An Open Letter to Mitt Romney

I never thought I’d say this, but you’re my newest hero

Dear Senator Romney,

There are other heroes of the impeachment, notably Rep. Adam Schiff and the other members of the House managers team as well as Speaker Pelosi. All of them have my admiration and appreciation, as they have from the beginning of the whole heartrending process.

You may cringe at being placed on a list with your colleagues from the other side of the aisle, but in my book, you not only join them but in some ways, your heroism shines brighter against the moral darkness of the other Senate Republicans.

Maybe you don’t care what I think. I don’t live in Utah, and I didn’t vote for you when you ran for President. I am not your constituent, even though as a member of the Senate you participate in lawmaking and decisions that certainly affect me — especially in your committee roles: Foreign Relations; Health, Education, Labor & Pensions; Small Business; and Homeland Security. So whether or not you take an interest in me, I certainly have an interest in your conduct and actions in the Senate.

That has never been truer than during the weeks of the Senate impeachment trial. When it began, the spectacle of all the members of your august chamber vowing to carry out their responsibility in a fair and impartial manner gave me a glimmer of hope.

Yes, Mitch McConnell had widely broadcast his intention to hustle the proceedings along to a foregone conclusion, a speedy acquittal that rendered the whole show into a kangaroo court. But the gravity of the trial’s ceremonious opening led me to cross my fingers that the awesome gravity and responsibility laid before all of the senators would carry more weight than their party affiliation.

It seems I was naive. It was painful to have that hope dashed at the outset, then rekindled when it seemed that new witnesses including John Bolton might finally be called to testify, and finally quashed as your Republican colleagues advanced preposterous reasons why they needn’t hear fresh testimony. By the time the Senate convened to vote on the verdict, I was too disheartened to watch.

So I missed witnessing your speech as you explained your vote to remove the President from office. But I’ve read the full transcript, and I want you to know that you have done much to stave off my incipient despair, my sense that at the highest levels of government of the country I love, that honor is a quaint concept, easily swept aside in the face of political pressure.

You proved that untrue. With your vote and your articulate presentation of it, you demonstrated that personal integrity can still outstrip personal interests, even at the cost of vicious criticism and rejection from members of your own party. You showed that an official at the highest level of government can put sworn duty above personal interests.

What you did took courage. It took resolve to do what you knew was right at the risk of backlash and personal attack — as has happened, directly from the Current Occupant in his vituperative tweets, and with an attempt to censure you by members of your party in your home state. You faced intense pressure to fall in line, and you’re already paying the price for your refusal to do so.

Donald Jr. has even suggested ejecting you from the Republican party. Maybe someone should explain to Jr. that party ejection is not a thing, although I doubt it would make any difference to him.

I’m personally convinced that history will be far kinder to you than to your Republican colleagues who behave as though they’re members of a cult rather than a deliberative body. But for now, you must suffer their slings and arrows.

I wish more of them had summoned the fortitude you displayed. I would like to think that even now some on your side of the aisle are feeling appropriate shame and regret that they didn’t follow your lead. After all, these are people with the collective ability to send young men and women off to fight and die on our behalf. I wish that wielding the power to require such sacrifice from others would include a readiness to put oneself on the line when the time came.

And it’s not as though the senators, if they’d failed to cave at scowls or cajoling from Mitch McConnel or ultimatums from the President, would literally have ended up with their heads on pikes. They wouldn’t have been tarred and feathered or sent to detention camps. They stood to lose power. They stood to lose influence. They stood to possibly lose re-election.

All survivable outcomes. But apparently daunting enough to cause those senators to abandon personal accountability in favor of running with the herd, even when the herd was heading straight off a cliff.

In your address to your peers, you stated:

Like each member of this deliberative body, I love our country. I believe that our Constitution was inspired by Providence. I’m convinced that freedom itself is dependent on the strength and vitality of our national character. As it is with each senator, my vote is an act of conviction. We’ve come to different conclusions fellow senators, but I trust we have all followed the dictates of our conscience.

I take a less generous view of some of your colleagues, but I appreciate your graciousness. Far more than that, I thank you for proving that integrity and courage still operate in the halls of Congress, even if they’re in short supply. Thank you too for demonstrating that there are higher virtues than party loyalty.

Most of all, thank you for reminding me that doing what is right sometimes comes at a painful price. When it’s my turn to face that kind of choice, I will think of you.