Romney is one of the first politicians I’ve ever seen who was an outsider and specifically went to D.C. just so he could join the cocktail circuit and receive faint praise from CNN flacks.

To be frank, even if you don’t like Trump’s style, there was always a middle ground. Figures like Ron DeSantis populate it with relative ease and have bright futures because of it. Romney has no interest in that though. He’d always rather attack his own side while fluffing his opponents because it makes him feel morally superior. It also happens to be an extremely easy thing to do as a Republican in Washington. Doing what Trump did, standing up to the left in so many areas, takes actual fortitude. Meanwhile, Romney can only be counted to release a statement of disapproval of anything when he’s attacking another Republican.

As we forge into the next four years of what looks to be a Joe Biden administration, Republicans are going to have to make a choice. Do they pursue the politics of the past in vain, or do they recognize that the party has moved past the pointless virtue signaling of 2008 and 2012? Republican voters want a fighter who is going to prioritize them over getting backslaps from people like David Axelrod.