I never imagined that I would say that I believe Mitt Romney is showing more courage than just about any politician in America today, but that’s where I find myself.
Romney has minced no words in declaring his opposition to Donald Trump as president. He thinks he would do great damage to the future of the presidency and Republican candidates to follow.
He believes Trump would be a terrible example for young people because he is xenophobic, racist, and a misogynist.” He sees “trickle down racism” happening under a Trump presidency.
Explaining what’s behind his strong anti-Trump views he said in an interview with tears in his eyes: “These things are personal. I love this country. I love the founders, I love what this country is built upon and its values, and seeing this is breaking my heart, for the party that means so much.”
Romney stands virtually alone in his hardline position against Trump, and even though he has not openly criticized other Republican leaders for not joining him, his stand nonetheless serves as a de facto indictment of them.
That takes courage born of the conviction (and insight) that this election is one of those moments in history that is a test of conscience, where people must choose between doing what is right or just going along.
These are serious times that will directly affect our collective future and Romney is convinced Trump offers nothing that we need and everything that we don’t.
He is not advocating for Hillary Clinton. He is only saying that a Hillary presidency does not pose the kind of danger a Trump presidency would.
Interestingly enough, if reports are accurate, no one in the Bush family plans to vote for Trump either, though they are not openly opposing him as Romney is.
Therapist friends tell me that Trump suffers from classic narcissism. That is why everything is about him, why he calls people who criticize him names, why he disparages their character, and speaks in vulgar ways. In his mind he is not representing the Republican Party. He is representing only himself.
I think documentary film maker Ken Burns was saying virtually the same thing when at the Stanford University commencement this past weekend he described Trump as:
“…the candidate with zero experience in the much maligned but subtle art of governance; who is against lots of things, but doesn’t seem to be for anything, offering only bombastic and contradictory promises, and terrifying Orwellian statements; a person who easily lies, creating an environment where the truth doesn’t seem to matter; who has never demonstrated any interest in anyone or anything but himself and his own enrichment; who insults veterans, threatens a free press, mocks the handicapped, denigrates women, immigrants and all Muslims; a man who took more than a day to remember to disavow a supporter who advocates white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan; an infantile, bullying man who, depending on his mood, is willing to discard old and established alliances, treaties and long-standing relationships.”
Apparently most Republicans don’t agree with Burns, or Romney, or my therapist friends, and so they will vote for Trump come November.
Be that as it may, I believe that one day they will come face to face with the fact that they were on the wrong side of history, and they will wonder how they failed to see it.
Romney, on the other hand, will at least enjoy the modest consolation that he was not, that he followed his conscience, and that whatever price he paid was worth it.
Who knew four years ago that we would ever be at this place today?
linnposts.com 
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