Romney says Trump’s return would ‘feed the sickness’ in July 4th op-ed

Sen. Mitt Romney penned a Fourth of July op-ed for The Atlantic warning Americans that they’re failing to confront serious challenges and that they need to wake up. 

‘President Joe Biden is a genuinely good man, but he has yet been unable to break through our national malady of denial, deceit, and distrust,’ Romney said. ‘A return of Donald Trump would feed the sickness, probably rendering it incurable.’ 

The opinion piece is entitled, ‘America Is in Denial,’ with Romney pointing to issues like climate change, the border crisis and rising inflation that are getting ignored by large swaths of the population, only the the country’s detriment. 

Sen. Mitt Romney penned a Fourth of July op-ed for The Atlantic warning Americans that they’re failing to confront serious challenges and that they need to wake up

Romney calls President Joe Biden a ‘good man,’ but suggests ‘he has yet been unable to break through our national malady of denial, deceit, and distrust’ 

‘And when a renowned conservative former federal appellate judge testifies that we are already in a war for our democracy and that January 6, 2021, was a genuine constitutional crisis, MAGA loyalists snicker that he speaks slowly and celebrate that most people weren’t watching,’ Romney points out. 

He was referring to the testimony of former judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative, who testified last month in front of the January 6 House select committee. 

Romney goes on to blame members of both political parties – suggesting some of the malaise can be attributed to ignoring issues the other side cares about. 

‘What accounts for the blithe dismissal of potentially cataclysmic threats?’ he asks. 

‘The left thinks the right is at fault for ignoring climate change and the attacks on our political system,’ he writes. ‘The right thinks the left is the problem for ignoring illegal immigration and the national debt. 

‘But wishful thinking happens across the political spectrum,’ he continues. ‘More and more, we are a nation in denial.’ 

Romney said he’s seen that denial in some Americans thinking January 6 was a ‘false-flag operation,’ or suggesting worse and worse droughts are a product of ‘a cycle that will reverse.’ 

‘A classic example of denial comes from Donald Trump: “I won in a landslide,”‘ he points out. 

‘Perhaps this is a branch of the same delusion that leads people to feed money into slot machines: Because I really want to win, I believe that I will win,’ the Utah Republican notes. 

Romney points to strong leaders from the past – Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King Jr. – and some from the present: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but then presses that the current leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties – Trump and Biden – are lacking in that department.  

‘I hope for a president who can rise above the din to unite us behind the truth,’ Romney said. 

‘Several contenders with experience and smarts stand in the wings; we intently watch to see if they also possess the requisite character and ability to bring the nation together in confronting our common reality,’ he continues – though doesn’t name names. 

Romney was the Republican nominee for president in 2012, but lost the election to sitting Democratic President Barack Obama.  

He called on average Americans to pick up the leadership mantle.   

‘While we wait, leadership must come from fathers and mothers, teachers and nurses, priests and rabbis, businessmen and businesswomen, journalists and pundits,’ he writes. 

‘That will require us all to rise above ourselves – above our grievances and resentments- and grasp the mantle of leadership our country so badly needs,’ he says.