Romney’s announcement Wednesday that he will not seek a second Senate term and the release of excerpts from a blockbuster biography have prompted me, like many Americans, to reflect on his political journey.
Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, I marveled, gawked and mocked his efforts to shed his progressive past (as author of Romneycare, a precursor to the Affordable Care Act) and ingratiate himself as a “movement conservative.” His zealous embrace of hard-right positions on issues such as immigration had the whiff of a recent convert (or reformed smoker), nearly cringeworthy in its shallow earnestness.
Because character has always ranked high on my criteria for politicians (is it any wonder I bailed from the GOP?), I naturally was delighted when iconoclast, war hero, human rights advocate and humorously self-deprecating John McCain, a senator from Arizona, won the Republican nomination in 2008. His defense of then-candidate and senator from Illinois Barack Obama’s patriotism spoke to a bygone era when Republicans were mensches.
When Romney returned to run again in 2012, still the subject of mockery from progressives and skepticism from right-wingers, he stood head and shoulders above a field including the likes of former House speaker Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.). Romney was more thoughtful, more comfortable in his own skin and more insightful about the country’s challenges than he had been in 2008. Derided at the time, he famously warned about the threat from Russia.
During the 2012 campaign, I had the chance to see him speak in a variety of settings, interview him and interact frequently with his staff (including later fellow Never Trumper Stuart Stevens). I didn’t agree with him on several issues and rolled my eyes at some flubs (47 percent of Americans are takers was the worst), but I came to appreciate the man’s decency, intelligence, patriotism and kindness (a quality rarely seen in politicians).
Though his speech on his faith was not exactly John F. Kennedy’s defense of his Catholicism, one cannot help but notice how objectionable his sentiments would be in today’s GOP. (“The diversity of our cultural expression, and the vibrancy of our religious dialogue, has kept America in the forefront of civilized nations even as others regard religious freedom as something to be destroyed.”) He was the last Republican presidential candidate I voted for (or will ever vote for).
I was heartened in 2016 by his on-the-nose criticism and warning about now four-times indicted and defeated former president Donald Trump, and I was (foolishly) hopeful that his Senate tenure would knock sense and inject decency into a party that lacked both.
There were disappointments, to be sure, in his Senate career. He opposed reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, for example. But there were far more acts of principle, courage and bipartisan pragmatism. He voted to convict a president of his own party twice (which alone makes him a rare, admirable figure). He voted to confirm Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and supported the formation of a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission. He was instrumental in getting the bipartisan infrastructure act passed.
He remained a stalwart supporter of Ukraine. McCain would have been proud of Romney’s Senate career.
In reading the remarkable excerpts from McKay Coppins’s upcoming biography, I was reminded of a certain naiveté (he only “recently” realized, he told Coppins, that “a very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution”) and was disappointed that Romney had not previously revealed his warning to then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about Jan. 6, 2021, to which McConnell never responded. (McConnell owes the country an explanation — under oath).
However, I was gratified that he confirmed what we all know: The smarmy right-wing Republican senators are at bottom hypocrites and careerists, willing to sacrifice our democracy and pander to voters, whom they consider dullards, simply to keep their jobs. I appreciated Romney’s admonition that supporting a No Labels candidate would help elect Trump. And his candor about former vice president Mike Pence (no one “more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities, more willing to ascribe God’s will to things that were ungodly than Mike Pence”) is refreshing.
And yet I am left with questions. Given what he knows about his party, how could he remain a Republican? He could have left the party, as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) left hers, while choosing still to caucus with Republicans. Given what he knows about Trump, how could he not support President Biden, the only viable alternative for 2024?
In trying to come to terms with his career, I am reminded that perfect candidates (and people) don’t exist. All politicians are self-interested, but only some rise to the occasion when decency, courage, honesty and independence are required. Nevertheless, history will remember him (unlike the legion of spineless careerists) and treat him well. Romney demonstrated uncommon patriotism, integrity and valor at critical times. He honorably represented his constituents. He shamed other Republicans by his example.
Perhaps freed from public office, he will take the next, logical step and help defeat a dangerous authoritarian, racist MAGA movement; ally himself with fellow democracy defenders to defeat Trump and his ilk; and then summon other conservatives of conscience to remake (if possible) his party or form a new party that is worthy of competing for the votes of his fellow Americans. If he does all that, he will join the rarefied ranks of those who gave their all for their country, like John McCain.
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