The Atlantic: America Is In Denial (by Mitt Romney)

crimsonaudio

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Good analysis...but short on answers. He speaks of leaders coming up with answers, but he provides none. I was a little disappointed....
I don't think his intention was to provide answers, other than:
"While we wait, leadership must come from fathers and mothers, teachers and nurses, priests and rabbis, businessmen and businesswomen, journalists and pundits. That will require us all to rise above ourselves—above our grievances and resentments—and grasp the mantle of leadership our country so badly needs."

I think he wrote this to stir us from the 'one-sided denial' so many Americans have.
 
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Padreruf

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I don't think his intention was to provide answers, other than:
"While we wait, leadership must come from fathers and mothers, teachers and nurses, priests and rabbis, businessmen and businesswomen, journalists and pundits. That will require us all to rise above ourselves—above our grievances and resentments—and grasp the mantle of leadership our country so badly needs."

I think he wrote this to stir us from the 'one-sided denial' so many Americans have.
I agree...but as a senator maybe he ought to have some ideas worth sharing? I doubt any of us are as "head in the sand" in denial as he alleges...most days I'm in borderline depression over the world we are leaving our grandchildren.
 

crimsonaudio

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I agree...but as a senator maybe he ought to have some ideas worth sharing? I doubt any of us are as "head in the sand" in denial as he alleges...most days I'm in borderline depression over the world we are leaving our grandchildren.
I think if you look around you'll find those on the right think everything that's wrong is the fault of those on the left, and vice versa. That's how it appears from where I'm sitting, and it sounds like that's how it appears to Romney as well. I'm no Romney fan, but I think what he's saying makes sense - unless or until we the people stop being so divided and insulated against compromise, the congress-critters won't change. They're just a reflection of the voters.
 

Padreruf

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I think if you look around you'll find those on the right think everything that's wrong is the fault of those on the left, and vice versa. That's how it appears from where I'm sitting, and it sounds like that's how it appears to Romney as well. I'm no Romney fan, but I think what he's saying makes sense - unless or until we the people stop being so divided and insulated against compromise, the congress-critters won't change. They're just a reflection of the voters.
Totally agree...the question is how we unite the middle 50-60%? You'll never unite the BLM and MAGA factions...other than if aliens invaded and started attacking all humans.
 

NationalTitles18

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I think if you look around you'll find those on the right think everything that's wrong is the fault of those on the left, and vice versa. That's how it appears from where I'm sitting, and it sounds like that's how it appears to Romney as well. I'm no Romney fan, but I think what he's saying makes sense - unless or until we the people stop being so divided and insulated against compromise, the congress-critters won't change. They're just a reflection of the voters.
I agree with compromise whenever possible to achieve a goal.

The problem I have with Romney's both-sides-ism here is the utter failure to clearly and unabashedly call out his side of the aisle for enabling Trump and his minions without muddying the waters.

We do have several crises at once to manage, but if we can't have peaceful transitions of power then we won't have compromise and we won't be able to solve any of the other problems.

That one issue is THE existential crisis we face in the immediate time frame. The others may be urgent, but we have a single all hands on deck full-on emergency to tend to first to make dealing with the others even possible.

It is disappointing that he did not state that without watering it down.
 

92tide

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I think if you look around you'll find those on the right think everything that's wrong is the fault of those on the left, and vice versa. That's how it appears from where I'm sitting, and it sounds like that's how it appears to Romney as well. I'm no Romney fan, but I think what he's saying makes sense - unless or until we the people stop being so divided and insulated against compromise, the congress-critters won't change. They're just a reflection of the voters.
i can't speak for others, but i'm not compromising with fascism.

as i've said a many times, the division we are experiencing is very purposeful and very one-sided and has been coming for decades largely under the guise of conservative christian values

if he's talking about himself and his fellow republicans who for years have tacitly gone along with this finally waking up and realizing they might have to make some changes, then i agree wholeheartedly
 

Padreruf

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One of the driving forces is evangelical/fundamentalist Christianity which promotes, either purposefully or by silence, white nationalism as the essence of American Christianity and patriotism. We have seen for 50 plus years the dumbing down of evangelicalism to the lowest common denominator in order to attract more people. The result has been preachers who are either uneducated but gifted communicators...or educated but have chosen the way of popularity. The result is an alarming lack of integrity and ethics in the church...no one wants to speak the truth to power or to a culture convinced of its own inherent superiority as the "chosen people of God."
 

chanson78

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I think if you look around you'll find those on the right think everything that's wrong is the fault of those on the left, and vice versa. That's how it appears from where I'm sitting, and it sounds like that's how it appears to Romney as well. I'm no Romney fan, but I think what he's saying makes sense - unless or until we the people stop being so divided and insulated against compromise, the congress-critters won't change. They're just a reflection of the voters.
There is one party whose members have remained in power by being against change, and one that tries to enact change.

One party offers thoughts and prayers, one puts up legislation.

One party subverts legislative policy, the other is too feckless to do anything.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Mitt Romney:
Our elected officials put a finger in the wind more frequently than they show backbone against it.

Says the guy who ran to Ted Kennedy's left in the 1994 Massachusetts Senate race and then had a miraculous "Paul on the road to Damascus" conversion on abortion right after he left the Governor's chair to run for President in the pro-life party, though I'm sure that was just because he'd consulted a doctor.

Romney HAS been over the past five years one of the few Republicans of "some" conscience, having voted guilty on Trump's FIRST impeachment. But Mitt has abandoned more "convictions" than a liberal judge running for re-election in Portland, too. Mitt was absolutely correct to vote to remove Mango Mussolini - but how much conviction did that really take for a REPUBLICAN Senator from UTAH, whose family goes back generations in the unofficial state church? I'm not saying he doesn't mean it - I'm not even saying Romney is by any stretch a bad guy as far as politicians go - it's just he's had the same level of commitment to positions on issues through the years as Al Gore did (most politicians do change a position - these two change them more often than they change their socks).

What I'm saying is...it's pretty difficult to be lectured by Mitt Romney on a backbone when he has shown so little of it himself. Look, he's not wrong in the abstract, but a substantial portion of his own political party represents "a clear and present danger" when they actually vote that the election was fraudulent.

Let me add something else: I don't think it's possible anymore for ANY President (regardless of party) to "rise above it all" because in a world of ubiquitous Twitter and text messaging, the President is asleep in the White House when a bunch of stories break now and the opposition party is jumping on him (or her) for:
a) not responding
b) letting it happen

FDR, for all of his oratorical gifts, succeeded with a massive mandate from the Congressional elections and the fact so few saw him because there was no television. No President anymore will ever have that.

It used to be the scandal story dropped at 3 pm Eastern on Friday afternoon and marinated over the weekend. In October 2016, Trump with Russia dropped and got overwhelmed just hours later with the Access Hollywood tape, which got overwhelmed within a few hours by WikiLeaks stuff on Hillary.
 

JDCrimson

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He still thinks the 47% are the problem...
P.S. He calls out the left for the debt without admitting his party's $7.8T addition in 4 years, the tax cuts and spending that caused it, or the inflation that accompanied it. It's the same every time they control the government, too - so it isn't a one-off.

Weak sauce.
 

Chukker Veteran

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The left is upset over corrupting American free elections. And the looming climate crisis. And gun violence.

The right counters with concern about the influx of people wanting to cross the border. Then they shift to griping about the shortage of workers in the work force and how hard it is to keep employees.

How do you work with a party that would corrupt the nomination of Supreme Court Judges in order to impose extremely unpopular values? Let alone when done to advance rigging national elections, throwing crucial decisions to gerrymandered State legislatures and removing Federal oversight.
 

Bamabuzzard

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Totally agree...the question is how we unite the middle 50-60%? You'll never unite the BLM and MAGA factions...other than if aliens invaded and started attacking all humans.
It is no different than what it takes to make one on one relationships work and that is working to compromise on the things we don't agree on and finding things we do agree on and focusing on getting those things done together. We've become a society of "if we can't agree on everything we can't work together on anything". Not one relationship I value (friendships, marital, parental, work, etc.) would survive with this type of mindset. Our country is simply one big relationship.
 

TexasBama

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It is no different than what it takes to make one on one relationships work and that is working to compromise on the things we don't agree on and finding things we do agree on and focusing on getting those things done together. We've become a society of "if we can't agree on everything we can't work together on anything". Not one relationship I value (friendships, marital, parental, work, etc.) would survive with this type of mindset. Our country is simply one big relationship.
Please explain how we “work together” when apparently around half of one party, and perhaps more depending on where you live, are this. This can’t be glossed over. This is the majority leader in the New Hampshire house.

 

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