Don’t canonize Romney yet

After yesterday’s Senate vote to acquit President Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and now senator from Utah, received considerable praise for being the only Republican to find Trump guilty. Folks believe he was considerate of the evidence and put that over politics.

That is, at best, an exaggeration.

Remember that Romney is (or was — I don’t know if this is current) a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of course better known as the Mormon Church, to which two-thirds of Utahans belong.

I bring up that fact because, though Mormons tend to be as politically conservative as white evangelical Protestant Christians, 81 percent of which voted for Trump in 2016 — and he did win Utah that year — they vote their values. That is to say, Mormons were as a rule quite disgusted with Trump’s conduct in office as incongruent with their religion, even though they voted for him. On the other hand, such white evangelicals tend to vote their fears, which is why many remain in denial of Trump’s corruption and still support him regardless.

Let’s also remember that impeachment is less a moral mechanism than a political one, and Romney likely heard from his constituents that what Trump did was morally wrong. Romney probably did feel the same way and likely voted his conscience, but his Senate seat would have been in no danger regardless of how he voted.

You can’t say the same for his Republican colleagues, many of which, according to reports, would have pronounced him guilty had there been a secret ballot. But had they done so they would have faced the wrath of Trump supporters and perhaps even Trump himself, whether being “primaried” or verbally abused on social media and/or talk radio.

Basically, Romney’s “guilty” vote may have been every bit as political as his Republican colleagues’, but he was facing a different set of circumstances, so in this context he appears heroic. But it’s still politics, which means that every gesture has a hidden meaning.