Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) doesn’t think highly of a few of the Representatives that his GOP has sent to Washington recently. At the same time, many of the politicians who have raised Romney’s ire don’t believe the current Republican Party can accurately be described as “Romney’s GOP” anymore — despite his Senator status and the big “R” next to his name.
[If the nation is split, so is the GOP itself, with MAGA in one wing and establishment Republicans, including Romney, in the other.]
Romney has taken particular aim at truth-challenged Rep. George Santos and more recently at Georgia firebrand and MAGA champion Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose ideas about red state secession Romney has characterized as “insane.”
But what irks Romney more than any one Representative is the notion that America can be protected and kept safe while practicing political isolationism. Romney sees the America First ideology, so far as it wants to neglect geopolitical situations far from home, as a danger that will do far more harm to American security than its adherents realize.
As leader of the free world, the United States must be clear-eyed on the malign ambitions and capabilities of adversaries like China and Russia. Spoke with members of the @UADAssociation on our role in addressing the global threats to freedom we face in the 21st century. pic.twitter.com/TvpWpdEHX4
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) February 23, 2023
Romney stresses the idea that a reductive approach to governance — say, simply pitting Ohio’s needs against Ukraine’s — is both self-damaging and unnecessary.
Romney writes, contradicting the Trump/Greene/MAGA position on Ukraine support, that “It is in America’s interest to support Ukraine. If Russia can invade, subjugate, and pillage Ukraine with impunity, it will do the same again to others, and a world at war diminishes the security of Americans.”
It is in America’s interest to support Ukraine. If Russia can invade, subjugate, and pillage Ukraine with impunity, it will do the same again to others, and a world at war diminishes the security of Americans.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 23, 2023
The U.S. needs to address various situations simultaneously, from train derailments to Chinese espionage to combatting Russian war-making. Looking only inward will make the U.S. a vulnerable nation, Romney implies. Romney’s personal account has two million followers. And it’s there he’s trying to conduct his lessons.
The global competition between dictatorship and democracy is center stage in Ukraine. The world is watching to see whether we have the courage of our convictions. America will not shrink from supporting freedom.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 23, 2023
Romney has been tweeting up a storm trying to give geopolitical lessons to his MAGA colleagues in the GOP, whose rhetoric he believes is harming, not helping, America. The MAGA faithful seem unmoved by Romney’s plea (at least in the comments) but he keeps making it. Romney emphasizes “there’s no blood being shed by our soldiers.”
The courage and determination of Ukraine’s soldiers, leaders, and citizens has far exceeded expectations. The war is theirs to fight; we aid them with weapons and funds.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 23, 2023
