With a sleek video extolling his role in saving the Olympics and his preference for Utah as a model for the country, Mitt Romney announced his run for the Senate. He didn't mention President Donald Trump, and according to news reports, does not intend to run a specifically anti-Trump campaign.
It is not entirely clear what his alternative to Trumpism will be. The video hints at a few things--balanced budgets, robust trade and ample legal immigration. But that leaves a lot to be fleshed out:
• Will Romney support the same supply-side economic model, or does he have a revamped vision that focuses on the building blocks we need to succeed in a global economy (infrastructure, developing human capital)?
• Will he stick with his staunch position on illegal immigration ("self-deportation"), which never seemed entirely authentic, or will he champion, for example, a bipartisan solution for the "dreamers"? Likewise on guns, does he intend to be a garden-variety Second Amendment absolutist, or does he have a comprehensive approach that might include enhanced background checks, tougher screening to prevent the mentally ill and spousal abusers from getting weapons, new funding for physical school safety measures and enhanced mental health funding?
• Does he still support RomneyCare?
A substantial problem for the GOP aside from Trump himself and the moral and intellectual corruption he has induced, is an atrophied, unworkable agenda no longer suitable for the 21st century. The degree to which Romney can prove himself to be intellectually creative may determine whether the GOP is worth saving.
Like it or not, Romney will have to talk about Trump. He should not retract a word he said during the 2016 campaign. He was right in calling Trump out then, and backtracking would diminish if not eviscerate his moral stature. (As for having been in the running for secretary of state, he can candidly say it was never going to work.)
He's going to be asked again and again if this is a stalking horse for another presidential run. He'd be wise to issue a Shermanesque denial--"If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve." The premise of his Senate run is that he is there to serve Utah, and his underlying mission is, we suspect, to see whether the GOP is salvageable. Romney will be 73 in November 2020, and while younger than Trump, he cannot be the future of the GOP.
Finally, Republican opponents of Trump should not make Romney into the sole savior of the GOP. He is one figure who might contribute to a cleansing of the party. But the GOP will need a thorough change of leadership, a reinvention of its policy approach and a new base (less dependent on the South, more open to millennials and suburbanites) if it hopes to repair the damage wrought by Trump and his apologists.
Editorial on 02/19/2018