Sorry, Mitt Romney. Denial is not an equal opportunity offense.

[Nevilledog]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/05/sorry-mitt-romney-denial-is-not-an-equal-opportunity-offense/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/SjfXR



Aside from Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), few Republicans have been as consistent in their condemnation of defeated former president Donald Trump as Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah). In his latest blast, he writes in an op-ed for the Atlantic: “A return of Donald Trump would feed the sickness, probably rendering it incurable. Congress is particularly disappointing: Our elected officials put a finger in the wind more frequently than they show backbone against it.” That puts it mildly.

Alas, Romney engages in his own brand of disappointing rhetoric by equating right-wing denial on the 2020 election and climate change (he could have added covid-19 and gun violence) with Democrats’ supposed denial about the debt and illegal immigration. Aside from the fact that deficits are projected to fall substantially in 2022 and Democrats have repeatedly offered comprehensive immigration reform, including border security, Romney’s lamentation of both parties smacks of, well, denialism.

Only one party has adopted as its default setting conspiracy theories and disinformation, from carrying water for Russia’s interference in the 2016 election to quack remedies for covid to the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. Only one party rallies its base with resentment, anger and vitriol. And only one party relies on a propagandistic media that shields its base from disagreeable facts.

Romney, who voted against cloture for voting rights reform and has yet to condemn the GOP’s systematic assault on honest election administration, has not come out against Republican election deniers on the ballot in the midterms. He gives no indication of concern that the next House speaker could well be the spineless House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who tolerates the most extreme members in his party, including those who sought out pardons for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and attacks the House Jan. 6 select committee, from which he pulled his Republican members.

*snip*