After an uneventful New Year’s Eve, I was unprepared for the resurgence of a long-forgotten name in the headlines on New Year’s Day. On January 1st, Mitt Romney, the recently elected Utah senator and 2012 presidential candidate, decided to give us his take on Trump in his op-ed “The President Shapes the Public Character of the Nation. Trump’s Character Falls Short” [1]. Following his 2018 midterm win, Romney set out to clarify his relationship with the nation’s politics by openly criticizing President Trump’s character, while agreeing with his conservative policies. While the op-ed itself is full of bland generalizations, it does help us to understand the current state of the G.O.P. and how Romney fits into it.
Romney is sorely mistaken if he is hoping to rally the G.O.P. base behind him, as the G.O.P. of 2012 is long gone. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to separate the G.O.P. and Trump, the former having embraced and begun to emulate the latter. Many have dubbed this acceptance of Trump’s policies in the G.O.P. as “Trumpism” [2]. The cause for this adoption is twofold: 1) Trump has enacted large amounts of conservative legislation, namely massive tax cuts, systematic deregulation, elimination of the individual mandate, placing of conservative justices to all levels of court, etc. 2) G.O.P. Trump detractors have lost serious political ground, and even their public offices. Trump demands strict loyalty from the party he represented in 2016, which has returned dividends as the amount of conservative legislation passed in his first two years of office has taken many by surprise.
As for the issue of Trump’s character, not much has changed since he announced his bid for the presidency. The public is well aware that he can be mean, self-indulging, narcissistic, and crude (and let’s not forget the hush money paid to cover up an affair with a porn star). Many consider Romney to have had the greatest character of any presidential candidates, but it did little, if anything, to win him the presidency in 2012. In 2016, Republicans wanted someone who could get the job done, even if that meant looking past their moral deficiencies. Charles Sykes of The Weekly Standard wrote: “... Republicans have told themselves that if you squint hard enough, Trump can look like a somewhat normal Republican president who has delivered a series of conservative wins” [3]. Many condemn Trump for not having an ideal presidential character, but it can’t be said that he hasn’t produced favorable results for his party.
So, where does Mitt Romney fit into all of this? He scores extremely well among his new Utah constituency, but many consider Utah to be a G.O.P. outsider due to its idiosyncratic political landscape [4]. A recent national Rasmussen poll among likely Republicans emphasized this idea, as results show that sixty-three percent think the party should be more like Trump and less like Romney [5]. Another Rasmussen survey shows that the public has largely left Mitt by the wayside: from a poll of Republican voters in the 2016 primaries, fifteen percent said they were more likely to vote for a candidate with Romney’s endorsement, while seventeen percent said they were less likely to vote for a candidate with his endorsement [6]. Romney reminds Republicans of a time that many have worked to forget: the 2012 presidential election. After stumbling and ultimately falling on his face in 2012, Romney has lost his sway with the national Republican base.
Looking towards Romney’s future within the new G.O.P., many believe he will fill the role previously held by Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ). Flake was known as the lead Trump detractor in the G.O.P., garnering attention as he repeatedly criticized the president. However, when it came to actual legislation, Flake voted with Trump a whopping eighty-one percent of the time, undermining his image as a legitimate critic. Romney hints that he may be headed for a similar fate as a voice of opposition to the president in name only, writing in the op-ed, “[i]t is not that all of the policies have been misguided… But policies and appointments are only part of the presidency” [7].
There is a portion of America that agrees with the idea that Trump’s outlandish behavior has a detrimental effect on the nation’s wellbeing. However, rhetoric and unofficial behavior are temporary, a flash in the pan. What stands the test of time is policy and effective legislation. Romney misses the point with his op-ed, adding yet another political misfire to his list. It’s time for Romney buckle down and carry out some worthwhile work; as Trump rightly said, “[i]f he fought really hard against President Obama like he does against me, he would’ve won the election” [8].
SOURCES:
[2] https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/trumpism/