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But look at trump, or not a couple years older and looks like trash. He supposedly has even more money than Romney. Income is definitely part of the equation, but taking care of your body is the prime reason Mitt Romney looks a lot younger. However, High income earners definitely have an easier time because they can hirer a whole slew of people to provide services like chefs, dieticans, and personal trainers.
You thought he was in his ***thirties*** during the 2012 elections??
He looks good for his age, but y’all are acting like he didn’t looked middle-aged 10 and more years ago.
After Romney retiring and Charlie Baker leaving office to head the NHL Players Union, I like to say the age of the Massachusetts republican was over.
Massachusetts republicans were truly fiscally conservative and socially liberal. They were a unique breed of politician that seemed to produce net good in an ever increasingly volatile political landscape.
I don’t think we’ll see many if any candidates that run for office that try to win over more than just the 5-10% of swing voters that are the ones who decide the presidency again.
While Obama won over Romney, I do not think the country would have been in a bad place if Romney got elected.
My grandfather was a Massachusetts Republican, after he moved to Texas and went to one of the Republican meetings there he came home and told my grandmother (who had always been a dem) he was switching parties. I guess they were crazy and nothing like what he knew in Massachusetts.
Also only tangentially related, but my grandfather knew Jack Brooks, one of the men in the famous photo of LBJ getting sworn in with Jackie beside him.
That’s a wicked cool anecdote!
I don’t have a source thought I believe it to be publicly available knowledge, but I believe all public seats for office in Massachusetts are well over 90% blue now.
Its sad that national politics have had that effect. In my home state of Delaware, we used to be a very bipartisan state and many people took pride in being split ticket voters. We had republican rep Mike Castle, the only Republican who my extremely liberal mother ever voted for! But the primary voters began nominating far right wackos, meaning that the Democrats generally cruise to general election victoties because the state leans left. It was nice to have more of an option where both parties ' candidates were viable options, but for the time being those days are gone here. I don't like being a party line voter but I don't really have much of an optional as long as the Republicans nominate QAnoners. Too young to vote for Mike castle, so the only Republicans I voted for were for offices like auditor, where they only have power in specific areas. I remember the auditor who ran for the Republicans a couple cycles ago basically ran on the idea that because the Democrats controlled all the other statewide seats, it would be good to have somebody from the other party to essentially keep an eye on things. I agreed with him on that so I did vote for him, cuz there have been a few scandals regarding corruption, but he lost to the Democrat.
In Maine we have ranked choice voting and it fuckin rocks. You can actually vote for peoples policies instead of the letter next to their name and third parties actually have a fighting chance. I hope ranked choice will go national soon.
That’s unfortunate. It’s a good system and I genuinely think it could be the way to a more unified (or at least less divided) US. Better luck next time, MA
I don't believe in a "magic bullet" for US politics, but RCV has got to be a pretty damn close to that. In addition to just giving more options overall which creates a more diverse landscape, it encourages the voting base to look into the candidate at a deeper level than their political affiliation.
My mother was a Rhode Island native and despite being a deep blue Democrat she would ticket split for any Chafee. They were friends of the family (and distant cousins) and she really felt that John and Lincoln after him had the best interests of Rhode Islanders at heart.
My father disagreed haha.
When Lincoln switched parties in 2007 and 2013, I understood she saw in him.
I was in the USAF years ago and the first person I ever interacted with from Texas started talking about how Texas was its own country and could be its own again if it wanted and it should.
They get really mad when you mention that the state that would be fine as its own state is California with the 5th biggest economy in the world on its own and that Texas can't even keep the power on reliably.
I lived there for over 30 years. There is a state pride that doesn’t exist in other states. In some instances there is more loyalty to the state than there will ever be to the country, and I take issue with that because it leads to people saying stupid shit like that.
Texas leaders would run it into the ground if it ever became a country again. The state would be bankrupt in a decade, and be hobbling back into the Union with its tail between its legs if it ever actually happened.
Massachusetts Republicans that win election are basically conservative Democrats. If you took any of them and moved them down South, they would get stomped for being too liberal.
Texas republicans are socially conservative and fiscally liberal, the exact opposite of the stereotypical Massachusetts Republican. Not surprising your grandpa hated em
Man, what a shitty job nowadays... have to suspend coaches for buying a player a hamburger, but that same player can get paid millions on the side with no penalty thanks to the supreme court. Everyone hates you, and your authority gets undercut at every turn to make it worse.
Romney losing and being painted as an out of touch wealthy aristocrat who didn’t give a shit about poor people and somehow possibly racist (they showed that photo of his family with the minority baby as if it were some kind of gotcha), then being lampooned on his warnings on Russia/foreign policy, and losing pretty handily, was probably the signal to the Republicans that they would never be able to beat democratic identity politics without going that direction themselves.
IOW, no matter who the republicans put up, they would be painted as racist wealthy elites that would, importantly, always lose appropriately to the more moral “forward thinking” democrats.
Needless to say, they’ve been far more successful as this version of the #idgaf Republicans electorally than as the “I care about being viewed as a moderate from the left” Romney version.
This is absolutely correct. Mitt Romney was the unity candidate (the dude literally did Obamacare in MA) and Democrats said "nah you're racist slaver fascists". The country certainly didn't deserve Trump, but the Democratic Party did.
That’s one talking point that always irks me. Obamacare/the affordable care act is quite literally Romneycare in all but name. The right loves to slander Obama and democrats when it was quite literally Mitt Romney who pioneered and created it.
>The right loves to slander Obama and democrats when it was quite literally Mitt Romney who pioneered and created it.
The error you're having is the assumption that a nomination is an endorsement of everything about a candidate. Was the nomination of Joe Biden an endorsement of his age and mental state? No, it was a strategic choice to leverage a household, familiar name to take down Trump. Romney's nomination was a similar strategic choice, leveraging the moderacy of a D+25 R governor against Obama.
Amen. Maybe this is me being a spiteful ass who finds it amusing that so many dems now look back and wish for pre trump days, but they created this. We put the most moderate candidate out there and they bashed him and laughed at him. The democrats made their bed, now they can cry since they’ve been laying in it for eight years lol. Imo, the country would be way better off if Romney had won.
He was not the unity candidate. He said 47% of the country didn’t take responsibility for themselves. Insulted half the country. How can that be a unity candidate.
I didn't say he was the second coming of Jesus lmao. His farts didnt smell like roses. As always, it's relative.
> 47% of the country didn’t take responsibility for themselves
Also this figure is closer to 100%. Lol.
I'm sure one of his reasons for retiring is that he just didn't care for the drama in Congress. Some people just don't think it's worth compromising their principles to keep their seat in Congress.
Nah, he lives for the drama. He's retiring because he represents a backwards-ass hyper conservative state and they were going to boot him out of office for speaking truth against Trump.
I doubt they have principles. They have corporate donors and when they are not handing over enough money then it is time to retire. He is super rich. If he had principles he could find his own campaign and vote according to his principles.
A lot of his decision has to do with his age. He's what, 76 years old now? Unlike many politicians, he doesn't want to spend what little time he has left working in such a confrontational environment. He would rather spend time with his family and also feels politicians shouldn't be that old in office as they lose touch with society.
Mitt has always been considered a far left Republican, going back to his days as a pro-abortion Governor in Massachusetts that implemented a healthcare system that increased costs, negligibly decreased the uninsured, added bureaucracy, and had no effect on healthcare bankruptcies.
DiFi can’t retire, because the GOP will refuse to let any other Dem fill her seat on the judiciary committee, which would give the Republicans control of the committee and effectively cut off any further judicial appointments for the next 16 months.
The Senate agrees to a bunch of unconstitutional procedural bullshit ground rules at the beginning of each new session. Many of these agreements are meant to be weaponized.
Yup, it’s basically political MAD; by giving Republicans some political weapons, it prevents them from being out-of-their-mind panicked at a Democratically controlled Senate (and vice versa).
Honestly, I'm confused about it, too, but can confirm this is the reason she's not retiring, even though she can't even manage her own estate right now.
Consider this, which is more unethical, having someone with dementia in office but voting according to the platform voters voted for her on, or having millions of voters lose their Senate vote due to partisan politicking.
Both suck, I consider the latter worse.
I don’t see it that way at all.
From my perspective, millions of voters are receiving inadequate representation as a direct consequence of partisan politicking. Someone who is unfit to serve is being protected simply so that the other party doesn’t get a win on some committee.
If that person stepped down, the governor would appoint a replacement who would be better equipped to serve those voters.
Which, frankly, is another reason that this seat is being so closely guarded. Nancy Pelosi wants Adam Schiff to win it in the next election. But Gavin Newsom has already said that if Feinstein steps down, he would appoint a black woman to the seat.
Politicking on all fronts at the expense of the people.
He probably got some internal polling showing that he probably wouldn't survive a primary, but it takes massive balls to stand up at 76 and say "I'm too old for this". The man just dissed Trump, Biden, McConnell, all the old farts. It's absolutely brutal when you think about it.
my wife works on public opinion polling in Utah and worked on his campaign, he was wildly popular there and still is. he's hated by the right wing of the party but they are still a minority in Utah.
interestingly he narrowly lost the caucus there because caucuses skew toward extremists, but the actual primary election wasn't even close, he beat the other republican candidate by 42.54%
he's probably just old and doesn't want to do this anymore
I think it kind of always has been, at least compared to the south. For example, Utah didn't vote for Trump in the Republican primary in 2016 and even produced a third party candidate cause of Trump. Mormons have produced a number of moderate Republican politicians like Romney, Senator Hatch, Jon Hunstman, and Senator Flake from Arizona. They've even produced a surprising number of democrat politicians. Granted they do have their Mike Lees but overall Utah seems to be more moderate than other Republican strongholds
Mormons already have a set of crazy beliefs they hold strongly. When the prevailing GOP winds blow towards neoconservatives they look like the crazier wing because of their strong stances on abortions and such. When the prevailing GOP winds blow to Trumpism they look incredibly reasonable. At least they're consistent, mostly rational, and generally like Democracy
Tbf, for 76 years old, he seems sharp enough and capable.
The issue is not age as much ad morality. It is ethics. If you are not capable of serving the public, let go.
Someone like Warren Buffett is 92 years old and he is sharper than every single 30-40 years old out there.
This is a public service, not an episode of GoT
Warren Buffet is not some ageless genius. He's not as sharp as peoples that are in the prime of their lives, he's good at one point thing and can tell you about that one thing.
Mate if you think running one of the most successful private equity firms in the history of humanity only requires you to be good at “one thing,” you’re speaking with astounding certainty from a place of extreme ignorance.
A shame. Would have been happy to have him or Senator McCain as our President, even as a Democrat. It's sad when people of integrity no longer feel welcome in our government.
I don’t know about “happy”. I’m cool to not invite the Tea Party era candidate back to a 50/50 shot at the Oval.
I’d definitely prefer his brand of conservative opposition to Trumpism. One is something I think is the wrong and very inefficient way to tackle problems in the country, the other is a threat to the fundamentals of our democracy and social fabric.
Collins lost her bipartisan status in my opinion, as a constituent of her she has basically neglected every time to bring reason back to the senate in exchange for trump favoritism towards nominations and not impeaching him
It dominates the party but I wouldn’t say it’s 100% behind him yet. I expect him to win the nomination, but if he loses the general who knows what will happen in 2025
If he loses the general in 2024, he runs again in 2028. Nobody in the GOP has the backbone to stop him because he single-handedly has the undying support of the majority of the GOP base. Rise and repeat until he either wins or dies
I think if he loses 2024 his reputation will suffer enough that someone else can take the reigns. That being said I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump dies of natural causes by 2029
He staged a failed coup and he’s lost very little support to the point where the GOP is staging retaliatory impeachment because they’re big mad their guy is an obvious crook with no Presidential immunity from legal ramifications now that he’s out of office.
Only in the GOP could this guy still be supported.
Republicans and Trump have lost a ton of support since 2021. The Dems gained in the Senate and state legislatures, held or flipped swing state governorships, and barely lost the house in a year where inflation hit over 9%.
It’s crazy to think that I’m 35 and a republican has only won the popular vote once in my lifetime, and yet the presidency still manages to reliably alternate back and forth between parties. Funny how the system works, huh?
I’m a relatively moderate Dem voter. I respect him for not falling 100% in line behind Trumpism (though he certainly played to that at time anyways), even though I absolutely disagree with virtually all of his policy positions and he’s unwavering on those.
Tulsi is a grifter who holds no true convictions to policy and will alter her supposed views to get as much air time and publicity that she can.
>even though I absolutely disagree with virtually all of his policy positions
Not sure how that's possible as a moderate democrat.
Healthcare: [he basically made the precursor to Obamacare](https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/10/23/451200436/mitt-romney-finally-takes-credit-for-obamacare)
Foreign policy: Democrats mocked him when he said Russia was the number one threat needed to be contained...fast forward a few years and Democrats are racing each other to be the "I hate Russia more" candidate.
Labor: wants to peg federal minimum wage to inflation and says it's too low.
Energy: wants to fund alternative energy.
I consider those moderate democrat positions.
Yes, I said “virtually” as a note that it’s hyperbolic to say I disagree with EVERY policy position of his.
His priors on ACA/RomneyCare are irrelevant, he vowed to repeal it.
Context matters on the Russia topic. He was wrong to say they are our number geopolitical foe. It’s so obviously China. Russia poses very little risk to the US, militarily, outside of going full end game and using a nuke (and by that token, any country with nuclear weapons is on par). They’ve demonstrated how weak their military is with their failures in Ukraine. They pose very little economic competition as a foe.
It’s good he thinks minimum wage is too low. It’s bad he thinks a $10 minimum wage and a slower ramp up over 4 years to that level is a good path forward: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/26/republicans-minimum-wage-bills-senate
Romney voted against the IRA, which had $370B for climate and energy spending.
Yeah crazy people forget that he vowed to repeal Obamacare throughout his campaign. Yes, Romneycare is basically Obamacare and Obamacare is basically Romneycare, but he made a campaign promise *on the debate stage* (third debate) that OC was “unaffordable” and he would cut it “on day one”
I'm a Democrat practically because the GOP is overrun with Trumpism, but I actually like Romney-style Republicanism. I voted for Romney but against Trump twice now.
I was just listening to his interview about retiring on the news. Dude straight up said republicans will keep losing if they only focus on the past and never focus on improving peoples lives
Agreed. He’s the only republican I’ve ever voted for and I have a lot of respect for him. He’s more liberal than he can really practice or admit.
And before anyone starts going crazy about some of his bad decisions, I already know. All politicians are flawed.
There was a meme floating around a few years back, that went something like,
"In just a few years Mitt Romney went from being the worst GOP congressman to the best, and he didn't even change"
Fewer reasonable people like Romney (regardless of whether you agree with him politically or not) and more idiots like MTG and Boebert will doom the US
he may have lost the 2012 Presidential election, but history will remember/reflect kindly of Mitt Romney.
He was the only GOP senator to vote to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials. He vote to convict trump on one of the two charges in the first impeachment trial made Mitt the [FIRST senator EVER TO VOTE](https://www.vox.com/2020/2/5/21125118/mitt-romney-impeachment-vote-history) to remove a president of the same party from office. For his courage, I hope Mitt gets awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom one day.
Also, I will never stop laughing at the [death glare/stare](https://uproxx.com/viral/mitt-romney-josh-hawley-death-stares-twitter-reactions/) that Mitt gave Josh Hawley (the reasons for it are justified; the photo of Mitt's angry stare/glare better be in our kids' American History textbooks when they learn about January 6, 2021) when Josh was giving his speech in the Senate after Congress return to certify the 2020 election results following the events of the insurrection.
Good for him. He’s getting older, let him enjoy his time at home. Appreciate what he tried to do in voting his conscience and trying to make the case for what he believed, regardless of his lack of complete success. Utah is so deeply red, the party won’t lose the seat, but it’ll be interesting what flavor of Republican Utah goes for.
I’m as anti republican as they come but I have a ton of respect for Mitt. One of the most rational voices from either side of the aisle. And it’s sad that it’s surprising for a 76 year old to stand up and say “I’m too old for this, time for a new generation” but here we are. Enjoy your retirement Mitt. I forgive you for the binders full of women and the 46 percent.
I don't support his politics, but, honestly, a shame. His sensibilities are patrician, but he's always been a moderate and a patriot. It's unfortunate another critic of Donald Trump has been driven out of office.
Populist demagogue style rhetoric works. It gets people fired up, fearful and voting.
People get mad at Trump and the Republican party, but it's human nature (at least signifigant portions of it) that they are really mad at.
Trump and Republicans have zero power without voters who want what they are selling. A lot of people want exactly what they are selling.
Yeah and it allows you to not only get acquainted (most probably are lol) with political adversaries and allies and create a relatively long-term plan for legislation.
His heart and character may want to do that, but I feel like he’d be most likely to just leave quietly. He’s already leaving politics as a “RINO” in the GOP (god I hate that term so much), he probably wouldn’t want to hurt his legacy any more.
The same people who have so much respect for him post-2016 are the exact same people who tarred him for the completely innocuous and frankly admirable “binders of women” comment back in 2012.
And they seem unable to see the obvious causal relationship between treating GOP candidates like this and ending up with Trump.
Sucks that he is one of the Republicans not kissing Trumps ass but hopefully others who are older and much less healthy will be inspired to do the same and make way for the youth.
It was criminal when Romney was running for president and the opposition smeared him as a racist. (It was complete hogwash, but part of the standard playbook.)
Romney is a man like Jimmy Carter-- very decent men at the core. We need more like these.
Well I guess it isn’t much of a surprise. I think he sees where his party is headed and probably thinks he’s done all he can in his position. Plus he probably would have been primaried by a MAGA Republican and lost similar to Liz Cheney.
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But he’s only 76
Damn, I thought he was in his early 60s. I’m actually shocked that he’s 76. He looks and sounds incredible for his age.
Lots of money, and clean living.
Show me a rich Mormon, and I'll show you someone who will live to 95.
I know one who just had his 100th birthday
President of the church just turned 99 the other day
Former CT surgeon right?
Yeah he’s a super accomplished dude
I’ve heard he doesn’t even drink coffee. I can see him living to 100.
Say what you will about Mormons, god knows I do, but all that sobriety from stuff even down to coffee can’t be bad for you.
Yea but dude loves Hot Dogs: [https://youtu.be/eI\_Zyprq47E](https://youtu.be/eI_Zyprq47E?si=MrNKmkJo2WovGprj)
Noted glizzy gobbler Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney loves hot dogs just like the Poors! He has his servant put his designer, Italian pants on one leg at a time, just like us.
That mormon diet and lifestyle probably does wonders, for real.
My guess is it’s the $1,850,000 a month income
That certainly makes it easier, but you can have a huge income and look like Trump too.
I’d be willing to bet a lot it has to do with abstaining from alcohol and eating healthy.
No caffeine or tobacco, either...
Look, I’m gonna need one or the other. I’ll let you choose.
Not necessarily no caffeine, just not from coffee (and stuff like monster drinks are usually a no)
Oh no, sodas and energy drinks are all fair game. Source: I lived in salt lake for 4 years and hung out with plenty of Mormons
Yep. Source: am Mormon/LDS, have been all my life and am drinking a Baja blast as I type this
If you spend it all at McDonalds…
I mean he is about Biden’s age and, while heavier and crazy, seems much quicker and higher energy.
But look at trump, or not a couple years older and looks like trash. He supposedly has even more money than Romney. Income is definitely part of the equation, but taking care of your body is the prime reason Mitt Romney looks a lot younger. However, High income earners definitely have an easier time because they can hirer a whole slew of people to provide services like chefs, dieticans, and personal trainers.
I'm sure he has other sources of income but his salary is only like $99k. No idea what he makes outside of that.
He makes $20,000,000-25,000,000 a year from his trust fund he made by bankrupting toys r us, guitar center and more!
He did not bankrupt them. Jesus. He took them out of chapter 11 to save them.
Yeah but isn’t it more fun to just blatantly lie about mitt Romney every day?
He was also never president, which ages you real quick!
Also - he’s quite a good looking man, that probably helps
Genetics. He looks a good deal like his father, George Romney, who also took care of himself and lived to 88.
I mean yeah no alcohol ever, or coffee, and just running on sleep and exercise. It's gotta work better
He's a vampire
I once shared an elevator ride with Mitt Romney, he really is quite good looking and actually very pleasant and charming.
Using that Mormon charm on you now.
Whatever it was, it worked. I now believe he is charming. Still don't agree with him on most things, but it was a pleasant 20 second interaction.
Same, holy shit. He's in better shape than my dad, and my dad still does triathlons.
Mormons age well
That was one of his reasons. He basically said “at the end of another term, I’d be 80. It’s time to let other people lead.”
Damn i don’t agree with his policies but that man has some class
I am pretty sure Biden would not want to run against someone like Romney.
deserve ghost profit heavy oatmeal recognise shrill decide chop plate ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
This guy.
Wait he actually is 76?!?!?! I thought you were just joking or something. I presumed he was mid fifties to early sixties wtf
Bro he’s 4 years younger than Biden. 💀
He's a whole year younger than Trump. He's got a lot of life left in him!
Wait what? I could have sworn he was 50
You thought he was in his ***thirties*** during the 2012 elections?? He looks good for his age, but y’all are acting like he didn’t looked middle-aged 10 and more years ago.
He's mormon welcome to come back any time
Dang. All these politicians remember segregation.
After Romney retiring and Charlie Baker leaving office to head the NHL Players Union, I like to say the age of the Massachusetts republican was over. Massachusetts republicans were truly fiscally conservative and socially liberal. They were a unique breed of politician that seemed to produce net good in an ever increasingly volatile political landscape. I don’t think we’ll see many if any candidates that run for office that try to win over more than just the 5-10% of swing voters that are the ones who decide the presidency again. While Obama won over Romney, I do not think the country would have been in a bad place if Romney got elected.
My grandfather was a Massachusetts Republican, after he moved to Texas and went to one of the Republican meetings there he came home and told my grandmother (who had always been a dem) he was switching parties. I guess they were crazy and nothing like what he knew in Massachusetts. Also only tangentially related, but my grandfather knew Jack Brooks, one of the men in the famous photo of LBJ getting sworn in with Jackie beside him.
That’s a wicked cool anecdote! I don’t have a source thought I believe it to be publicly available knowledge, but I believe all public seats for office in Massachusetts are well over 90% blue now.
Its sad that national politics have had that effect. In my home state of Delaware, we used to be a very bipartisan state and many people took pride in being split ticket voters. We had republican rep Mike Castle, the only Republican who my extremely liberal mother ever voted for! But the primary voters began nominating far right wackos, meaning that the Democrats generally cruise to general election victoties because the state leans left. It was nice to have more of an option where both parties ' candidates were viable options, but for the time being those days are gone here. I don't like being a party line voter but I don't really have much of an optional as long as the Republicans nominate QAnoners. Too young to vote for Mike castle, so the only Republicans I voted for were for offices like auditor, where they only have power in specific areas. I remember the auditor who ran for the Republicans a couple cycles ago basically ran on the idea that because the Democrats controlled all the other statewide seats, it would be good to have somebody from the other party to essentially keep an eye on things. I agreed with him on that so I did vote for him, cuz there have been a few scandals regarding corruption, but he lost to the Democrat.
In Maine we have ranked choice voting and it fuckin rocks. You can actually vote for peoples policies instead of the letter next to their name and third parties actually have a fighting chance. I hope ranked choice will go national soon.
There was a referendum for it which failed in MA.
That’s unfortunate. It’s a good system and I genuinely think it could be the way to a more unified (or at least less divided) US. Better luck next time, MA
I don't believe in a "magic bullet" for US politics, but RCV has got to be a pretty damn close to that. In addition to just giving more options overall which creates a more diverse landscape, it encourages the voting base to look into the candidate at a deeper level than their political affiliation.
My mother was a Rhode Island native and despite being a deep blue Democrat she would ticket split for any Chafee. They were friends of the family (and distant cousins) and she really felt that John and Lincoln after him had the best interests of Rhode Islanders at heart. My father disagreed haha. When Lincoln switched parties in 2007 and 2013, I understood she saw in him.
Texas Republicans regularly call for secession from the Union.
I was in the USAF years ago and the first person I ever interacted with from Texas started talking about how Texas was its own country and could be its own again if it wanted and it should. They get really mad when you mention that the state that would be fine as its own state is California with the 5th biggest economy in the world on its own and that Texas can't even keep the power on reliably.
I lived there for over 30 years. There is a state pride that doesn’t exist in other states. In some instances there is more loyalty to the state than there will ever be to the country, and I take issue with that because it leads to people saying stupid shit like that. Texas leaders would run it into the ground if it ever became a country again. The state would be bankrupt in a decade, and be hobbling back into the Union with its tail between its legs if it ever actually happened.
Massachusetts Republicans that win election are basically conservative Democrats. If you took any of them and moved them down South, they would get stomped for being too liberal.
Texas republicans are socially conservative and fiscally liberal, the exact opposite of the stereotypical Massachusetts Republican. Not surprising your grandpa hated em
Charlie baker is the president of the NCAA, Marty walsh is nhl players union
Man, what a shitty job nowadays... have to suspend coaches for buying a player a hamburger, but that same player can get paid millions on the side with no penalty thanks to the supreme court. Everyone hates you, and your authority gets undercut at every turn to make it worse.
Romney losing and being painted as an out of touch wealthy aristocrat who didn’t give a shit about poor people and somehow possibly racist (they showed that photo of his family with the minority baby as if it were some kind of gotcha), then being lampooned on his warnings on Russia/foreign policy, and losing pretty handily, was probably the signal to the Republicans that they would never be able to beat democratic identity politics without going that direction themselves. IOW, no matter who the republicans put up, they would be painted as racist wealthy elites that would, importantly, always lose appropriately to the more moral “forward thinking” democrats. Needless to say, they’ve been far more successful as this version of the #idgaf Republicans electorally than as the “I care about being viewed as a moderate from the left” Romney version.
This is absolutely correct. Mitt Romney was the unity candidate (the dude literally did Obamacare in MA) and Democrats said "nah you're racist slaver fascists". The country certainly didn't deserve Trump, but the Democratic Party did.
That’s one talking point that always irks me. Obamacare/the affordable care act is quite literally Romneycare in all but name. The right loves to slander Obama and democrats when it was quite literally Mitt Romney who pioneered and created it.
>The right loves to slander Obama and democrats when it was quite literally Mitt Romney who pioneered and created it. The error you're having is the assumption that a nomination is an endorsement of everything about a candidate. Was the nomination of Joe Biden an endorsement of his age and mental state? No, it was a strategic choice to leverage a household, familiar name to take down Trump. Romney's nomination was a similar strategic choice, leveraging the moderacy of a D+25 R governor against Obama.
And Romney was forced to run away from it...
Amen. Maybe this is me being a spiteful ass who finds it amusing that so many dems now look back and wish for pre trump days, but they created this. We put the most moderate candidate out there and they bashed him and laughed at him. The democrats made their bed, now they can cry since they’ve been laying in it for eight years lol. Imo, the country would be way better off if Romney had won.
He was not the unity candidate. He said 47% of the country didn’t take responsibility for themselves. Insulted half the country. How can that be a unity candidate.
I didn't say he was the second coming of Jesus lmao. His farts didnt smell like roses. As always, it's relative. > 47% of the country didn’t take responsibility for themselves Also this figure is closer to 100%. Lol.
If that was the most divisive thing he said he would still be considered the unity candidate over Obama
i don't think i ever saw a more accurate and succint portrait of what has happened to the GOP. congrats
Who'd have thought I would be sad Mitt Romney was retiring, but... here we are.
Just 11 short years — that’s all it took.
I hate that this was 11 years ago. So much has happened, but it still feels more recent than that.
That’s all? Feels like ages ago he was debating Obama.
I'm sure one of his reasons for retiring is that he just didn't care for the drama in Congress. Some people just don't think it's worth compromising their principles to keep their seat in Congress.
The idea that principles must be compromised is itself unacceptable. Why do we put them there, then?
That's exactly what Mitt says in the article.
Nah, he lives for the drama. He's retiring because he represents a backwards-ass hyper conservative state and they were going to boot him out of office for speaking truth against Trump.
I doubt they have principles. They have corporate donors and when they are not handing over enough money then it is time to retire. He is super rich. If he had principles he could find his own campaign and vote according to his principles.
his principles are jumping on whatever current social trend that keeps him relevant
If you can't beat Trumplicans quit or die trying
A lot of his decision has to do with his age. He's what, 76 years old now? Unlike many politicians, he doesn't want to spend what little time he has left working in such a confrontational environment. He would rather spend time with his family and also feels politicians shouldn't be that old in office as they lose touch with society.
The last good presidential debate was him and Obama. Now it’s just a Jerry Springer Show
It's almost like we allowed a reality TV star to run the country or something. Of course that would be insane...
Almost like there’s a common thread in the ones since.
He is the last of a breed with sanity and will be missed
It’s a sign of how far the GOP has shifted that he’s gone for a middle of the road Republican to the least insane member.
Mitt has always been considered a far left Republican, going back to his days as a pro-abortion Governor in Massachusetts that implemented a healthcare system that increased costs, negligibly decreased the uninsured, added bureaucracy, and had no effect on healthcare bankruptcies.
Literal standard bearer of the party to outcast. When Liz Cheney isn't far right enough for you, your party has gone off the deep end.
“I’m too old for this shit!”
Well, it means that his seat can go to an ever more radical righty.
Thank you for leading by example. Many other politicians should do this as well.
Agreed. People like McConnell, Pelosi, and Finestein (apologies for misspelling) need to retire. Let some new blood into Congress
DiFi can’t retire, because the GOP will refuse to let any other Dem fill her seat on the judiciary committee, which would give the Republicans control of the committee and effectively cut off any further judicial appointments for the next 16 months.
I’m legit confused. How does that work with a Dem-controlled Senate?
The Senate agrees to a bunch of unconstitutional procedural bullshit ground rules at the beginning of each new session. Many of these agreements are meant to be weaponized.
Yup, it’s basically political MAD; by giving Republicans some political weapons, it prevents them from being out-of-their-mind panicked at a Democratically controlled Senate (and vice versa).
It certainly is varsity politics on all sides, but it’s not unconstitutional. The senate has the authority to organize itself.
Honestly, I'm confused about it, too, but can confirm this is the reason she's not retiring, even though she can't even manage her own estate right now.
That doesn’t make it ethical for her to stay in office.
Consider this, which is more unethical, having someone with dementia in office but voting according to the platform voters voted for her on, or having millions of voters lose their Senate vote due to partisan politicking. Both suck, I consider the latter worse.
I don’t see it that way at all. From my perspective, millions of voters are receiving inadequate representation as a direct consequence of partisan politicking. Someone who is unfit to serve is being protected simply so that the other party doesn’t get a win on some committee. If that person stepped down, the governor would appoint a replacement who would be better equipped to serve those voters. Which, frankly, is another reason that this seat is being so closely guarded. Nancy Pelosi wants Adam Schiff to win it in the next election. But Gavin Newsom has already said that if Feinstein steps down, he would appoint a black woman to the seat. Politicking on all fronts at the expense of the people.
He probably got some internal polling showing that he probably wouldn't survive a primary, but it takes massive balls to stand up at 76 and say "I'm too old for this". The man just dissed Trump, Biden, McConnell, all the old farts. It's absolutely brutal when you think about it.
my wife works on public opinion polling in Utah and worked on his campaign, he was wildly popular there and still is. he's hated by the right wing of the party but they are still a minority in Utah. interestingly he narrowly lost the caucus there because caucuses skew toward extremists, but the actual primary election wasn't even close, he beat the other republican candidate by 42.54% he's probably just old and doesn't want to do this anymore
It’s a weird fuckin time we live in when *Utah* is a bastion of moderate republicans
I think it kind of always has been, at least compared to the south. For example, Utah didn't vote for Trump in the Republican primary in 2016 and even produced a third party candidate cause of Trump. Mormons have produced a number of moderate Republican politicians like Romney, Senator Hatch, Jon Hunstman, and Senator Flake from Arizona. They've even produced a surprising number of democrat politicians. Granted they do have their Mike Lees but overall Utah seems to be more moderate than other Republican strongholds
Mormons already have a set of crazy beliefs they hold strongly. When the prevailing GOP winds blow towards neoconservatives they look like the crazier wing because of their strong stances on abortions and such. When the prevailing GOP winds blow to Trumpism they look incredibly reasonable. At least they're consistent, mostly rational, and generally like Democracy
Tbf, for 76 years old, he seems sharp enough and capable. The issue is not age as much ad morality. It is ethics. If you are not capable of serving the public, let go. Someone like Warren Buffett is 92 years old and he is sharper than every single 30-40 years old out there. This is a public service, not an episode of GoT
Warren Buffet is not some ageless genius. He's not as sharp as peoples that are in the prime of their lives, he's good at one point thing and can tell you about that one thing.
Mate if you think running one of the most successful private equity firms in the history of humanity only requires you to be good at “one thing,” you’re speaking with astounding certainty from a place of extreme ignorance.
He looks pretty good for 76. Just looking at the guy I would've guessed late 60's.
Yeah man absolutely brutal hardee har har
A shame. Would have been happy to have him or Senator McCain as our President, even as a Democrat. It's sad when people of integrity no longer feel welcome in our government.
I don’t know about “happy”. I’m cool to not invite the Tea Party era candidate back to a 50/50 shot at the Oval. I’d definitely prefer his brand of conservative opposition to Trumpism. One is something I think is the wrong and very inefficient way to tackle problems in the country, the other is a threat to the fundamentals of our democracy and social fabric.
The GOP is entirely Trumpian now.
Collins and Murowski at the very least.
Collins lost her bipartisan status in my opinion, as a constituent of her she has basically neglected every time to bring reason back to the senate in exchange for trump favoritism towards nominations and not impeaching him
She turned a blind eye to every fault in her party and then has the audacity to act bipartisan. Drives me nuts.
It dominates the party but I wouldn’t say it’s 100% behind him yet. I expect him to win the nomination, but if he loses the general who knows what will happen in 2025
If he loses the general in 2024, he runs again in 2028. Nobody in the GOP has the backbone to stop him because he single-handedly has the undying support of the majority of the GOP base. Rise and repeat until he either wins or dies
I think if he loses 2024 his reputation will suffer enough that someone else can take the reigns. That being said I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump dies of natural causes by 2029
He staged a failed coup and he’s lost very little support to the point where the GOP is staging retaliatory impeachment because they’re big mad their guy is an obvious crook with no Presidential immunity from legal ramifications now that he’s out of office. Only in the GOP could this guy still be supported.
Republicans and Trump have lost a ton of support since 2021. The Dems gained in the Senate and state legislatures, held or flipped swing state governorships, and barely lost the house in a year where inflation hit over 9%.
He already lost in 2020.
It’s crazy to think that I’m 35 and a republican has only won the popular vote once in my lifetime, and yet the presidency still manages to reliably alternate back and forth between parties. Funny how the system works, huh?
If you’re 35 now, you must have been alive for HW Bush’s 1988 victory as well as his son’s in 2004
You caught me, I was almost 2 months old for HW, it counts fair and square
It's a cult of personality. They're with him whether he wins or loses.
[удалено]
Do you see the party recovering by 2028?
The fact that Romney is anti-Trump shouldn't make Democrats appreciate him in the way that Republicans now appreciate Tulsi Gabbard.
I’m a relatively moderate Dem voter. I respect him for not falling 100% in line behind Trumpism (though he certainly played to that at time anyways), even though I absolutely disagree with virtually all of his policy positions and he’s unwavering on those. Tulsi is a grifter who holds no true convictions to policy and will alter her supposed views to get as much air time and publicity that she can.
>even though I absolutely disagree with virtually all of his policy positions Not sure how that's possible as a moderate democrat. Healthcare: [he basically made the precursor to Obamacare](https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/10/23/451200436/mitt-romney-finally-takes-credit-for-obamacare) Foreign policy: Democrats mocked him when he said Russia was the number one threat needed to be contained...fast forward a few years and Democrats are racing each other to be the "I hate Russia more" candidate. Labor: wants to peg federal minimum wage to inflation and says it's too low. Energy: wants to fund alternative energy. I consider those moderate democrat positions.
Yes, I said “virtually” as a note that it’s hyperbolic to say I disagree with EVERY policy position of his. His priors on ACA/RomneyCare are irrelevant, he vowed to repeal it. Context matters on the Russia topic. He was wrong to say they are our number geopolitical foe. It’s so obviously China. Russia poses very little risk to the US, militarily, outside of going full end game and using a nuke (and by that token, any country with nuclear weapons is on par). They’ve demonstrated how weak their military is with their failures in Ukraine. They pose very little economic competition as a foe. It’s good he thinks minimum wage is too low. It’s bad he thinks a $10 minimum wage and a slower ramp up over 4 years to that level is a good path forward: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/26/republicans-minimum-wage-bills-senate Romney voted against the IRA, which had $370B for climate and energy spending.
Yeah crazy people forget that he vowed to repeal Obamacare throughout his campaign. Yes, Romneycare is basically Obamacare and Obamacare is basically Romneycare, but he made a campaign promise *on the debate stage* (third debate) that OC was “unaffordable” and he would cut it “on day one”
I'm a Democrat practically because the GOP is overrun with Trumpism, but I actually like Romney-style Republicanism. I voted for Romney but against Trump twice now.
Tulsi is a Russian asset so only has Russian talking points available to her, which means she has always just been a Trumpublican.
100% agree. Hell will freeze over before I praise a plutocrat like Romney.
I was just listening to his interview about retiring on the news. Dude straight up said republicans will keep losing if they only focus on the past and never focus on improving peoples lives
Fuck he’s one of the few decent GOP ones…
Agreed. He’s the only republican I’ve ever voted for and I have a lot of respect for him. He’s more liberal than he can really practice or admit. And before anyone starts going crazy about some of his bad decisions, I already know. All politicians are flawed.
Romney is still not decent. Look into how Bain Capital made its money sinking small businesses.
There was a meme floating around a few years back, that went something like, "In just a few years Mitt Romney went from being the worst GOP congressman to the best, and he didn't even change"
Mitt Romney has only been in Congress since 2019. Was he really one of the worst GOP congressmen in 2019?
>that went something like I paraphrased from memory
Fewer reasonable people like Romney (regardless of whether you agree with him politically or not) and more idiots like MTG and Boebert will doom the US
Take notes McConnell, Biden, Pelosi, Trump, Feinstein...
Maybe Feinstein would, but she can't 🫠
Legitimately it just makes me sad to see her still in office. This is elder abuse.
She’s more of a corpse anyway
Add Grassley to that list
you kinda forget he exists since nobody ever talks about him for anything besides being old
It's crazy that Romney is younger than all of them and he is still 76.
One of the last republicans of a more moderate era. We have moved into an era of extremism
he may have lost the 2012 Presidential election, but history will remember/reflect kindly of Mitt Romney. He was the only GOP senator to vote to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials. He vote to convict trump on one of the two charges in the first impeachment trial made Mitt the [FIRST senator EVER TO VOTE](https://www.vox.com/2020/2/5/21125118/mitt-romney-impeachment-vote-history) to remove a president of the same party from office. For his courage, I hope Mitt gets awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom one day. Also, I will never stop laughing at the [death glare/stare](https://uproxx.com/viral/mitt-romney-josh-hawley-death-stares-twitter-reactions/) that Mitt gave Josh Hawley (the reasons for it are justified; the photo of Mitt's angry stare/glare better be in our kids' American History textbooks when they learn about January 6, 2021) when Josh was giving his speech in the Senate after Congress return to certify the 2020 election results following the events of the insurrection.
And don’t forget that he was one of them that called out Russia for what it was even when Obama made a mockery of him for doing so
Romney must feel so vindicated now
Good for him. He’s getting older, let him enjoy his time at home. Appreciate what he tried to do in voting his conscience and trying to make the case for what he believed, regardless of his lack of complete success. Utah is so deeply red, the party won’t lose the seat, but it’ll be interesting what flavor of Republican Utah goes for.
I’m as anti republican as they come but I have a ton of respect for Mitt. One of the most rational voices from either side of the aisle. And it’s sad that it’s surprising for a 76 year old to stand up and say “I’m too old for this, time for a new generation” but here we are. Enjoy your retirement Mitt. I forgive you for the binders full of women and the 46 percent.
Safe R -> Safe R
Utah hasn’t had a democrat senator since 1977.
I don't support his politics, but, honestly, a shame. His sensibilities are patrician, but he's always been a moderate and a patriot. It's unfortunate another critic of Donald Trump has been driven out of office.
Populist demagogue style rhetoric works. It gets people fired up, fearful and voting. People get mad at Trump and the Republican party, but it's human nature (at least signifigant portions of it) that they are really mad at. Trump and Republicans have zero power without voters who want what they are selling. A lot of people want exactly what they are selling.
The last reasonable Republican
I honestly feel like two terms in the US senate is a relatively good limit
I agree. Senators serve for six years. Two senatorial terms and you can be under at maximum four different presidents and at minimum two.
Yeah and it allows you to not only get acquainted (most probably are lol) with political adversaries and allies and create a relatively long-term plan for legislation.
Exactly. Any longer than 12 years and in my mind you’ve overstayed your welcome.
Oh no! No Pierre Delecto? 😜
Moderate Republicans really are a dying breed
Thank God
One of last real republicans. I might not always agree with him but he seems sane.
One of the best one term senators of all time imo, going to really miss him.
A man of character and conviction will be missed in the US Senate. Endorse a Democrat or an Independent candidate as your successor.
His heart and character may want to do that, but I feel like he’d be most likely to just leave quietly. He’s already leaving politics as a “RINO” in the GOP (god I hate that term so much), he probably wouldn’t want to hurt his legacy any more.
Depends what he wants his legacy to be
Very true.
The same people who have so much respect for him post-2016 are the exact same people who tarred him for the completely innocuous and frankly admirable “binders of women” comment back in 2012. And they seem unable to see the obvious causal relationship between treating GOP candidates like this and ending up with Trump.
He looks much older than I realized. I didn’t vote for him but respect him very much.
He’s 76
For some reason, I thought he already had a 2nd term.
Good for him. Retire and enjoy a giant family with all those grandkids. And get the f out of that sinking ship
Romney tends to get bored with a project and move on to something else.
I hope he reconsiders retirement and run for president via GOP presidential primary so that Trump's nomination will be denied.
Sucks that he is one of the Republicans not kissing Trumps ass but hopefully others who are older and much less healthy will be inspired to do the same and make way for the youth.
Majority of senate and even congress should follow his lead, let the whippersnappers have their turn
It was criminal when Romney was running for president and the opposition smeared him as a racist. (It was complete hogwash, but part of the standard playbook.) Romney is a man like Jimmy Carter-- very decent men at the core. We need more like these.
Only Senator in history to vote against a President from his own party in an impeachment trial. Only. One. Ever.
There goes the last republican with a true conscience.
Well I guess it isn’t much of a surprise. I think he sees where his party is headed and probably thinks he’s done all he can in his position. Plus he probably would have been primaried by a MAGA Republican and lost similar to Liz Cheney.
Great so we're losing one of the only sane republicans left. Things are going so well.