{"id":1957,"date":"2019-01-04T22:09:31","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T03:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1957"},"modified":"2019-01-04T22:09:31","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T03:09:31","slug":"mitt-romney-dishonest-dishonorable-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2019\/01\/mitt-romney-dishonest-dishonorable-man.html","title":{"rendered":"Mitt Romney: A Dishonest, Dishonorable Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Failed GOP presidential nominee and newly minted Utah senator Mitt Romney couldn\u2019t even wait until he was sworn into office before he submitted his anti-Trump editorial<\/a> to the vehemently anti-Trump Washington Post. <\/em><\/p>\n

Despite his public image as a wholesome and honest man, an image that he has labored indefatigably to craft, Romney is, in truth, the embodiment of all that is wrong and bad with the Republican Party and, by extension, the conservative movement.<\/p>\n

In other words, for as reprehensible as so-called \u201cRINOs\u201d undoubtedly are, few are as contemptible as is Romney.<\/p>\n

In fact, it is worse than this: Romney embodies all that is wrong with American politics.<\/p>\n

When John Kerry ran against George W. Bush in 2004, his Republican opponents in D.C. and the conservative media successfully, and accurately, branded him a \u201cflip-flopper.\u201d Yet with respect to flip-flopping on political issues, Kerry was a piker relative to Romney.\u00a0 Kerry at least never pretended to be anything other than the New England, \u201cliberal\u201d Democrat that he has always been.<\/p>\n

Romney, in glaring contrast, though always self-identifying as a Republican, has oscillated on key issues from one position to the next, depending on what he thought would serve his political interests.<\/p>\n

Abortion<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Romney ran for the presidency in 2008 and 2012, he exhausted himself assuring the GOP base that he was an opponent of abortion. Yet for most of his career, not only has Romney been a proponent <\/em>of \u201cwomen\u2019s choice;\u201d he regularly sought to frustrate the efforts of those who recognized abortion for the evil that it is.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five years ago, while he ran against Ted Kennedy for a senator\u2019s seat in Massachusetts, Romney made sure to have his photograph taken at a Planned Parenthood <\/em>fundraiser. He also resoundingly affirmed that \u201cwe should sustain and support\u201d Roe v. Wade<\/em> and \u201cthe right of a woman to make that choice\u201d to pursue or not an abortion.\u00a0 Romney insisted that it would be wrong for him to inject his \u201cpersonal beliefs\u201d \u201cinto a political campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Kennedy charged Romney with waffling on the abortion issue\u2014Kennedy said that he was \u201cmultiple choice\u201d\u2014Romney replied that upon losing \u201ca dear, close family relative\u201d to an illegal abortion, he and his family \u201chave been committed to the belief that we can believe as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

Romney added: \u201cAnd you will not see me wavering on that, or being multiple-choice, thank you very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Romney ran for the governorship of Massachusetts in 2002, he resolved to \u201cpreserve and protect a woman\u2019s right to choose.\u201d\u00a0 He elaborated: \u201cThe choice to have an abortion is a deeply personal one.\u00a0 Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not [those of] the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Romney turned his eye to the presidency, though, he began whistling another tune.\u00a0 In accounting for his apparent conversion on the abortion issue, Romney explained that it was when he had a conversation with Harvard University stem cell researcher, Douglas Melton, that he recognized the error of his ways.\u00a0 Melton reportedly told Romney that the practice of destroying embryos for purposes of therapeutic cloning was morally permissible.\u00a0 Shocked, Romney said that he turned to his chief of staff, Beth Myers, and told her that \u201cwe have cheapened the sanctity of life by virtue of the Roe v. Wade <\/em>mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only problem with Romney\u2019s account of the moment at which he had this epiphany regarding the wickedness of abortion is that Douglas Melton expressly refutes it, insisting that when he and Romney met, there was zero talk between them concerning the killing of embryos.<\/p>\n

Romney\u2019s political-moral conversion on the issue of abortion occurred at just that moment when he prepared to run for the presidency, at that time when it was most politically convenient for him to jettison a position that promised to frustrate his professional aspirations.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ll see, regardless of the subject, political expediency trumped all considerations for Romney.<\/p>\n

Second Amendment<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Romney ran for the governorship of Massachusetts in 2002, he was unabashed in his expressing his support for the strictness of his state\u2019s gun laws: \u201cWe do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts,\u201d Romney remarked. \u201cI support them,\u201d he added. \u201cI won\u2019t chip away at them. I believe they protect us and provide for our safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Romney\u2019s senate campaign, Romney endorsed the Brady Bill, federal legislation mandating a five day waiting period for all who would purchase firearms.\u00a0 Romney bragged that his commitment to this law was \u201cnot going to make me the hero of the NRA.\u201d This, though, was just fine for Romney, for \u201cI don\u2019t line up with the NRA.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2008, however, right before declaring his candidacy for the presidency, Romney purchased a membership with\u2026.the National Rifle Association.<\/p>\n

Agricultural Subsidies<\/strong><\/p>\n

During Romney\u2019s campaign for the Senate against Ted Kennedy in 1994, he called for the \u201cthe virtual elimination\u201d of the Department of Agriculture. But in 2007, while campaigning for the presidency, one of Romney\u2019s spokespersons in Iowa sought to disabuse farmers of their concerns by assuring them that \u201cGovernor Romney believes that investing in agriculture is [the] key to our economy and families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Universal Health Care <\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone knows that \u201cRomneycare,\u201d the socialized health care system that Governor Mitt Romney imposed upon the residents of Massachusetts, served as the blueprint for the law that would become known as \u201cObamacare,\u201d the socialized health care system that President Barack Obama imposed upon all of America.<\/p>\n

Although Romney, during his run for the presidency, repeatedly insisted that, insofar as Romneycare was limited only to a single state while Obamacare extended to the whole country, the former was good and the latter terrible, the truth of the matter is that much of Romneycare was indeed funded by the federal government.\u00a0 Much of it was financed, then, by American taxpayers from around the country\u2014and not just by the citizens of Massachusetts alone.<\/p>\n

More to the point, though, is that in the hard back edition of Romney\u2019s book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, <\/em>the author unapologetically declared his resolve to do for the citizens of America vis-\u00e0-vis healthcare what he did for the citizens of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

When, however, the paperback edition of his book was released\u2014on the eve of his run for the presidency\u2014this line of Romney\u2019s was omitted.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Romney is not the good, honorable man that even some of his conservative movement critics make him out to be. He is a dishonest, dishonorable person who will lie at the drop of the hat in order to serve his own self-interest.<\/p>\n

His record renders this verdict undeniable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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