Can Mitt Romney re-invent Republicans in their old image?
Romney may just be the one to make Republican politics respectable again
Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s 2012 nominee for president, laid down a marker this week on his way to being sworn in as the next senator from Utah. In an article for the Washington Post, he lamented the “deep descent” of Donald Trump’s presidency and promised to “speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic institutions”. Romney’s interjection is unlikely to have much direct effect on the president — it’s hard to say what could — but with luck it might set a much-needed example for the new senator’s colleagues in US Congress. Romney’s complaints aren’t the first. Now and then, Republicans of conscience — Senators Bob Corker, Jeff Flake and John McCain come to mind — have objected to Trump’s degraded rhetoric and hapless administration. Sadly, McCain is gone. The efforts of Corker and Flake faltered because both were soon to leave the Senate and neither mustered a sustained critique ...
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