(Bloomberg Opinion) -- 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.
Still, Romney was the Republican presidential nominee just seven years ago. His public misgivings about the descent of his party resonate. Just as important, his concerns don’t appear rooted in electoral calculation. Unlike Republican Senators Susan Collins, Cory Gardner and Martha McSally — among those whose loyalty to Trump is deemed suspect in a Senate trial — Romney isn’t seeking re-election next year in a purple state.
Like the GOP consultants and intellectual lights who have similarly resisted Trump, Romney has little to gain politically from a stand against the president — except the salvation of his immortal soul and, perhaps, of the democratic political culture of the nation he serves.
Soul saving, alas, is not much in vogue among the pietistic ranks of the GOP. Faced with a choice of preserving democracy and pluralism on the one hand, or white Christian dominance on the other, Republicans have mostly opted for the latter. They have repeatedly applied the powers of the state to advance that goal, from attempts to corrupt the Census and strip popularly elected Democrats of power, to extreme partisan gerrymanders and efforts to suppress Democratic votes. The GOP’s nonchalance about Russia’s attack on the 2016 U.S. election, and apparent eagerness to sanction the next assault, form the tip of a spear aimed directly at majority rule.
For the past three years, Trump and the Republican Party have been working through contract negotiations. In return for his dismantling the remaining ethical and legal guardrails constraining conservative aims, Republicans have agreed to disregard Trump’s personal, professional, political and official corruption.
On Wednesday House Republicans rejected Trump’s impeachment, affixing their signatures to the contract. Soon the Senate will consider its terms. Will Romney sign?
The question may seem academic; even if Romney votes to convict, Trump is almost certain to be acquitted. But any party that leans heavily on such a shambolic presidency is inherently unstable. At any moment Trump’s incompetence or criminality could devastate the party that has sworn allegiance to him. Half the nation already believes he should be impeached; Trump is eminently capable of rendering himself toxic everywhere outside his MAGA base.
Until Trump’s reign is ended, Romney’s less principled colleagues will wear his presidency like a suicide vest, with the detonation button at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue under a fidgeting, impulsive thumb. Romney may not be the hero of MAGA crowds. But neither is he vulnerable to the dangerous currents of criminality and intrigue swirling about the White House.
A less corrupt and more sane conservative party is vital to the future of U.S. politics. If Trumpism collapses into incoherent rubble, millions will be looking for a path out of the destruction. The rare conservatives who have defied the party’s turn to corruption and authoritarianism are the most valuable defenders of truth now. They also stand to be the most reliable guides out of the chaos that, one way or another, seems certain to come.
Mitt Romney is an improbable rebel. But even if his defiance consists of no more than raising eyebrows or points of order on the Senate floor, each gesture will register as an implicit rebuke of his colleagues. Inherent in that judgment is a promise that a more decent future is still possible. That might be a frail basis for hope for a conservative renewal — but right now, it’s all there is.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.net
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Francis Wilkinson writes editorials on politics and U.S. domestic policy for Bloomberg Opinion. He was executive editor of the Week. He was previously a writer for Rolling Stone, a communications consultant and a political media strategist.
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