Romney Deification Just Slightly Overblown?

Not too long ago it was the posthumous encomiums to George Bush, who one shouldn't forget gave us his son, that spread across far too much of the mainstream media. Earlier it was the son who found renewed respect after what was, arguably, the worst presidency in history. Now the love affair for conservatives not quite as bad as Trump has spread to Mitt Romney for an op ed that stated the obvious with some pretty serious caveats segments of the media seem to be ignoring. So let's, as George Michael used to say, go to the "video tape." 

“It is not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided,” he wrote. “He was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global competitors, to strip out excessive regulations, to crack down on China’s unfair trade practices, to reform criminal justice and to appoint conservative judges. These are policies mainstream Republicans have promoted for years. But policies and appointments are only a part of a presidency.”

Then the critique so many loved began. But lest us forget that this is the guy who is essentially part of the same cabal. Maybe a little more seasoned and polished, but still someone who took 1000s of jobs to feed the Wall Street machine, who pushes the same pro-corporate agenda that has squeezed the middle class and increased poverty. The same one who continues to try to stuff the courts with conservative ideologies who no longer even pretend to not be "activist" judges litigating our private and public lives. And who ramped up the anti-immigrant rhetoric that had largely disappeared from the mainstream of the party with the turn of the new century (at least his omission of a critique of this component of Trump made sense).

So let's respect that someone is willing to stand up to Trump who happens to be a Republican not retiring from the Senate or dying, but forgo the overly exuberant veneration of that conservative, particularly when we disagree with almost everything he stands for ... just a thought.