In 2012, Mitt Romney ran against Barack Obama on a platform of centrism and not seeing any need to appeal to conservatives. There was an arrogance that his campaign flaunted and it turned off conservatives in many ways. He lost that race, in part because of that and in part because he was demonized beyond all belief by Democrats and the national press.

That demonization – from accusing him of killing a woman with cancer to making up controversy over his tax returns, and everything in between – was nothing short of scandalous because of how obvious it was that it was based on nothing real. But despite all that, many Republicans and even conservatives who felt otherwise uninspired by the man went out and defended him from those attacks.

Fast forward several years, and Romney is now a full-fledged anti-Trump Republican Senator from Utah. He is the face of intra-party resistance to Trumpism and a source of “newfound respect” from the Democrats and the national press that once excoriated him.

There was so much praise for Romney as he marched with protestors recently that you would have thought he was a beloved member of the Democratic Party. One thing you aren’t hearing from a whole lot of them is any sort of regret for how they treated him eight years ago.

Romney was one of the most indisputably decent people to run for POTUS. Judging from @JonahDispatch 's mentions, a lot of people in the media still see nothing wrong with smearing such a person as an uncaring, racist, sexist, greedy murderer who bullies kids and dogs. 1/2

— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) June 10, 2020

That signals to other people that they would have no issue doing it again regardless of who the R nominee is. That doesn't excuse ignoring character issues, but it's human nature that people will not view it as a priority when you're even willing to portray Romney like that.

— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) June 10, 2020

And this is exactly the point. It’s going to happen again. It doesn’t have to be anyone related to the Trump administration in 2024. It could be a completely new face, someone who is completely vanilla, has no history of racist statements or problematic views, and if that person has an “R” behind their name, these same people will do to that person what they did to Romney.

If you want to know why people would vote for and support Trump, this is why. They are tired of the other side resorting to this crap each and every time. And, frankly, a lot of these people do deserve the Trump Treatment.