"Why were liberals so harsh against Mitt Romney in 2012? Was this harshness justified?"

 I saw this question on reddit, and decided to respond to it here. 

The short story is YES! I hate how liberals now renovate this man, and people like Bush, and people like Reagan. In 2012, Romney was extreme. He was not a "moderate." The only people who thought he was "moderate" are the people who are basically half conservative anyway and who actually LIKE the clinton types.

My views literally arose as an opposition to Romney and his ilk. Socially, he might have moderate convictions himself, but let's be blunt, he was fronting the tea party and all of their nonsense, in an era when that was considered unthinkable and extreme. Like, we call the tea party "moderate" now, but again, that's because the GOP is openly fascist now and not even trying to hide it. 

And on economic issues, the dude was calling for kicking people off of extended unemployment in an era where unemployment was still extremely high since the great recession, and he was saying if we gave the "job creators" more money, they'd use it to create jobs, like we should be thankful for the "opportunity" to work for rich ###holes exploiting us. He dismissively talked about the "47%" who would never vote for him because they never pay taxes and were dependent on government services (because he was a free market guy trying to cut government  in the middle of a recession). 

And here's what modern libs don't understand, which is why I dont get along with many modern libs, and why I'm banned from this particular sub this is from. 2012 was an election based on economic populism. Well, all of the elections since were on the economy too, but in 2012, Obama was expanding services, at least temporarily, and Romney was for cutting them to give tax cuts to his rich buddies. Even a lot of traditionally conservative demographics were jumping ship from the GOP in this era, as the recession hit them in the face and they realized, gee, government does things. 

During this era, the only reason the dems did bad was because after 2008 with "hope and change", the democratic base got super unmotivated because Obama proved himself to be centrist AF and not the change they wanted. Sure, he was an improvement over Bush, but he wasn't what a lot of people wanted. Still, he was able to comfortably win 2012 because he did enough that kept people on his side (and even won some over in my case), and because the GOP was going flat out political suicide.

I'd even posit that in some regards, Trump came off as more moderate than Romney in 2016. Especially on economics. He was anti free trade, he wanted to bring the jobs back, and he promised not to go after social security and the like, which both Bush and Romney tried to do. You dont wanna mess with social security, it's the third rail of American politics. Like, Trump didn't start off where he was now. Sure, there were always elements of some radicalism there. The racism, the "lock her up" stuff, etc., but again, that was also fairly popular at the time. Trump tapped into something with the American people whereas Romney alienated them. And if anything, Clinton pivoting right to appeal to the "McCain/Romney vote" alienated me, after I left the GOP to join the left. 

So no, I don't think we were harsh on Romney at all. The harshness was deserved, and if anything I have scorn toward the democrats trying to renovate this man because ERMAHGERD TRUMP! And the reason I mock THAT sentiment is the dems were losing their fricking minds over Trump since 2015, which shows me many of them lack principles (or at least principles compatible with my worldview), when in reality, I didn't view Trump as a serious threat to democracy until 2021 when he pulled his January 6th crap. Before then I was just mockingly dismissive toward the guy like "look at this joke of a guy we have as president." But I wasn't bothered enough with him to actually side with the dems again (well at least the dem establishment) until after the fascist threat was so apparent I couldn't ignore it. Really, I just saw him as a joke until January 6th, then suddenly he was hitler, and that was the beer hall putsch. Even then i didnt realize how serious it was until details came out later. When it happened I was just like "get a load of his stupid supporters throwing a tantrum."

Also...Trump. Given Trump started out moderate, and heck, even started out as a democrat, why do you think he went further right? I don't think a lot of that came FROM HIM. Rather, there's a whole infrastructure of people behind him trying to push a radical agenda on the American people. It wasn't Trump who came up with project 2025, it was the heritage foundation.  And you know what? These people were behind Romney too. And he wouldn't have been very "moderate" at all. Really, I can't even really wrap my heads around people who think romney was a moderate. He was the republican equivalent of kamala harris. Sure, he could pivot moderate if he wanted, but if the political pressure was on him to go the other way, he would. As such, I don't give Romney ANY credit here. 

The only things that came from Trump himself were the rank authoritarianism, and the anti immigrant/trade stuff. Otherwise the dude is, himself, a political chameleon too, and he's just doing what the party wants him to do.

So...can we stop this weird idea that Romney is somehow a "moderate"? This is just a weird thing made up by a bunch of democratic "moderates" who are basically half conservative anyway, who think Romney has more in common with them than they do with, say, me. And I'm not kidding on that. I cant express how much I think the weird third way faction are traitors and sellouts to the liberal cause. Hell, that's why I'm banned from the sub I found the above question on. Because I ended up getting in fights with members because I wasnt a real liberal because I was a bit more moderate/less woke socially, but really like economic progressivism. But these guys are the weird socially super woke, but then fiscally moderate craplibs who think it's perfectly fine to negotiate with romney types on tax rates and cutting safety nets, but that being a bit moderate on immigration and race is a bit too far. Screw them.

But yeah, even the idea that Romney is "moderate" is offensive to my own sensibilities. Wanna know who else is "moderate" in today's GOP? Liz Cheney. Hell, even Mike Pence who is basically a 2000s era Christian nationalist is considered "moderate."

But make no mistake, that's not because the republicans are actually moderate. It's because we've let Trump and the GOP pull the overton window so far right suddenly 2010s era tea party republicans are "moderate" when they were extremist nutcases at the time. Screw Mitt Romney. All my friends hate Mitt Romney.