Last night, I saw a video of Mitt Romney being heckled by a MAGA supporter at SLC Airport on Twitter. The video has gone viral and has garnered over 4.7M views thus far and I anticipate it being all over national news today.
Despite the rudeness and harassment from the anti-masker, Romney remained ever the gentleman, explaining his opinions thoughtfully and calmly. This kind of behavior validates my faith in him that he has presidential qualities and behavior.
Our current President, on the other hand, has been known to throw tantrums at the slightest insult, be incapable of apologizing, and demean his political opponents. Donald Trump has all the qualities that people wouldn’t want their children to model after.
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Voting Republican
Until 2016, I was a Republican voter. I know, I know — for shame.
As a former moderate Republican, I voted reliably for Republican presidential candidates until 2016, which included Mitt Romney back in 2012.
I remember Romney as a stiff candidate, especially compared to the articulate and affable Barack Obama, but I saw him as a good man. I never categorized him as a bad or evil person. I always felt he had the nation’s best interests at heart, even if we didn’t see eye-to-eye on some issues.
He had admirable traits that could be perceived as presidential. The same could be applied to many previous failed presidential candidates like John Kerry, Al Gore, and John McCain. They all had presidential qualities to them.
I couldn’t imagine if there ever would be a time where the United States put forth any candidates that weren’t capable and ready for the presidency. But Donald Trump proved me wrong.
I was aghast when Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016. Shocked, I couldn’t believe the GOP voters put forth a man with the biggest, yet most fragile ego I’ve ever seen (among other things). “They would trust HIM with the nuclear launch codes?” I mused to myself.
I immediately unaffiliated myself from the Republican Party and became an independent voter. I voted for my first Democrat in 2018 — Ben McAdams. And voted for my first Democratic presidential candidate in the 2020 primaries.
But 2016 wasn’t the last time I voted for a Republican. I voted for another Republican in 2018 — Mitt Romney for US Senate (Utah).
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Utah
I had just moved from Texas to Utah in 2017. When I applied for my new Driver’s License, I left my voter registration as unaffiliated, still disgusted by the GOP yet still not fully ready to commit to the Democrats.
When the 2018 primaries came around, I followed the local news closely. Mitt Romney was trying to win the nomination for the Republican ticket for the US Senate general election for Utah after Orrin Hatch (R) announced he was retiring.
Romney’s distaste of Trump was very well known in Utah, no thanks in part due to Romney’s famous “Trump is a phony” speech in March 2016. Romney faced an ardent Trump-backing primary candidate, Mike Kennedy. Most of the campaign centered around whether Romney would be a Trump cheerleader or a thorn in his side.
Knowing that Utah was a reliably Republican state, I knew whoever won the Republican nomination for US Senate would be guaranteed a seat as Utah’s next Senator. The real elections in Utah are the primaries, not the general election.
In order to vote in the Republican primaries in Utah, you need to be a registered Republican. I knew what I had to do. For the second time in my whole life, I became a Republican again. Well, on paper, I did.
By this point, my beliefs had shifted left. I considered myself a center-left voter or a moderate Democrat if I had to put a label on it. At some point, I knew I would inevitably vote for a Democrat in the next general election since I felt Trump’s GOP no longer represented my values.
But in 2018, in the midst of the Utah Republican primaries, I registered as a Republican. I did it because I’m a pragmatist. I knew if Mike Kennedy won the primary, he would be the next US Senator from Utah since the Democrats have no chance of winning a federal election in the near future. I knew Kennedy would become a reliable vote for Trump’s administration.
I was less certain about Mitt Romney’s intentions if he won the nomination. During the 2012 general presidential election, Romney was labeled as a flip-flopper. I had thoughts about whether he would live up to that label once he took office.
But I kept remembering the “Trump is a phony” speech and convinced myself that Mitt Romney was the still same person as he was in 2016 — a Trump skeptic. I voted for Mitt Romney to help him defeat Mike Kennedy.
Afterward, I quickly unregistered as a Republican and registered as a Democrat for the first time ever. I then voted for Mitt Romney to defeat Jenny Wilson (D) in the general election for US Senate a few months later, despite voting down-ticket blue.
I thought to myself, “If a Republican has to win this state, let it at least be a Republican who sees Trump for what he is.”
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Having presidential qualities
Unsurprisingly, Romney was a reliable conservative vote for the US Senate. According to 538, Romney votes with Trump’s positions 78.6% of the time. He’s hardly the conservative maverick like John McCain was nor as moderate as other Republican senators like Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins. Romney is a conservative, through and through.
But to my relief, Mitt Romney proved he was a man of character, principle, and integrity. He became the first person in US history to vote for an article of impeachment against a President of his own party. He also plans on challenging his Republican colleagues’ “egregious ploy” to overturn the Electoral College results this week.
He was the only high-ranking Republican that saw Trump for what he was and what he is — a phony.
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Thank you
Despite being a lone voice in Trump’s GOP, Romney is a true patriot and Republican (unlike the 11 other GOP senators who plan to raise objections over the Electoral College results).
So from the bottom of my heart, thank you Mitt Romney for being a character of moral integrity in a time where the rest of the GOP is destroying itself by sinking with the Trump ship. Had you won in 2012, you would have been a President many would have looked up to, unlike our current Commander-in-Chief.
I’m not a Republican anymore — I can’t guarantee I’d vote for you in the next election. And I may not agree with you on a lot of things now, but I am still proud to have voted for you in 2012 and 2018, based on your character alone. History will treat you kindly.
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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