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The Bain (Capital) of Mitt Romney’s Existence*
“I would take 50 Mitt Romneys in the Republican caucus offering up infuriatingly out-of-touch takes on things like student debt forgiveness over the crop of people we currently have.” Chris Hayes, April 28, 2022.
While I disagree with many of his policy positions, one of Utah’s United States senators appears interested in governing and within the existing political institutions he swore to defend. Some States aren’t so lucky.
Utah’s current United States Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Lee were born into unimaginable legal, political, and financial advantage. Before them lay red carpets of infinite length, and each continues life’s journey through doors of privilege open wide to them.
As similar as these men are, however, they have at least one important distinction.
One supports and reinforces the advancement of liberal democracy. He sustains the integrity of political institutions that accommodate engagement in open debate over policy differences, even at the risk of losing. In other words, one Utah senator honors the oath he swore to protect and defend the Constitution and even took seriously the oaths he swore as a judge in two impeachment trials.
The other does not. And did not. He and others like him “don’t want to engage if it places them at risk of losing a fair fight. Their sights are on the power to control who votes, which they conspire to seize in authoritarian fashion while giving elections an imprimatur of legitimacy. They have set out to destroy the institutions of government under facades draped with the rule of law and patriotism.” Utah Senator Mike Lee Is Among The Most Dangerous Enemies Of The United States.
George Will sees in Senator Romney another characteristic that distinguishes him from many of his colleagues in the Senate. Will opines that “[o]ne of today’s exemplary senators, Mitt Romney, surely is such partly because, his presidential ambitions retired, he nevertheless wants to be a senator.” Amend the Constitution to bar senators from the presidency.
