President Trump or Senator Romney?
I signed up to run for re-election on Friday, and one of the things I anticipate being asked the most throughout the campaign is whether I support President Trump or Senator Romney. It may seem like a political, straddling-the-fence answer (and I really do not like fence-straddlers!), but I support both men. Let me explain why.
We haven’t had a perfect person in the world for a couple of thousand years. Both men are flawed, because all men and women are flawed. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes they balance out, sometimes they don’t. But even those of us who appear to be “all weakness” may have compensating strengths in particular areas that make it possible for us to survive, thrive, and help others. And people who appear to be all strengths do indeed have weaknesses and biases, even if they aren’t obvious to ourselves or others. In other words, we can all make a contribution to a better world.
The last (and only) perfect person who lived on the earth knew we would sometimes have difficulty assessing other people’s strengths. That’s why He told us, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Matthew 7:20. The only way to accurately judge another human being is by his or her fruits.
Like most Utahns, I have been a Mitt Romney fan since the winter Olympics in 2002. When he ran for president in 2008, I categorized myself as a “Mitten.” That devotion carried on through the 2012 loss and ensuing dejection. It waned a bit during the 2018 election, when Mike Kennedy ran against Romney for the Senate seat. (Only because I knew Mike Kennedy personally and admired him tremendously.) I was willing to overlook occasional hints at Mitt’s climate change tendencies, because I knew his position to be well-meaning, if misguided. But when Mitt voted to impeach Trump on unimpeachable charges, I was angry. I didn’t question his right to do so, but I questioned his judgment. Could he not perceive his own biases, which are glaringly obvious to everyone else? I would applaud him for voting his conscience, if I believed that was his true motivation.
By contrast, for the longest time, I did not like President Trump. I couldn’t believe Americans in early primary states were voting for him. He was a foul-mouthed womanizer. He wasn’t a gentleman. He wasn’t a statesman. He wasn’t an orator in the traditional sense. What he was promising to do, Make America Great Again, implied that America wasn’t already great – and I didn’t like that. The things I didn’t like about Donald J. Trump far outnumbered the things I did like about him.
But the press went too far in seeking to expose Trump’s weaknesses. Mother Theresa could not have endured that kind of scrutiny! The media made him into a sympathetic figure, and I started to look at him differently, particularly as he became the nominee-apparent. If you squinted just right, he looked like a saint next to Hillary Clinton, and he was elected. Then, after coming into office, he showed what he is made of. Things that other administrations had been “working on” for decades were accomplished in a matter of months. He followed through. He nominated justices well. He reversed some of the bad decisions of previous presidents. He defended the unborn. Less polished than Mitt. Definitely more rough around the edges and less approval-seeking. You get the definite sense that Trump doesn’t give a whit whether or not the media likes him, and we like that about him. He is who he is, and he’s the real deal!
How can anyone like both of these men, given the fact that they are so different? You can exploit their differences to divide, or you can embrace them to unite. Unity is always better – in a country, in a party, in a family, in anything!
If President Trump and Mitt Romney could combine their strengths on behalf of the American people and set aside their differences, they would make a fantastic combination. That’s why I like them both.