Romney has a tragic alibi

The Romney Era Revisited: When President Truman and the New Presidents Come together for a Round of Conservative Causality

Mr. Romney, 76, has few friends in Washington, and he did not follow President Harry S. Truman’s adage to get himself a dog. He spends most nights alone in a brick house near the Capitol, which is where he lives as a single man, and watching shows such as “Ted Lasso” and “Better Call Saul.”

Dinner is often a salmon fillet, courtesy of Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who gave him a freezer full of her home state’s specialty fish. Mr. Romney — who is partial to meatloaf bathed in ketchup and brown sugar — does not even like salmon, but he said he slathers it in ketchup, slaps it on a hamburger bun and makes do.

When it comes to public statements, Mr. Romney is a member of a party subsumed by Trumpism. Privately, he reveals, many of his colleagues, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime Republican leader, are actually on the same page when it comes to his dim view of Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Romney also recalled a 2019 visit Mr. Trump made to the weekly Senate Republican lunch in the Capitol. The senators gave the president a standing ovation and were attentive and encouraging during his remarks about what he called the “Russia hoax.” They nodded when he said the G.O.P. would be known as “the party of health care” after they moved on from impeachment. But as soon as Mr. Trump left the room, the senators all burst out laughing.

Rolling out the announcement that he won’t run for re-election, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah has framed it as a passing of the torch. He said in a video statement that he would be in his 80’s at the end of another term. “Frankly it’s time for a new generation of leaders. The decisions that will affect the world that they will live in are made by them. He said that neither Joe Biden or Donald Trump are leading their party in confronting the major issues facing our country. The next generation of leaders must take America to the next level of leadership.

Romney considered launching a third-party campaign for president in order to deny Trump the election, according to an Atlantic excerpt from his book. So as much as I believe that America is stagnating under the death grip of the gerontocracy, I don’t think that’s why Romney is bowing out. His brand of stolid, upstanding conservatism has become obsolete, replaced with a conspiratorial, histrionic and sometimes violent authoritarianism, which is why he has given up on a second Senate term. Something tragic in his character is reflected in his reluctance to say so clearly because he wanted to break with his party.

We know what Romney really thinks because of the access he offered Coppins, with whom he met weekly, giving him diaries, private papers and emails. “A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution,” Romney told him.