Romney: Lies, Boring Lies

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


When Mitt Romney entered politics in 1994 with a losing bid to unseat Sen. Ted Kennedy, he packaged himself as a moderate. He promised the Log Cabin Republicans that he would be a stronger advocate for gay rights than Kennedy. He also said that regardless of his personal beliefs, abortion should be safe and legal.

Let’s be honest: You can’t win in Massachusetts if you say you hate gays and value fetuses more than women.

When he announced his presidential aspirations earlier today, Romney presented himself as a veritable values warrior. He called for smaller government. Apparently, taxes are still too high…on the wealthy.

He also wrapped anti-abortion and anti-gay views into a frighteningly tight little package. (Perhaps he would support gag legislation recently introduced by the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, limiting marriage to those who can and will have children?)

“America can’t continue to lead the family of nations if we fail the families at home,” he said, adding that values and morals are “under constant attack” and promoting families where a mother and a father are in each child’s life.

Where to begin? Romney’s rhetoric is so two decades ago and contradicts positions he’s taken in the meantime. And to say values are under attack is downright frightening. I challenge Mr. Mitt to find me one instance of one person of any credibility saying that values and morals are bad: End laws against stealing! Make perjury mandatory! Murder? No problem!

The only way his statement makes any sense is as an assault on the separation of church and state, which is just downright bizarre because Romney isn’t protestant, he’s Mormon and would join gays and abortionists on the heretics list.

That’s the crazy-boring package. Oh, yeah, he also supports continued involvement in Iraq.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate