Retiring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) is against Trump, but won’t endorse Kamala Harris (read story here).
He said, “I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States.” Well, who does that leave?
Um, Chase Oliver (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Joel Skousen (Constitution), Claudia De la Cruz (Socialism and Liberation, but I think we can rule out this one), Lucifer Everylove (Independent, probably this one too), and Cornel West (Independent). See details here.
And Ann Romney. There’s no doubt about it: He’s going to write in his wife. He said so before Biden dropped out (read story here), and there’s no reason to think that’s changed. You shouldn’t be surprised; whatever Romney is, the former vulture capitalist isn’t a liberal or a Democrat.
“Romney told a political forum in his home state that the Republican Party would likely need ‘to be rebuilt or reoriented’ no matter what happens in the election — and he would like a role in that effort,” Politico says (at first link above).
I agree with that, as America needs healthy political competition, and that requires two parties not too far from the center. But it isn’t going to happen in Romney’s lifetime. Trump has said 2024 is his last campaign, and his visible physical and mental decline makes that clear. But MAGA won’t go away, neither will Project 2025, all the reasonable people have been purged from the GOP, and it’s unlikely they’ll come back.
Moreover, a large portion of the electorate — nearly half — has been radicalized by rightwing lies. There’s almost no one left to repopulate a Republican Party resembling the pre-Trump one. America is far more likely to veer farther into a knock-down, drag-out cultural war with racist overtones. And the GOP will only get Trumpier under his anointed successor, J. D. Vance.