had been $6 a share was $96 and Mitt cashed it so we could live and pay for education.
Mitt and I walked to class together, shared housekeeping, had a lot of pasta and tuna fish and learned hard lessons.”
It’s just like reading Charles Dickens, isn’t it?
The self-described “severe conservative” thinks Trump made a “severe mistake”. I think Romney is overusing, if not misusing the world “severe”.
It’s a “Romney half-century” only in this silly writer’s imagination.
Quigley picked the wrong day to stop huffing Tunis sheep dung.
I do believe that Mr. B. Quigley is serious, unfortunately for him. This article is a laugh riot.
Starting with the first two lines. Pansy Grahamnesty’s statement:
“He’s running to be president of all of us.”
...all of us. All of the US. Trump was not talking about US, American citizens. He was talking about them. The scofflaw, disease ridden, non driving, murderous, raping, thieving, criminal illegals that Mehico and other nations have illegally sent to flood across our border. None of them should ever be considered one of US. They are theirs and should be returned immediately.
The article proceeded to deteriorate into a laugh riot with this statement:
“But this episode might be seen in hindsight as a definitive and serendipitous moment in the American chronicles. Because Donald Trump angered former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. And Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has become a commanding voice of moral leadership in the Republican Party.”
So this clown imagines that the father of gay marriage and Obamacare, lover of baby murder and mandates is a commanding voice of “moral” leadership in the republican party? Have they started booing God in the republican party now too? Or have they just been sitting in and taking notes in Jimmy Carter’s Sunday school classes?
Finally, right before I started laughing so hard I couldn’t read any more, Quigley wrote this:
‘”I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans,” said Romney. “And it’s unfortunate.”
The language — “severe error” — resonated with nuance.’
Severe error? That language is nuanced? We’ve been exposed to it from Romney before. I’ve already learned from Romney’s “severe conservative” remark that severe before a word means the opposite of whatever he says. So in Romney speak, severe error means Trump is absolutely correct. So nuanced it means exactly the opposite and brings us right back to remembering what a liar Romney is.
Finally Mr. Commanding Voice of Moral Leadership flat out lied about who Trump was speaking about. Trump didn’t say a word about Mexican-”Americans,” he was talking about illegal aliens, criminals, scofflaws, who prey on Americans of Mexican or any other origin.
This entire article looks like it was bought and paid for, commissioned by Mitt, just like we used to see when he was running for president. A lie here and a lie there. Maybe Mitt can say he got Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Mother Theresa to rise from the grave and march with him to prove his moral authority. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
I could give a rats a$$ what Romney says or thinks!
>>>It would be more appropriate to say it’s the continuing era of Roosevelt, but even further to the left and with absolutely no sense of history or morality nor national pride.
In other words it’s mob rule.
Any new era will be in 100% opposition to it or the country will be lost forever.<<<
Well stated.
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