Is Mitt Romney Ready for His Close-Up?
He may not be able to prevent Trump’s acquittal in the Senate, but he could point Republicans toward a more respectable future.
Keep walking.
Photographer: The Washington Post
Never Trumpers, those conservatives who haven’t reconciled themselves to Donald Trump’s gangland politics and cash-flow presidency, are transparently weak. They have no leader. They control no votes. They have nothing to counter the brute force of a MAGA rally. They write well, but they can’t compete with the right-wing propagandaplex that purposefully misshapes the views of so many conservative readers, watchers and surfers.
Yet they matter. And among the Never Trumpers, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah may matter most. Romney is not the future of the Republican Party; he is very much its past. His patrician restraint, business boosterism and upper-class internationalism are remnants of the party of Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan and Bush. Romney is unlikely ever to scuttle Trump’s Vichy regime, or to garner much support if he attempts to. In fact, his public disdain for Trump’s “wrong and appalling” conduct has eroded his standing among Republicans.