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Ever since the rise of Donald Trump, many folks involved in politics have theorized about how we got here\u00a0\u2014 and done\u00a0a little introspection\u00a0about whether anyone could have stopped him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But my assumption is that there are three people alive today who probably do more \u201cwhat if\u201d thinking about\u00a0Trump\u2019s rise\u00a0than anyone else:\u00a0Barack Obama (Trump\u2019s immediate predecessor), Hillary Clinton (Trump\u2019s\u00a0general election\u00a0foe\u00a0in 2016) and Mitt Romney (the last GOP nominee before Trump).<\/p>\n\n
Why those three above anyone else? They were all, in some ways, the last three guardians at the gate \u2014\u00a0or\u00a0obstacles, depending on your point of view\u00a0\u2014\u00a0before Trump and his forces stormed it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not in the camp that believes Trump was an inevitable result of the election of the first Black president, but Obama\u2019s election did unleash some forces in the country that, perhaps, we all naively thought were dead. It turns out they were simply dormant.<\/p>\n
But\u00a0Obama\u00a0has\u00a0never publicly addressed\u00a0many of the key questions he must have about Trump\u2019s election. And for all we know, we may never get his true thoughts\u00a0about whether\u00a0there\u00a0is\u00a0anything he could have done to prevent Trump\u2019s rise. Did he read the political landscape incorrectly in falling in line behind the conventional wisdom that Clinton was electable? Did he not make a political calculation \u2014 and simply got behind Clinton out of respect and belief she was the best person to do the job?\u00a0Was any part of it born out of loyalty for both her and her husband\u2019s eventually getting behind him\u00a0in 2008, as well as for the help Bill Clinton gave him in 2012?<\/p>\n
As for Hillary Clinton\u2019s \u201cwhat if\u201d conversations with herself, we can speculate about whether she regrets not running\u00a0for president\u00a0in 2004, the year I will always believe was her best shot at the White House.\u00a0Then there\u2019s the campaign in 2016 and various tactical decisions, whether they were campaigning in Michigan and Wisconsin too little and too late, the wasted effort to contest Texas, her running mate pick\u00a0\u2014\u00a0or the fact that her campaign lacked a clear vision of what she wanted to do as president, beyond succeeding Obama. Then there\u2019s the question of whether the real issue with her candidacy was not her gender but her\u00a0last name and the baggage of her husband’s moral failings.\u00a0Again, it\u2019s not clear we will ever know for\u00a0sure\u00a0what she was thinking at various points of her quest for the presidency.<\/p>\n
While we can speculate and guess what Obama and Clinton have thought over the years about\u00a0their own actions and decisions along the road to the\u00a0Trump\u00a0presidency, we don\u2019t have to guess with Romney.<\/p>\n
It turns out\u00a0that\u00a0Romney kept a journal of many of his innermost thoughts.\u00a0And more important, he turned it\u00a0all\u00a0over to journalist McKay Coppins of The Atlantic, who has turned\u00a0those thoughts and more\u00a0into the\u00a0new\u00a0book \u201cRomney: A Reckoning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a perfectly titled book, because\u00a0a self-reckoning is exactly\u00a0what Coppins has culled from the voluminous emails, memos and journal entries Romney turned over to him \u2014 many of which he hadn\u2019t reread for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For someone like me, who started to cover campaign politics professionally in 1992, it means I now have an idea\u00a0of\u00a0exactly what Romney was thinking throughout his entire political career, starting with his first run for office in 1994, when he unsuccessfully challenged\u00a0Sen.\u00a0Ted Kennedy\u00a0in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s rare to get this kind of honest portrayal of a significant political figure while said figure is still alive. It\u2019s a tribute to Romney that he chose to let a journalist do the work\u00a0instead of edit\u00a0or revise\u00a0his memory for his own memoir.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the heart of the book is his chronicling of the end of the modern Republican Party.\u00a0And it\u2019s clear Romney is trying to figure out how that happened. What did he miss over the years? Could he or anyone else have done something different to keep voters from falling for a person he saw as a con artist who had no interest in or respect for the U.S. Constitution or for democracy?<\/p>\n
In short, it\u2019s a book that should serve as a warning to anyone who believes in \u201cends justifies the means\u201d politicking.\u00a0Because at its core, that\u2019s what this book showcases: how the \u201cends justifies the means\u201d mindset broke the GOP to the point it\u2019s now in bed with Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The book does a great job of re-chronicling key points in Romney\u2019s political life using his thoughts at the time, coupled with his remembrances in subsequent interviews with the author.<\/p>\n
There are small examples Romney now realizes were signs that the GOP base was being weaponized\u00a0by the\u00a0\u201cus-vs.-them\u201d mentality.\u00a0In\u00a0one anecdote from the 2008 campaign, Romney recounts\u00a0his thoughts about\u00a0the GOP\u2019s once-frequent talking\u00a0point\u00a0about doing away with the country\u2019s inheritance tax laws, known in conservative circles as \u201cthe death tax.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romney admitted: \u201cIt was one of those things you say because you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about when you\u2019re first running for president.\u201d\u00a0What really struck Romney as odd was why the crowd would cheer so hard for the denunciation of the so-called death tax, because it was unlikely any single person in the crowd would be affected by it.\u00a0He now realizes the answer: It \u201cwas a grim kind of team loyalty \u2014 this is what my side is for, so this is what I support. It all felt so absurd in that moment, so bleak. He chose not to dwell on the thought too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was\u00a0perhaps\u00a0a small example of how the professional class thought of the GOP base:\u00a0as useful supporters of what the rich elite wanted for their own selfish reasons. Talking points were created to preach to partisan audiences, even though the policy had no impact on their lives.<\/p>\n
Romney\u2019s 2012 campaign, in hindsight, was a clear example of his doing or saying whatever it took to get the nomination and the presidency \u2014 an \u201cends justifies the means\u201d campaign.\u00a0The decision to court Trump and seek his endorsement is clearly something Romney now regrets.<\/p>\n
Ironically, he knew then it was a bad idea,\u00a0but he didn\u2019t fully know why. He saw Trump as silly and a distraction, and he even admitted, at times, to finding him entertaining. But\u00a0Romney\u00a0didn\u2019t fully believe his embrace was somehow mainstreaming him for the future.\u00a0Romney\u00a0assumed, like\u00a0many\u00a0of us,\u00a0that Trump\u00a0was a\u00a0celebrity the party had to mollify because he was gaining so much popularity online.\u00a0In the moment, it was simply something he thought he had to do to win the election.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s striking, in this section of the book, is the introspection Romney was undertaking about that campaign in real time. By the fall of the campaign, he clearly didn\u2019t like the campaign he was running. He lamented the lack of a message beyond replacing Obama, and he was frustrated that he did what he vowed he\u2019d never do:\u00a0let some out-of-context comment haunt his campaign (like\u00a0a comment about\u00a0\u201cbrainwashing\u201d\u00a0during the Vietnam War\u00a0did to his father\u2019s\u00a0White House\u00a0bid in\u00a01968).<\/p>\n
The fallout over\u00a0Romney\u2019s comments calling\u00a047%\u00a0of the country \u201ctakers,\u201d from\u00a0a\u00a0leaked recording of a high-dollar fundraiser, sent him spiraling to the point that he asked his own campaign manager whether he should drop out of the race.\u00a0He apparently was quite serious.<\/p>\n
To think that in back-to-back presidential campaigns, leaked audio in the fall of the general election became a huge important event. Romney was so distraught over it he thought he should drop out. Of course, Trump was only more defiant\u00a0following the\u00a0\u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d tape leak. If you needed a stark example of the difference between the characters of these two men, their own reactions to the leaked audio are a good one.<\/p>\n
There\u00a0may be\u00a0no better avatar for the \u201cends justifies the means\u201d mentality than Romney\u2019s interactions and takes on\u00a0Senate Republican leader\u00a0Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.<\/p>\n
Romney is clearly torn on McConnell. The more he has watched McConnell manage the Senate\u2019s\u00a0egos, the more impressed he is. In Romney\u2019s telling, McConnell tries to protect his incumbents, even if he doesn\u2019t agree with them or even like them. His only rule seems to be \u201cdon\u2019t make it personal with another senator in public.\u201d\u00a0That quality probably explains McConnell\u2019s staying power inside the conference. As top-down as the public thinks he is, McConnell is clearly pretty good at making every one of his senators feel \u201cheard\u201d and feel consequential.<\/p>\n
But McConnell is the ultimate political survivor, and in some ways, this book serves as a reminder of just how much surviving is McConnell\u2019s North Star.<\/p>\n
During the first\u00a0Trump\u00a0impeachment, Romney was always intent on taking his role as a juror very seriously.\u00a0Given his background in management consulting and in corporate fix-ups, doing a thorough investigation of what happened was second nature to him. It struck him as odd that no one in the\u00a0Senate\u00a0GOP\u00a0seemed to want to know the truth of what happened with Trump and the Ukraine aid and the role Rudy Giuliani had been playing in trying to muddy up the Bidens.<\/p>\n
But McConnell explained his thinking to Romney when he was trying to persuade him\u00a0not\u00a0to vote with Democrats to allow for witnesses and a more thorough investigation during the impeachment trial. McConnell \u201cexplained that several vulnerable members of their caucus were up for reelection, and that a prolonged, polarizing Senate trial would force them to take tough votes that risked alienating their constituents,\u201d\u00a0according to the book.\u00a0McConnell, in Romney\u2019s telling, \u201cdidn\u2019t bother defending Trump\u2019s actions. Instead, he argued that protecting the GOP\u2019s Senate majority was a matter of vital national importance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even\u00a0more confounding about the McConnell-led pressure campaign is that later on, after the House impeachment managers finished their presentation\u00a0on Trump, McConnell would tell Romney that\u00a0Democratic Rep.\u00a0Adam Schiff of California and company \u201cnailed him.\u201d Romney was surprised to hear that from McConnell, who rarely seems to reveal what he\u2019s really thinking to anyone.\u00a0So, to probe McConnell further, Romney parried, \u201cWell, the defense will say that Trump was just investigating corruption by the Bidens.\u201d Replied McConnell, \u201cIf you believe that, I\u2019ve got a bridge I can sell you.\u201d<\/p>\n
(McConnell told Coppins that he doesn\u2019t remember the conversation and that he doesn\u2019t recall thinking that way at the time.)<\/p>\n
We already know that McConnell is on the record believing Trump was worthy of conviction\u00a0in his\u00a0second impeachment and that the only reason he\u00a0voted\u00a0to acquit was that Trump was no longer in office.<\/p>\n
But now we know McConnell made that decision even\u00a0after\u00a0having believed that the Democrats proved their case against Trump during the first impeachment.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a recurring theme in the book, starting somewhere around the spring of 2016, when Romney was trying to find any willing Republicans to get on board the \u201cstop Trump at any price\u201d campaign. Every time he tried to muster a collective will among disgusted Republicans, they\u2019d flinch for fear of retribution. In McConnell\u2019s case, he has made it quite clear that he\u2019d rather keep the party united with Trump and his acolytes in it\u00a0than\u00a0try to clean up the party and get rid of that element.<\/p>\n
The question now is whether it\u2019s still possible to revive the pre-Trump Republican Party. As Romney chronicles, it\u2019s not like that version of the GOP was all that popular, which may explain Romney\u2019s loss in 2012. But what\u2019s\u00a0clear in this book\u00a0is\u00a0what Romney thought the Republican Party should represent: fiscal conservatism, free trade, lighter government regulation (on both economic and social issues), lower taxes and a robust national defense.<\/p>\n
He has never been animated by the culture wars, which clearly reflects his upbringing.\u00a0Romney is\u00a0the avatar of the \u201cbusiness-centric\u201d Republican who saw the party\u2019s role as managing and guiding the country more than trying reprogram\u00a0it.\u00a0Trump has turned the party in the opposite direction of\u00a0what\u00a0Romney was advocating:\u00a0He\u00a0has never cared about fiscal issues (\u201cdon\u2019t touch entitlements\u201d is his mantra), he\u2019s no free-trader, and he certainly doesn\u2019t believe the U.S. should play the role of leader of the free\u00a0world.<\/p>\n
Watching the mess that is the Republican-controlled\u00a0House right now, it\u2019s clear this is a party that doesn\u2019t know its own identity beyond Trump.<\/p>\n
Romney has a theory that is clearly out of step with where Trump and others in the cultural conservative camp have led the party.\u00a0He\u2019s clearly concerned that Trump\u2019s lack of interest\u00a0in\u00a0or reverence for democracy is having a trickle-down effect on the base of the party\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and\u00a0that his\u00a0cult-of-personality-driven campaigns are\u00a0spiraling the party closer to either irrelevance (if it continues to lose) or worse, authoritarianism (if Trump gets power again).<\/p>\n
Right now, it\u2019s hard to see how Romney fits in Trump\u2019s Republican Party.\u00a0This book may be seen as the obituary or epilogue for the pre-Trump GOP.\u00a0The question is whether the various folks whom Romney frequently cites in his journals as secretly loathing Trump ever come around publicly. Right now, fear of\u00a0primary\u00a0voters is the single biggest driving force dictating why elected Republicans do what they do when it comes to Trump.\u00a0If Trump loses again, does the calculus change, or is it simply too late?<\/p>\n
This book, and Romney\u2019s decision to let it all be public, is his attempt to sound the alarm\u00a0one last time\u00a0before it\u2019s too late to save the GOP from itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[ad_1] Ever since the rise of Donald Trump, many folks involved in politics have theorized about how we got here\u00a0\u2014 and done\u00a0a little introspection\u00a0about whether anyone could have stopped him.\u00a0 But my assumption is that there are three people alive today who probably do more \u201cwhat if\u201d thinking about\u00a0Trump\u2019s rise\u00a0than anyone else:\u00a0Barack Obama (Trump\u2019s immediate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}