When Mitt Romney ran for president in 2012, he faced the impossible challenge of convincing conservatives to support him, despite his long and distinguished track record as a Massachusetts liberal.
Romney began building his liberal portfolio when he attempted to unseat Ted Kennedy in the US Senate, a race where Romney adopted the policies of the man from Chappaquiddick, including support for Roe v. Wade.
Several years later, then-Governor Romney partnered with Teddy to create Romney-Care—the blueprint used to create Obamacare.
Still, the pinnacle of Romney’s attempt to repackage himself was reached when he appeared at the 2012 CPAC Convention where he informed attendees that he was not merely conservative; he was “severely conservative,” despite his liberal history.
Now we are once again being fed political doublespeak from the man I call the chameleon conservative, as Romney tries to change his colors in an effort to win his carpetbagger campaign to replace retiring Orrin Hatch as Utah’s next US senator.
When Romney launched his Utah campaign, he compared Utah values to Washington values on issues like the budget and illegal immigration. Besides the fact that he’s being deceptive when he touts Utah’s balanced budget—they’re required by law—Mitt’s attempt at appearing to be a hard-nose on immigration is a flat-out lie.
At a campaign appearance in Provo earlier this week, Romney was asked about his lack of conservative credentials during Q & A session with voters in what could be considered a “severely conservative” redux, Romney responded by pointing out that his 2012 presidential campaign clearly demonstrated that he was a “mainstream conservative” on many issues and how he was more conservative than Congress and Trump. A rather low bar, as we know all too well.
“I’m a deficit hog. That makes me more conservative than a lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats. I’m even more of a hawk on immigration than even the president. My view was these DACA kids shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the country legally.”
This is one of the classic half-truths so common with faux conservatives. Romney did oppose DACA, but later pulled “a John Kerry” and supported it. And while he also opposed amnesty, Romney supported giving permanent resident status to illegals willing to serve in the military.
Besides his vacillating position on immigration, Romney also believes that climate change, the war on poverty, education, and income inequality are the issues Republicans should be addressing if they want to fix voter frustration, which allows us to conclude that there’s nothing “mainstream” or “severe” about Mitt Romney’s conservatism.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His politically incorrect and always “right” columns are featured on RedState.com, NOQReport.com, and TheResurgent.com.
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