Those of Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cconservative\u201d critics who accuse him of promoting a faux conservatism would be well served to look in the mirror.<\/p>\n
In the GOP presidential primaries of 2012, many of the same commentators, like Charles Krauthammer<\/a>, who now declaim Trump as a fake invoked the so-called \u201cBill Buckley rule\u201d in endorsing Mitt Romney, for the latter, it was said, is \u201cthe most conservative candidate who can win.\u201d<\/p>\n After National Review<\/em> endorsed Romney, Tim Pawlenty, writing for its online edition, described Romney as \u201ca man of principle\u201d who \u201cbelieves in the bedrock conservative ideals<\/a> of limited government and free enterprise.\u201d The editors of National Review <\/em>endorsed Romney in 2007 as well.<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s look at Romney\u2019s actual record, of both his words and deeds.<\/p>\n For starters, Romney had supported \u201ca woman\u2019s right to choose<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in 1994, while running against Ted Kennedy for the Massachusetts Senate, Romney revealed that he and his family had supported \u201csafe and legal\u201d abortion services ever since they lost a relative to an illegal abortion in 1963. In 2002, and throughout his eight years as governor, Romney remained true to his pledge to \u201cpreserve and protect a woman\u2019s right to choose,\u201d to refrain from altering \u201cany provisions of Massachusetts\u2019 pro-choice laws.\u201d<\/p>\n As for \u201cgay rights,\u201d while running against Ted Kennedy in the senate race of 1993, he promised that he\u2019d be better on this issue than his opponent. \u201cI\u2019ll be better than Ted Kennedy,\u201d he told Richard Tafel, the founder of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization. Romney also added: \u201cI\u2019m with you on this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Around this same time, Romney came out in support of a federal <\/em>legislation\u2014ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act)\u2014that would ban employers from discriminating against homosexual employees. While running for the presidency in 2011, Romney expressed regret for not having opposed it, explaining that it is a matter that should\u2019ve been left to the states. But in doing so, he likened himself to Abraham Lincoln<\/a>, who also changed his<\/em> mind on issues.<\/p>\n Years before Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic Party came out in favor of \u201cgay marriage,\u201d Governor Romney presided over the issuance of marriage licenses to gay couples in Massachusetts. Of course, Romney argued against the state\u2019s Supreme Court decision affirming a right of gays to marry. But once the decision was made, and even though neither he nor the state legislature discerned any such right in the state\u2019s constitution that spoke to such a right, Romney readily acquiesced in the Court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n Romney was a big proponent of \u201cgun control<\/a>.\u201d He supported federal legislation making it more difficult for law abiding citizens to obtain guns, as well as an assault rifle ban. Moreover, Romney increased fees on gun owners by 400%<\/em>. Romney boasted that because his position on gun control \u201cdoesn\u2019t line up with the NRA,\u201d it is \u201cnot going to make me the hero\u201d of the Second Amendment group.<\/p>\n There is nothing at all objectionable about a person\u2019s changing his views over the span of his life. Indeed, growth is essential to intellectual health. Yet there are two points here.<\/p>\n First, in Romney\u2019s case, there is no genuine growth, for it is painfully obvious that the changes that he purports to have undergone were perfectly timed to serve his professional interests:<\/p>\n When Romney was in MA and he needed the support of most of that state\u2019s liberal voters, he held liberal views on the issues of the day. When, though, he was aiming to secure his party\u2019s presidential nomination and needed the support of a different kind of demographic, he tailored his views accordingly.<\/p>\n Second, it is patently cynical and hypocritical for those of Donald Trump\u2019s most relentless critics to pile upon him for having changed his <\/em>views over the years given the unqualified support that they lent to Romney\u2014in spite of the latter\u2019s truly astonishing feats of flip-flopping.<\/p>\n And now we see that Romney is at it again.<\/p>\n Romney was the original architect of the much-despised Obamacare. His \u201cRomneycare\u201d provided \u201cuniversal health care\u201d for the residents of Massachusetts. It also subsidized Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country, and it offered direct coverage of abortion services. In the original <\/em>edition of his book, Romney expressed hope that Romneycare would become a reality for America<\/em><\/a> (a sentiment that was conspicuously absent from the second edition of said book, the edition that was released once Romney decided to throw his hat into the presidential ring).<\/p>\n