Ever since Donald Trump came down that escalator back in 2015 — or at least ever since he clinched the 2016 Republican presidential nomination it’s been nothing short of fascinating to watch the media rewrite their own version of history regarding past Republican presidential nominees. Their narratives on Mitt Romney, in particular, have … well, let’s just say they’ve evolved quite a bit.
These days, they cite Mitt Romney as a good an honorable man, of vestige of the Before Times, before the Republican Party became the Party of Trump, the Party of Evil, the Party of Hate. They do this because they are evidently under the impression that we were literally born yesterday and therefore have absolutely no recollection of what they did to Romney.
For a lot of my peers, the actual breaking point came long ago: with Mitt Romney in 2012. A decade is an even longer time in politics than in life, so many of you perhaps don't remember that, once Mitt won the nomination, he was treated by the MSM as Literally Satan Incarnate.
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) July 26, 2022
If you want a picture of the future, how even moderate Republicans view the MSM and their attempts at 'good faith', imagine Phil Rucker sweatily bleating "WHAT ABOUT YOUR GAAAAAFFFES???" at Mitt Romney on auto-repeat — forever.
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) July 26, 2022
This is the perfect analogy and I instantly sort of dislike this person for getting there before I did mentally. https://t.co/oafy2oOoin
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) July 26, 2022
The media’s treatment of Mitt Romney played a huge role in ultimately propelling Donald Trump to the 2016 GOP nomination and then into the White House. But if you even hint at that, journos will bristle and tell you that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Case in point, Raw Story journalist Matthew Chapman, whose purported memory of the Romney campaign differs greatly from the reality version:
I vividly remember 2012. I was in college then and it was the first one I got to vote in. This is simply not true. Romney was fact-checked ruthlessly by the press (because he lied, a lot). But he was not presented as a threat to democracy or as a man of rotten personal character. https://t.co/VD2uQD6TPu
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) July 27, 2022
“He was not presented as a threat to democracy or as a man of rotten personal character.” The only possible explanation for how Chapman can actually believe that is that he was literally living under a rock during the entire 2012 election season.
There are a lot of conservatives who are bitter to this day about Romney's loss because they were blindsided by how much voters hated — I mean absolutely DESPISED — fiscally conservative policy. Romney ran hard on the GOP's economic agenda and voters just totally stomped on it.
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) July 27, 2022
What?
To be fair, there was more than that. Romney was also a terrible *messenger* for those policies because he was the embodiment of everything Democrats stereotype the GOP as — a filthy rich private equity hawk who had a mansion with a car elevator.
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) July 27, 2022
That’s some historical revisionism, right there.
As many have pointed out before, vibes are even more important than policy. Romney and the GOP just made themselves so easy to stereotype as out-of-touch plutocrats that year.
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) July 27, 2022
Mitt Romney couldn’t so much as sneeze without Democrats and the media using it to paint him as basically a younger version of Mr. Burns. Please, Matthew. Please.
Obviously Matthew is completely full of it, and we could just leave it at that. Or we could let Twitchy fixture @politicalmath chew him up and spit him out.
Yeah, let’s do that:
This is a pretty intense self-own since the he specifically references "binders full of women" as a thing that he hated about Romney
Anyone who references that bought the media narrative hook line and sinker and never really understood that he was being manipulated https://t.co/Lh868dZHFN
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) July 28, 2022
Yes, Romney was fact-checked mercilessly. The fact-checkers frequently took true things Romney said and called them false
I did an in-depth investigation of PolitiFact & Romney actually stood out as a particular target of their dishonestyhttps://t.co/cis9lmfJmV
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) July 28, 2022
The real kicker for me was how the media treated Ann Romney. God, they were vicious to her. Unbelievably cruel.
They attacked her clothing, attacked her choice of therapy for her MS, attacked her husband for taking care of his sick wife.
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) July 28, 2022
Attacked her clothinghttps://t.co/4d43Es7h1t
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) July 28, 2022
attacked her choice of therapy (Ann did horse therapy to treat her multiple sclerosis)https://t.co/LO4Ngc1EN5
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) July 28, 2022
Attacked Mitt for the car elevator he installed to help his sick wife get in and out of the vehicle https://t.co/8wOskzpAEl
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) July 28, 2022
This person works at CNN now, pretending to write objective news pic.twitter.com/hEuR95S30S
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) July 28, 2022
Republicans didn’t slime Mitt Romney and drag him and his family through the mud; Democrats and the media made that happen. And Democrats and the media made Trump happen.
And until they finally sack up and own it, they can go right ahead and keep wallowing in the flaming dumpster that is their garbage reputation.
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