A Changing of the Guard

What Romney’s exit from the stage means for the US.

“The great difference between the real statesman and the pretender is, that the one sees into the

future, while the other regards only the present; the one lives by the day, and acts on expedience; the other acts on enduring principles and for immortality.” -Edmund Burke

Mitt Romney recently gave his farewell address on the floor of the United States Senate, and everyone should go and listen to it. Romney begins the closing remarks of his career by recognizing those who have helped to make his life and career a success: in business, running the Olympics, as Governor of Massachusetts, as a presidential candidate, and finally as a Senator from the state of Utah. The culmination of his remarks is his fawning gratitude for his wife of 54 years and his 5 sons, a true family man Mitt is. This spirit of gratitude and humility stands in marked contrast to the crass, self aggrandizing, and attention seeking behavior of many American lawmakers these days.

What has been really interesting about the reactions from fellow lawmakers to Romney’s retirement from the Senate is the number of people across the political spectrum who praise him. His boss in the Senate Mitch McConnell said, “Observers might have wondered what more a distinguished public servant like Mitt Romney had to prove in coming to Washington and putting up with the demands of this body, but that would be misunderstanding the way our friend has ordered his life. It wasn’t about what he had left to prove, but what he had left to give.” And the praise also came from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (I), Maine Senator Susan Collins (R),

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker (D), North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis (R), Montana Senator Jon Tester (D), and several others. The consistent theme from Romney’s Senate colleagues was that he was a fair minded legislator with a passion to work for the American people and a respect for interlocutors who disagreed with him.

Now I am often on the more conservative side of public policy debates than is the more centrist Senator Romney, but something about the man makes my heart ache seeing him leave public office. He is one of few remaining lawmakers who truly possesses the spirit of a statesman: his character and commitment to his core principles is admirable in a town often consumed by recency bias and shameless political shapeshifting. Also, as he highlighted in his farewell address, Romney has been one of the more bipartisan lawmakers-seeking solutions to problems. I have disagreements with some of the bills Romney helped pass, particularly the Respect for Marriage Act which I feel codified a definition of marriage into law that the American democratic process has still never adequately had a debate over. I mean prior to 12 years ago, 2012, Barack Obama claimed to not believe in gay marriage. But regardless, thanks to efforts by Romney, Collins, Murkowski, and other Republican signatories of the bill important religious liberty provisions were included. And this is the utility of having lawmakers willing to work with the other side, bad pieces of legislation can be made better. But more important than any disagreements over particular pieces of Romney’s agenda is my respect and gratitude for the method in which he engaged in politics. It was never as a bombastic hothead looking for clout, but rather in a calm and distinguished manner calling Americans to seriously engage in the political process.

In our populist, Trumpian, age the 2012 Republican nominee has fallen out of favor with the base of his party. In part, I am sure, this is due to the fact that as the standard bearer for the party he lost to Barack Obama, but to a much larger degree it is because he has refused to go along with Donald Trump’s new vision for the Republican Party in either policy or character. Mitt Romney twice voted to impeach the President of his own party, regardless of what one thinks of the votes there is no question it took political independence and courage. In a party and conservative movement that has become entirely enmeshed with and subservient to the whims of Donald Trump, Romney's independent spirit has been a blessing.

Thinking back on that 2012 race, Romney can take solace in the fact that he correctly predicted the nature of Putin’s regime in Russia as being violently opposed to both the American interest and the cause of freedom in Eastern Europe. Barack Obama famously derided Romney as being stuck in the 1980s in regard to foreign policy, but the events two years later of Putin’s invasion of Crimea and in February of 2022 with the invasion of Ukraine proper Romney has been vindicated. And here lies another of Romney’s strengths as a public servant, he possesses a clear eyed view of the world’s need for competent American leadership to thwart off the growing axis of evil (Iran, Russia, China and their proxies). He harbors no illusions, as do the isolationists in both parties, that the world will become a safer place if America absconds. And the other pressing political issue that Romney is one of the sober minded statesmen on is the issue of out of control spending and our national debt, he has continued to insist that our entitlement programs of social security and medicare will have to be restricted. This has become a verboten topic in both political parties, but Romney is right and our children and grandchildren need us to take him seriously.

If Americans could take one lesson, and one lesson only, from the career and legacy of Mitt Romney it should be this: American patriotism is not about how loud you yell at the other side, how passionately you care about your issues, or any other self focused vantage point. American patriotism is about engaging your fellow citizens with respect and decency, and sacrificing personal ambition for the greater good. The Senate and nation lost one solid statesman, but it will always have his legacy to draw upon. May we do it often.

“Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses.” -Mitt Romney