Romney 2012 Redux
Once again, the establishment has already chosen our nominee
Why in Lucifer’s reach does the Republican establishment insist on leaving Republican voters out of the decision-making when it comes to choosing our nominee?
I’ve voted in presidential primaries since 1988, and for as long as I can remember, it has been standard operating procedure for the Washington establishment to pick our nominee and then expect us to simply fall in line.
There’s a reason a common complaint you hear during presidential elections is, “I’m sick of having to hold my nose and vote for the establishment’s pick.”
It happens nearly every time.
It’s how we got stuck with Mitt Romney in 2012.
That pissed me off so much that when the New York primary rolled around in April 2012, I voted for Newt Gingrich, whom I didn’t support, just so I could protest the establishment declaring Romney the chosen one before I had a chance to go to the polls.
The Democrats pulled a leaf out of the Republican establishment’s playbook in 2020 to keep Bernie Sanders from getting the nomination, except, unlike the Republican establishment, the Democrats played hardball. They forced several candidates, including Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, to drop out of the race before South Carolina to ensure their chosen guy Joe Biden would sail to victory and stop the old socialist crank’s march toward the nomination.
Now, four years later, the Republican establishment didn’t even wait until South Carolina to call for the other candidates to quit. Within hours of Trump winning the Iowa caucus, the establishment started yap, yap, yapping about how we have to rally behind Trump and unite because 52,000 people in a country of 320 million chose Trump in the caucus.
They haven’t shut up about it since.
Yesterday, Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted:
It’s time for @NikkiHaley and @RonDeSantis to get out, and the @GOP to rally behind @realDonaldTrump. Together, we can Make America Great Again.
How exactly will losing the White House, Senate, and House to the Democrats in 2024 “Make America Great Again?”
Get bent, Marsha. I’d like a chance to vote in the primary if it’s all the same to you.
Isn’t the point of primaries to give We the People the chance to choose our nominee?
Seriously. It’s Mitt Romney all over again.
If you’re my age, you probably remember the 2012 presidential election. If you’re Trump or Biden’s age, you might not. Then again, if you are as old as Trump or Biden, you might not remember what you ate for breakfast … or who was in charge of the House on January 6, 2021 (let me help you out, Donald: It wasn’t Nikki Haley).
It was clear from the start that Mitt Romney was the establishment’s pick in 2012. It was his turn, don’t you know.
Romney ran in 2008 when it was John McCain’s turn. So as a reward for stepping aside and supporting McCain in 2008, the establishment decided 2012 would be Romney’s turn.
The only difference is that in 2012, the establishment didn’t start the “now is the time to unite” spiel immediately after Iowa. But that’s only because Romney lost Iowa to Rick Santorum.
We were told in 2012 that the sooner we rallied behind Romney, the better chance we would have to defeat Barack Obama. The establishment assured Republican primary voters that only Mitt Romney could send Barack packing.
That worked out great, didn’t it?
And here we are again.
The establishment is assuring voters that only Donald Trump can send Joe Biden packing, which is a bit ironic considering that Donald Trump is the reason Biden packed his bags and moved from his basement in Delaware to the White House in the first place.
It’s obvious why Donald Trump and the billing departments in several law firms would want to short-stop the primary process. Trump needs the deep-pocketed donors backing his remaining challengers to migrate into his camp to help pay his legal bills.
As it is, Trump is already scraping the bottom of the barrel to find legal representation (*cough* Alina Habba *cough*). If he can’t pay the lawyers who are still willing to represent such a terrible client, Donald might have to hop in his limo and scan the highway billboards for an ambulance chaser who isn’t too picky.
The establishment, on the other hand, doesn’t give a damn about Trump’s legal fees. That’s not why they’re backing Trump.
The “it’s-time-to-unite-behind-Trump” people fall into two camps — those who want to move beyond Trump and those whose political futures depend on keeping Trump and his supporters happy.
The ones eager to finally close the book on Trump have decided that the best way to do it is to let him run in November so he can once again lose to Biden. For them, the Democrats keeping the White House for another four years is a small price to pay if it means getting rid of Trump.
The other camp consists of the Republicans in Congress who know that their political fortunes depend on keeping the vindictive Trump from turning on them.
Those guys are trying to cajole voters to support Trump, not necessarily because they think he is the best choice but because they’re terrified that if they don’t back Trump, he and his band of flying monkeys might make life hell for them.
In short, it’s all about political self-preservation.
These guys see how Trump and his enablers in the so-called “conservative media” have attacked solid conservatives like Chip Roy, Bob Good, and Thomas Massie for endorsing Ron DeSantis. Like the opportunistic cowards they are, they are falling in line to declare Trump the nominee (before voters in 49 of the 50 states have a chance to go to the polls) to keep the same thing from happening to them.
If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say at least 50% of the Republicans posting “Let’s unite behind Trump” messages on Twitter despise Donald Trump as much as Liz Cheney does. They just don’t want to share Liz Cheney’s fate.
Take Elise Stefanik.
Really. Just take her. Take her and drop-kick her into the Potomac.
Elise’s Liberty Score is 48%. That’s an F rating.
Even Liz Cheney had a better Liberty Score than Elise.
Stefanik is one of the most liberal Republicans in the House. But because she spends her free time blowing smoke up Trump’s ass, she is celebrated by the same people who accuse Chip Roy (Liberty Score 100%) of being a RINO.
Elise discovered early on in Trump’s presidency that the key to winning the loyalty of Trump supporters, especially in the conservative media, wasn’t by advancing the ball and racking up conservative wins but by talking a good game while sucking up to Trump.
The MAGA movement is more concerned about what you say, not what you accomplish.
Talk tough and you’re in — even if you never follow through with action.
Elise knows that she can legislate like a RINO all she wants, and as long as she continues to fluff Trump while she does it, the MAGA crowd will lick her hand like a big, dumb dog.
It is both a measure of Elise’s disdain for voters and an indication of just how easily many Republican voters can be swayed by empty words.
Trump and his enablers in Congress are about as conservative as Mitt “I’m a severe conservative” Romney.
And just as we were expected to ignore our lying eyes and unite behind Romney in 2012, we conservative voters are supposed to pretend the milquetoast RINO who surrendered to the Democrats the last time around, lost to Joe Biden in 2020, and is currently saddled with 91 felony charges is the only candidate who can defeat Biden.
It beggars belief.
The primary process, so vital in giving voters the decision to choose their party’s nominee, doesn’t matter to the establishment. It never did.
Once again, we voters are expected to shut up, hold our noses, and vote for the guy the establishment wants.
And every corner of the establishment wants Donald Trump.
The conservative media wants Trump.
Washington Republicans want Trump.
Hell, even the Democrats and their handmaids in the liberal media want Trump.
Giving primary voters a say in the process is not part of the equation.
For that matter, neither is winning in November.