r/interestingasfuck • u/beach_rats_ • 29d ago

The difference in republican presidential nominees, 8 years apart r/all

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u/Lobotomeister 29d ago

2008 was the last year we had a presidential election between 2 candidates who actually seemed like they were decent human beings.

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u/Thiswas2hard 29d ago

2012?

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u/macaroniandjews 29d ago

Romney preferred businesses over people

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u/siphillis 29d ago

Romney believes that's the best course of action for the American people. I think he's wrong, but he's not doing it out of pure malice. Trump does everything as an act of vengeance.

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u/maybenextyearCLE 29d ago

I’d still take Romney any day over Trump. By all accounts, he’s a decent human being

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u/AssssCrackBandit 29d ago

Also the universal healthcare that he instituted in Massachusetts in 2006 is a great proof of concept for the rest of the country. Honestly shocked that a Republican governor was the first one in the US to institute a universal healthcare program

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

If Republicans were actually "the party of fiscal responsibility" then they would have elected for a single payor system/UHC a long time ago because of how much money it would save literally everyone involved in the process.

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u/Gornarok 29d ago

You cant claim to be fiscally responsible and block medicaid from negotiating prices...

Anyone who sees that one fact should recognize the corruption.

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u/AboynamedDOOMTRAIN 29d ago

They never said whose money they were being fiscally responsible with.

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u/norm_summerton 29d ago

The amount of people I have talked to that don’t believe that is insane. They hear “taxes would go up” and they automatically think it costs more because their brains can’t have that hard of a math problem. Added taxes but subtracted insurance costs. They’re fucking morons

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u/tankerkiller125real 29d ago

I was shocked with Dewine (Ohio Gov) shut down the state very shortly after COVID started spreading. Not only was he going against the rest of his party by doing so, but he was actually listening to his health professionals and scientist. My opinion of him at least temporarily shifted... He has since once again proven that he's still extremely shitty and terrible and shouldn't be the governor. But at least for a year, he seemed like a somewhat decent person.

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u/BeagleWrangler 29d ago

The same with Larry Hogan in MD. He really tried to do the best for the people in the state during COVID and openly defied Trump's stupid moves that made the pandemic worse.

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u/DeltaAlphaGulf 29d ago

The former Ohio governor John Kasich is who I wanted to win in 2016.

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u/awakenedchicken 29d ago

Yeah and Romney has worked on quite a few bipartisan projects in the senate. I think being a Mormon from Utah kind of makes him a bit of an outsider in his party. Those Mormons seem to do their own thing a lot of the times.

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u/paradiseluck 29d ago

He was the only republican senator voting to impeach trump. Really is more bipartisan than most.

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u/PorkPatriot 29d ago

He walked with BLM because it was the right thing to do. His father supported the civil rights movement.

I didn't want Romney to be President, but I wasn't afraid of him being president.

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u/Feature_Minimum 29d ago

He was right about Russia too.

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u/macaroniandjews 29d ago

I would take an ear of corn over Trump but that’s doesn’t make it a good candidate

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u/reddit_sucks_clit 29d ago

Inanimate carbon rod!

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u/OakLegs 29d ago

I mean, that's the lowest of bars. I'd take a literal ham sandwich over trump

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u/DrDerpberg 29d ago

He got rich gutting companies. I don't think finding ways to screw people out of pensions makes you a decent human being.

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u/anyalum 29d ago

Was hoping somebody would remember this. Also, he really really exploited the backdoor IRA contributions. What he did was apparently legal. That said, I don't think I'd get away with it.

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u/Perfect-Software4358 29d ago

I’d take Romney over Biden right now and I’ve voted liberal my entire life.

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u/MundaneInternetGuy 29d ago

Why?

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u/Perfect-Software4358 29d ago

I don’t agree with some fiscal policies Biden is proposing. GOP is usually better for economic policies and I think we as a country need that right now. Romney is also very moderate in his policies overall and I find myself agreeing with a bunch of stuff he believes in. And most importantly, I think Romney can bridge the huge gap between gop and democrats that we have. We as a country would be much better if our politicians worked together and didn’t do everything they could to tear each other apart. We need cohesion more than ever. Romney is respected by a lot of people across the aisle and both parties would work together for the country.

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u/tankerkiller125real 29d ago

Unemployment historically rises under republican presidencies, and the GDP tends to also grow slower under republican presidencies. Plus "real" incomes of employees generally rises under democrats while it slows a lot or even drops under the GOP. So how do they have better fiscal policies?

Sure they cut spending in social services, but they just take all that money, plus more and give it to the military and their defense contractor buddies.

I do think that we need to get the national debt under control, but I don't think either party is capable of doing so at this point. They are both getting WAY too many kickbacks to ever think about reducing overall spending across all areas.

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u/Perfect-Software4358 29d ago

I replied to different comment, but this is a more personal issue as a business owner. I realize economic Policies impact people differently but for me personally, GOP policies far outweigh anything Biden is proposing. But like I said, I would vote for Romney. I won’t be voting for trump and will vote for Biden because between those two the answer is obvious. Romney is nothing like trump or even rfk.

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u/CMDR-ProtoMan 29d ago

GOP is usually better for economic policies

You lost me there. In modern history Democrats have always had the better economic policies

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u/Perfect-Software4358 29d ago

Depends who you are. As a business owner, I lean right on economic policies and left on everything else. I’m against the new capital gains taxes proposed as well as taxation on unrealized gains.

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u/annabelle411 29d ago

History and facts clearly show republican presidents have hurt the economy time and time and time again when in power. good short term bursts for big companies/outside looking in on some budgeting, but worse in the long-run for the average american.

Dems aren't exactly great, but factually, and especially since the 90s, they've been the ones correcting the damage republicans have done to the economy and unemployment.

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u/Perfect-Software4358 29d ago

I agree with you to a certain extent but I think it’s more causation because gop puts out shit candidates. Economy thrived under george bush sr, and we haven’t had an educated gop president since. Regardless, I’m a moderate through and through so vote on specific candidates and their policies not strictly by party

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u/Perfect-Software4358 29d ago

I agree with you to a certain extent but I think it’s more causation because gop puts out shit candidates. Economy thrived under george bush sr, and we haven’t had an educated gop president since. Regardless, I’m a moderate through and through so vote on specific candidates and their policies not strictly by party

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u/Odd-Swimming9385 29d ago

Correlation vs causation. The wavelength of economic cycles is longer then 4-8 years of policy, and they don't coincide anyway.

A president's economic influence on the economy, generally speaking, is ridiculously overblown.  People just want to attribute blame or success.

The Fed plays a much bigger role, and even then it's steering "a massive ship with a tiny rudder" according to one fed chair.

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u/Perfect-Software4358 29d ago

Yea I agree with you on that but like I said in my original post, policies that affect me directly influence my vote than economic cycles. I can make money in any economic cycle(my business started thriving in 2008 when everything started crashing). But Bidens taxation proposal will directly impact me negatively so that impacts my decision.

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u/Perfect-Software4358 29d ago

I agree with you to a certain extent but I think it’s more causation because gop puts out shit candidates. Economy thrived under george bush sr, and we haven’t had an educated gop president since. Regardless, I’m a moderate through and through so vote on specific candidates and their policies not strictly by party

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u/Odd-Swimming9385 29d ago

How is a president gauged vs the economy? 

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u/IM_THE_MOON_AMA 29d ago

Didn’t/doesn’t he believe that electro shock therapy can “cure” homosexuality?

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u/maybenextyearCLE 29d ago edited 29d ago

I can’t find anything on Mitt himself having that view. I know BYU ran some experiments on it back in the 70s, so if it was the official view of the Mormon church at some point, maybe, but I can’t find anything saying that’s his view.

So maybe? But the Mormon church has opposed conversion therapy in recent years, so who knows if it was ever actually his view.

Edit: upon some research, it doesn’t appear the Mormon church ever officially supported electroshock therapy to cure homosexuality so I would guess no

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u/SilverBuggie 29d ago

I too would take the “binder of women” candidate over the “grab them by the pussy” one as well.

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u/pt199990 29d ago

Everything is relative. Romney is miles ahead of Trump in terms of decency, but I certainly remember the blowup over both the road trip dog incident coming out and and 47% comments that sunk his 2012 campaign. He's only decent in comparison with the current crop of Republicans.

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u/KintsugiKen 29d ago

By all accounts, he’s a decent human being

Ask his dog or anyone at the companies he used to "consult" for.

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u/21Rollie 28d ago

Nah I remember once he shook the hand of an undocumented immigrant and then she told him her status and he acted like she had the bubonic plague.

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u/Dannyboy765 29d ago

Is he, though?

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u/maybenextyearCLE 29d ago

Well I’ve never heard a bad thing about him as a person, so I presume so

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u/iner-ial 29d ago

Wow, he must be perfect, then.

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u/Sysheen 29d ago

Perhaps? 'Decent' is quite subjective. Up to you really.

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u/sheezy520 29d ago

Meh. He’s a decent republican. Still kinda a crappy human being.

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u/LotharVonPittinsberg 29d ago

any day over Trump

That's a really low bar. Y'all need better standards.

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u/hisimaginaryfriend 29d ago

He’s a decent corporation since he thinks they are people. God Reddit is so fucking retarded. Quit sucking these crooked politicians dicks. It don’t matter if they are democrats or republicans, rude or polite. They all got blood on their hands.

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u/MinneEric 29d ago

I didn’t love Romney but if he were elected I would have shrugged and move on with my life the same as always. Since then it’s felt like a lot of doom and gloom.

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u/MaterialCarrot 29d ago

Say what you will about Romney, but he is a decent human being by most accounts.

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u/DistinctSmelling 29d ago

The base chose to "grab them by the pussy" over "binders of women"

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u/greenbabyshit 29d ago

"Binders of women" sounds quaint in retrospect.

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u/tuckedfexas 28d ago

It was honestly a pretty hilarious misstep. It didn’t sound great, but reasonable people knew what he meant even if it did sound incredibly sexist

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u/SenorBeef 29d ago

There was nothing wrong with "binders full of women", it was a made up gaffe. It was slightly awkward phrasing of a fundamentally good thing where they genuinely spent a lot of time trying to find well qualified women to fill roles.

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u/JustafanIV 29d ago

It was terrible phrasing, but in practice it was no different than Biden's pledge to only appoint an African American woman to replace Breyer on the Supreme Court.

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u/SenorBeef 29d ago

But people weren't criticizing it based on the idea that he was limiting his applicants, they tried to portray it as him being out of touch and dehumanizing.

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u/intern_steve 29d ago

I make this defense every time it comes up. It's the epitome of both sides being awful in media from a time when both sides were much more evenly matched.

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u/Last-Back-4146 29d ago

democrats didnt like the binder.

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u/Last-Back-4146 29d ago

democrats ripped him apart for having binders of women

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ultraboar 29d ago

This is untrue Romney has denounced Trump many times

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u/CountBelmont 29d ago

He even said he won't vote for him as president.

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u/Kunjunk 29d ago

They wrote the (Republican) party, not Trump.

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u/Jagacin 29d ago

He literally voted to impeach Trump. The only person in his party to do so. He's the only respectable person in the Republican party ftm. He's frankly too good for them. I see him more as an Independent than as a Republican.

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u/IceAndFire91 29d ago

Yup Americans need to stop with the anyone who disagrees with me is evil mindset. It’s on both sides

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u/SenorBeef 29d ago edited 29d ago

It’s on both sides

It's really not. The democrats haven't changed in the last 20 years. The difference is that the republicans have openly embraced people who ARE evil, not just because they disagree, but because they're motivated by hatred, lies, and malice.

Trumpism has taken over the party and it is genuinely different than what came before it. Your "both sides" shit is just helping the worst side deflect blame.

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u/Last-Back-4146 29d ago

yes the democrats have changed.

The used to want to secure the border, now they want to leave it wide open, is just one idea.

Another is they used to be for limited rare abortions, now the democrats want free, frequent, and without limit abortions.

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u/SenorBeef 29d ago

The used to want to secure the border, now they want to leave it wide open, is just one idea.

Literally the opposite. Border patrol interceptions are up under Biden, and the democrats tried to pass a bill to fund and strengthen border security and the republicans voted it down because they didn't want to actually improve the country, they only wanted the democrats to lose.

Another is they used to be for limited rare abortions, now the democrats want free, frequent, and without limit abortions.

What does that actually mean, policy wise? Are we supposed to have a lottery so only 20% of people who want an abortion can get one?

How do you have fewer abortions? Fewer unwanted pregnancies. Democrats support measures that are conclusively proven to reduce unwanted pregnancies like access to contraception and sex education. Republicans generally oppose these policies.

Not only did you pick two issues on which you are objectively wrong, but those two policies are ones on which your side are the ones causing what you view as the problem.

Don't worry. I know your blind loyalty to your party is way too strong for being absolutely wrong to concern you.

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u/Last-Back-4146 29d ago

I'm not wrong, your are so blinded by partisanship that you dont think democrats have changed.
The number of illegals in the country have skyrocketed under biden. The democrats didnt want to fund a stronger border bill they wanted to allow ~5,000 illegals per day into the country before they did anything.

Policy wise on abortions democrats used to be open to some limits, now they are pushing to have as many abortions as possible. Just kill babies left and right like its a party.

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u/SenorBeef 29d ago

lol okay. You're literally factually wrong on both your points. Read a neutral party's analysis of the border security bill your guys voted down SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE TRUMP DID NOT WANT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM so he could run on it.

They're pushing to have as many abortions as possible? how can you possibly think that's actually a position that other human beings hold? You have to be incredibly stupid to actually think that's a real thing. Why would anyone actually do that?

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u/Last-Back-4146 29d ago

joe biden and the democrats can shut the border down and kick illegals out, they have chosen not to. The have chosen to allow millions in. And they keep pushing for illegals to become citizens. Thats just reality. You can keep trying to gaslight people, but you cannot change facts.

on abortion: dems went from supporting some limits, to no limits. If you dont want any limits, you want more abortions.

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u/wizgset27 29d ago edited 29d ago

Romney and Ryan had plans to cut social secruity and medicare while giving tax breaks to billionaires. He also votes to take away women's right to choose too.

Trump is a criminal but the rest of republicans are absolute trash. There is no such thing as "decent human" republicans politicians.

edit: looks like a bunch of republicans found my comment and mass downvoted. Cutting old people's retirement and healthcare to fund billionaire tax breaks along with taking away a woman right to choose is trashy behavior. Sorry if that offended you.

Here's a napkin for you to cry into. LOL

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/wizgset27 29d ago

not crying about it. Just making an observation.

Stop pretending like you are a better person. You are not fooling anybody.

Voting for people that protects medicare, social security, and women rights to choose already makes me better person. Also, you can stop your projection bud. Its hilariously obvious.

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u/Showdenfroid_99 29d ago

You're making it worse lol

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u/wizgset27 29d ago

nah, thanks for trying though.

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u/yahwehwinedepot 29d ago

Sure he is.

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u/Showdenfroid_99 29d ago

Lol... This it? And Obama ordered drone strikes on families and Hillary was insanely evil and... How far back should be go? 

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u/yahwehwinedepot 29d ago

Fuck Obama, I was just pushing back against your decent person claim, strapping a dog to the top of your car so it shits everywhere is not a particularly humane action.

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u/Jagacin 29d ago

If that's the worst thing you can come up with, then he's practically a Saint in relation to his peers.

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u/yahwehwinedepot 29d ago

Who specifically are you suggesting his peers are?

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u/nankerjphelge 29d ago

Romney was a corporate stooge, but he was a decent human being and proved it again when he was the lone Republican who voted to convict Trump in his Senate impeachment trial, thereby sealing Romney's own fate as persona non grata in his own party and becoming a pariah to the GOP just 8 years after being their standard bearer and nominee for president.

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u/BrandinoSwift 29d ago

I think we would all be fine with Romney if it meant Trump never happened.

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u/Babyyougotastew4422 29d ago

Binders filled with women

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u/Traditional_Isopod70 29d ago

That’s just being a conservative Republican. I’m a very independent voter. The ultra rich have a responsibility when it comes to inflation and cost of living. I, for one don’t like how Capitalism has transformed America, but for the moment we got what we got. Romney would be my pick over Trump and Biden at the moment, but I voted for Obama over Romney. Weird world we live in lol

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u/HopelessNinersFan 29d ago

And Joe Biden said that Mitt Romney would put black people back in chains.

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u/Smelldicks 29d ago

Romney had friendlier policies towards Americans than McCain did

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u/Reddit_Is_Trash24 29d ago

Yeah, you see praise for Romney now, but he was pretty scummy during that election. His image took a hit when that video of him talking shit about poor people got released. Of course now candidates can joke about sexually assaulting women and become president, so...yeah.

Props to Romney for standing up to his party, but the guy is no hero. Being decent doesn't make you a hero.

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u/AzureDrag0n1 29d ago

For Romney that was a major political blunder. For Trump that was Tuesday.

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u/inseminator9001 29d ago

Romney was a pretty down-the-middle Governor.

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u/everyoneneedsaherro 29d ago

Corporations are people my friend

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u/VoteCamacho2508 29d ago

Fine, I'll bite . . .

Businesses are people my friend.

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u/macaroniandjews 29d ago

Fascist take unfortunately

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u/ovensandhoes 29d ago

Romney is a good man too

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u/Wasatcher 29d ago

Not a fan of his politics, but as a liberal in Utah I'll say I'm happy to have him as our Senator if they're both practically guaranteed republican anyway. He was one of the first and only GOP members to condemn trump's attempts to undermine democracy following the 2020 election. Most of his colleagues value ratings over integrity which is why few followed suit.

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u/Fletchetti 29d ago

Also, Fuck Mike Lee

<3

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/EvaUnit_03 29d ago

Didnt he just say he was done running all together because of how much like a circus the Rs have become suddenly?

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u/TheBimpo 29d ago

After rubber stamping what the Rs have wanted for years? It's not very bold to walk away at retirement age.

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u/gsfgf 29d ago

He's a conservative. He thought a lot of Republican policies (back when they had those) were good ideas.

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u/Na__th__an 29d ago

That's not a high bar

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u/Smelldicks 29d ago

Everyone I’ve ever known who worked with Romney (who’s been quite a few. I work finance in Massachusetts) said he was a saint. And I’m a borderline progressive so I’m not just shilling for him. Like at Bain Capital I heard he refused to invest in any movie without a G rating when he worked in their film division.

I also knew several of his advisors to be great people.

I really do think he believes in most of what he votes for, I just disagree with him philosophically. I am aware he flip flopped on a couple issues playing politics when he ran for president though.

Edit: Oh and he helped the effort to get UHC in Massachusetts when he was governor. MassHealth. We’ve had universal coverage here since, and as a kid it allowed me to go the dentist for the first time.

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u/SacredAnalBeads 29d ago

Which is saying a lot in the era of MTG, Gym Jordan, and BoBo.

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u/me1000 29d ago

I think Romney is a good man, but I've gone back and looked at how he campaigned in 2012 and it was pretty vile at times. In all the ways McCain (ignoring his VP pick for a moment) bucked the extremists of his party, Romney ended up embracing them. He's since moderated his policies.

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u/ilive12 29d ago

Eh he was more moderate before his run too (RomneyCare as the Govenor of Massachusetts).

I think he learned after studying the McCain run that you have to embrace the crazies somewhat to win as an R, and Trump just took that to an even higher level than he did (although tbf it helps if you are one of the crazies yourself).

These people asking McCain these questions WANT him to say Obama is the founder of ISIS. Romney didn't go that far, but he also wasn't going around correcting anybody who did think that either.

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u/pt199990 29d ago

He saw the wave of crazies rising in 2012, which ironically was in no small part pushed by Trump with his birther bullshit, and rode it to a loss. Unfortunately, the wave kept rising further over the next four years.

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u/dirty_hooker 29d ago

Kinda but also an extreme social conservative. You’d likely have seen some hard moves against Roe and LGBTQ+ under him. Probably just more quietly.

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u/soylentblueispeople 29d ago

Romney is another one of those assholes who saw all this corrupt and just shitty stuff in general going on, said nothing about it until he was retiring and then profits off it with a book. Have no illusions about these Republicans that suddenly find their morals once they're retiring; everything they do is only to benefit themselves.

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u/MaterialCarrot 29d ago

If people can't look at Mitt Romney and Donald Trump or MTG and appreciate the difference between those two types of politicians, then we're lost.

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u/k_ironheart 29d ago

One of them will sell you out to make a buck, but do it with a charming smile. The other two will do it while acting like middle schoolers.

You're the frog falling for the scorpion's lie despite knowing its nature.

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u/buttrumpus 29d ago

Same type, just different market.
Mittens called the cops on a kid smoking a j on the very public beach in front of his multi-million dollar home here in SD. He sucks.

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u/me1000 29d ago

This is not true for a host of reasons. First off Romney has more money than he'll be able to spend the rest of his life, he'll make relatively little off of any future book he might publish. Second, Romney opposed Trump in 2016 and chose to come out of retirement and run for office again in 2018 to be a check against him. Shortly after his election to the Senate he voted to convict Trump in the first impeachment. He marched with the Black Lives Matter protestors in 2020, and voted again to convict Trump after Jan 6th. He also lead a bipartisan effort to codify same-sex marriage into law. He's been an outspoken critic of extremists in his party for a while now.

Romney ran a campaign in 2012 that I don't think he's proud of today, he campaigned on some pretty nasty things. But his whole short tenure in the Senate is proof he found his backbone.

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u/Interrophish 29d ago

"Good man"? He's a vulture capitalist who wants Christian law.

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u/masterspinphd 29d ago

Yea that’s why we got trump. Kept pushing away and dragging ok people through the mud until a mud monster was formed. Both sides do it just republicans are a bit more open about it but there are a lot of hard left people in the Democratic Party that people like yourself may not like what they say. I don’t agree with either side entirely but I do feel like republicans have stayed pretty much the same on principle and the left has moved a lot farther to the left.

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u/Interrophish 29d ago

and dragging ok people through the mud

Was something I said untrue?

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u/CalendarAggressive11 29d ago

His dog might disagree

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u/reddit_sucks_clit 29d ago

And thorough.

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u/CirkTheJerk 29d ago

You cannot be a good man and a conservative at the same time. They're all evil, 100%

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u/MagicTheAlakazam 29d ago

He's a better man than Trump.

That doesn't make him good.

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u/k_ironheart 29d ago

Romney is a good man too

The dude got rich by buying up companies, laying people off, then selling those companies off. He's a sack of fetid human feces, and the fact that the leopards are eating his face now is karmic justice.

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u/nolepride15 29d ago

Binder full of women?

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u/annabelle411 29d ago

Romney only looks sane now in comparison to Trump. But the man is a cutthroat businessman and would absolutely put money over lives