As you might expect, the reaction of President Trump as well as many of his supporters was to bring out the proverbial long knives against Romney. This makes absolutely no sense given Romney's vote was of literally zero consequence to Trump. As such, it makes the ridiculous chanting point of "Romney is just trying to get his revenge for past Trump criticisms as well as for being denied the Secretary of State post" all the more absurd. Besides, I view this as classic projection given that using one's power in electoral politics in order to settle a personal score is something Trump would absolutely do.
The truth is there was no upside for Romney casting the vote to convict given Trump remaining in office was a fait accompli. I obviously don't know Romney personally but I 100% believed him when he said he was merely following his conscience. Watch the entire interview he conducted with Fox News's Chris Wallace on Wednesday. It appears to me that Romney was genuinely anguishing over what he believed he had to do.
But as with any viewpoints about Romney, it's many on the left who ignore their downright vile and slanderous statements from the 2011-2012 time frame to suddenly laud him as someone with moral courage. Peter Wehner writing for The Atlantic picked up on this, too.
Maybe Democrats and those in the media who delighted in vilifying Romney in 2012—Senator Harry Reid lied about Romney’s taxes; an Obama super PAC tied him to a woman’s cancer death—might, in their private moments, rethink and even feel some remorse for what they did. Maybe they will see, if only for a few fleeting seconds, that they allowed their partisanship to overwhelm their sense of decency, that they sought to destroy the reputation of a man of enormous personal integrity to further their political aims.
That would require a scintilla of self-awareness from leftists. Sorry, but that well has long run dry.
Here's the thing. It's perfectly OK to disagree with Romney's rationale for voting to convict (as I do) yet still respect him for doing what he believed was right. And if it costs him his Senate seat in 2024, he seems prepared to live with that.
It would be wise if Trump claimed his acquittal as a legit victory and moved on to the business of being President and running for reelection. However, given his penchant for never forgetting slights, Trump's impotent rage will continue to spill out over Twitter. Sad!
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I don't know how following your conscience can ever square with being in alignment with Adam Schiff, but people's mileage will vary on the matter. Trump is Trump, but he's not wrong to believe he's been wronged throughout that process. One would hope Romney, of all people, would understand that the arguments modern Democrats make are in bad faith, especially after his experiences with Harry Reid. In the end, his conscience isn't the issue, it's his consciousness.
ReplyDeleteThe problem in this situation was there being literally no middle ground. The phone call to the Ukrainian president was NOT perfect as Trump asserts. But did it rise to an impeachable offense? I don't believe so, and that is where I disagree with Romney. Again, I don't know Romney personally but my sense was this was a conclusion he came to after painful deliberation, not out of a desire to "get Trump." Call me naive if you want to but that's how I viewed it, especially since being a lone wolf against Trump has zero upside.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, a lot of conservative angst will dissipate when Romney votes to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. :-)
Again, I don't know Romney personally but my sense was this was a conclusion he came to after painful deliberation, not out of a desire to "get Trump." Call me naive if you want to but that's how I viewed it, especially since being a lone wolf against Trump has zero upside.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call you naive. And you may be correct in your reading of Romney's motivations. I couldn't care less about his motivations, actually. The issue is whether any president, even one people find personally repellent, should be removed from office for something like this. It's not close. And by couching his statements as he did, Romney accepted the premises that Schiff, Nadler, etc. presented. One would think someone who'd been wronged as badly as Romney was by Reid would understand who the sort of people he's dealing with and the complete lack of good faith proffered in their arguments. But he didn't. That's why it's a matter of his consciousness, not his conscience. Conscience can be a guide to better behavior, but one still has to diagnose the issue correctly. And in my view if you find yourself on the side of Adam Schiff, your diagnosis is wrong. Frankly, it's axiomatic.