Not surprising that one of the most pro-Trump senators (Georgia’s @sendavidperdue) chose to “reply” to Mitt Romney op-ed. Perdue’s is filled with illogic and contradictions. I’ll explain 1/ washingtonpost.com/opinions/sen-d…
The first contradiction is Perdue’s summary of Romney: “attempted character assassination of the president, a fellow Republican...” Perdue knows good and well this isn’t what Romney did. Such “assassination” only happens to people with character. Trump doesn’t have any. 2/
Perdue is doing a tried and true rhetorical reversal: make your opponent look bad by claiming he is doing what you are actually doing. Perdue is assassnating Romney and tries to say it is other way. That lacks character, @sendavidperdue 3/
Then Perdue tries to show ethos by claiming his op-ed isn’t an “attack,” not about Romney but about being above politics, for “national interest.” Perdue is conning. The *ENTIRE* op-ed is about division within GOP. 4/
There is a reason Perdue writes “Do not mistake what I’m saying for an attack on Romney. It isn’t.” He writes that because EVERY READER had just concluded that and they were right to do so. Perdue the con is now trying to tell us that we shouldn’t believe our own eyes 5/
If @sendavidperdue thinks that words of truth from former presidential candidate about a “winning” candidate “smacks of jealousy and resentment,” Perdue is as tied to immoral individual competition as the morally challenged president is. 6/
And let’s show how morally illogical Perdue is. He attacks Romney for not picking up a phone. IN A Washington Post op-ed. Perdue isn’t merely trying to have cake and eat it; he is practicing tried and true demagoguery like Trump, who can self-contradict but never be wrong. 7/
Perdue’s op-ed tries to claim Romney isn’t following the old Reagan “11th commandment”: don’t attack other Republicans. Like Reagan who didn’t follow his own rule, many of Perdue’s own statements show how he fails too. 8/
But all this buries fact that Perdue admits he would welcome such criticisms in private. But Perdue doesn’t have the principles/guts/character to say them in public. Perdue is exemplar 4 Trump’s claim he could murder someone in Times Square & his base would still love him. 9/
@sendavidperdue is repeating Trump line that you can’t/shouldn’t impeach a president who is succesful. And this is how demagoguery works. If (some) people get what they want and nation is “on track”, it doesn’t matter who runs show - a man with character or Individual 1. 10/
All this immorality from from @sendavidperdue sums up as being “business-minded” enough to “stay focused on getting the job done.” What is Perdue trying to remove from our focus? Ethics, morality, and his con about his own “non-attack attack.” In a word: character. 11/
And don’t let @sendavidperdue disparage business leaders for you. Perdue is exemplar for why business “leaders” need humanities education. And that can and does happen in some schools, even Ga Tech when Perdue went. /end
