# The treatment of Romney gave us Trump **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 20, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197 "2017-08-20T17:40:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/41 "2017-08-21T06:10:35Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#): > > Are you saying that the Electoral College system was “designed” to favor whites? I posted the numbers and provided the cites. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/42 "2017-08-21T06:14:37Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Those are some strong points, **Little Nemo**. What are you going to do? Have justice imposed? If it was up to me, I switch over the basic democracy. Enact a constitutional amendment and abolish the Electoral College. Whoever gets the most votes, wins the election. I know, what a crazy idea. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/43 "2017-08-21T07:02:51Z")
You could make white votes worth only 3/5ths of other votes. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/44 "2017-08-21T11:50:36Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If it was up to me, I switch over the basic democracy. Enact a constitutional amendment and abolish the Electoral College. Whoever gets the most votes, wins the election. > > I know, what a crazy idea. +1 QFT This ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/45 "2017-08-21T11:51:42Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#): > > Are you saying that the Electoral College system was “designed” to favor whites? > > Please explain how the Electoral College designers managed to foresee (and make sure that the discrepancy is maintained in perpetuity) that tiny states will have a higher proportion of whites than the biggest ones - and not only that, but that these tiny states will disproportionately vote for one side in the elections. Disregarding whites, the last thing a post-industrial urbanized hyperpower needs is a government run by rubes and farmers. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/46 "2017-08-21T12:21:15Z")
The media is never going to give the Republican a fair break. That’s not new with Romney, although the first Romney-Obama debate was a wake-up call to the press of what can happen when they do. But yes, there is an element of crying wolf - every Republican gets the same “racist/sexist/homophobe/stupid/out of touch/corrupt/evil!!!” rant, and people have learned to tune it out to some degree. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/47 "2017-08-21T12:24:24Z")
Well, when the Republican President lays bare the equivalency of the Nazis and Confederates, and comes down on the side of the Nazis with little outcry from other Republicans, well, Republican actions speak louder than Democratic words. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/48 "2017-08-21T12:35:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If it was up to me, I switch over the basic democracy. Enact a constitutional amendment and abolish the Electoral College. Whoever gets the most votes, wins the election. > > I know, what a crazy idea. I don’t know, 60% of POTUS elections this century have aligned with the popular vote- that’s almost double Babe Ruth. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Yes I am being sarcastic. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/49 "2017-08-21T12:39:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If it was up to me, I switch over the basic democracy. Enact a constitutional amendment and abolish the Electoral College. Whoever gets the most votes, wins the election. > > I know, what a crazy idea. Agree. How about also making it harder for political parties to become so entrenched and divisive - whoever gets the 2nd most votes gets to be VP? Maybe we can also break the 2-party grip on politics. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/50 "2017-08-21T14:05:12Z")
So, in the election forum we have liberals generally defending the tactics and reputation of Democrats; those on the Right largely blaming Democrats. Other than confirming my belief in much of what Scott Adams says the vast majority of replies in this thread has increased my understanding of the of the op’s arguments(pros and cons) by about 0%. The thread has had about 50 replies; I can guarantee around 40 of them are partisan junk. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/51 "2017-08-21T14:08:52Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > You could make white votes worth only 3/5ths of other votes. It’s funny how some people act like the 3/5th clause was the most outrageous thing that was ever in the Constitution, while being okay with our current Constitution which gives some people less than 1/3 of the vote that other people get. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/52 "2017-08-21T18:19:55Z")
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but Romney’s problem was that he looked like a typical asshole CEO who announces layoffs and no bonuses for the remaining workers and then collects record bonuses and stock options for himself and his upper executive buddies. That wasn’t the right message for 2012, recovery from financial crisis recessions has always been stubbornly slow. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/53 "2017-08-21T18:53:33Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > You want to lay Trump at anyone’s feet, it’s Lee Atwater for running the Willie Horton campaign ad and strategy against Dukakis. We have it on high authority that the Stupidist _1984_-style Movement in America started with the vicious treatment of Nixon and his lackey, Judge Robert Bork, by Democrats 😃 > [@E-DUB](#): > > The pendulum swings and we’re all used to that, but it isn’t supposed to swing further and further each time. How long before someone says: “Enough with this stupid pendulum.”? The old metaphoric pendulum that I understood had great _inertia_. A left-of-center voter might vote for the rightist if the country was too far left, or vice versa, knowing that any change would be gradual. But that is not the “pendulum” in today’s America. The sudden brutal lurch from the left-of-center Obama to right-wing insanity is unbecoming. Regardless of what follows from here, expect American governance to be a laughingstock for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/54 "2017-08-21T19:43:29Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Regardless of what follows from here, expect American governance to be a laughingstock for the foreseeable future. International opinion of America rebounded pretty quickly under Obama. Trump is more of a laughingstock than Bush, but the right person could turn things around. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/55 "2017-08-21T21:04:16Z")
America’s decline produced Trump, something which Romney wouldn’t have stopped. Liberal respectability politics is dumb, though. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/56 "2017-08-22T02:25:46Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > America’s decline produced Trump, something which Romney wouldn’t have stopped. Liberal respectability politics is dumb, though. What do you think declined between 2012 and 2016 besides the unemployment rate? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/57 "2017-08-22T05:36:58Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > [QUOTE=Little Nemo] > I will say this for Republicans; they chose the most powerful group to pander to. Our system is designed so white people get more votes than non-white people. Designed? I would say it is ‘designed’ such that everyone over 18 can vote. It just so happens that there are more white people in the country than non-white people. [/QUOTE] No. **Mr. Nemo** may be referring to the electoral college, but [that is not](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/the-real-voting-problem-in-the-2016-election-214386) the [only way](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/08/voter-suppression-in-u-s-elections/) in which [elections have been rigged](https://thinkprogress.org/2016-a-case-study-in-voter-suppression-258b5f90ddcd/) to [suppress the voting power](https://www.thenation.com/article/the-gops-attack-on-voting-rights-was-the-most-under-covered-story-of-2016/) of [blacks and other](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/the-real-voting-scandal-of-2016) [likely Democratic voters](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/north-carolina-early-voting/506963/). ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/58 "2017-08-22T16:30:26Z")
The party of personal responsibility gave us Trump. Put on your big boy pants and own this shit. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/59 "2017-08-22T16:59:44Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Yeah, I’m pretty sure Trump got the idea while being roasted at that correspondent’s dinner. Remember OBama taking shots at him? Go back and look at his face. He’s steaming. > > That, right there is when Donald decided he’d show all of them!\ I think it may have even started when [Seth Meyers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Km4R377s4M) got him at the Correspondents Dinner in 2011.’ ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197/60 "2017-08-24T03:19:53Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I posted the numbers and provided the cites. It is amazing how the Framers in 1787 could not only predict that blacks could vote in 2017, but also predicted that they would consolidate in precisely the manner to make their votes “count less” under the system they designed. Seriously, though, this new talking point of the EC being racist is absurd. The founders designed this exact system when no state even allowed blacks to vote. To say that they set up a system so that black votes would count less is ridiculous. They believed black votes would not count _at all_. Why design a deviously evil system to supposedly underhandedly suppress black votes when they openly disallowed all black votes? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-treatment-of-romney-gave-us-trump/794197.md?page=4)