In Opinion: Mitt Romney: We can’t look away from China’s existential threat (subscription, Washington Post) the main topic is in the title. However, what stuck me was the possible message he was sending in the beginning paragraphs:
When President James Garfield was shot in 1881, the wound should not have been fatal. Doctors who rushed to examine the president probed first with unwashed fingers and then with unsterilized instruments. Years before, Joseph Lister had discovered that sterilization could prevent fatal infection. But the doctors attending Garfield either hadn’t read Lister’s work or ignored it, and sepsis and infection ultimately set in.
Today, our country is at risk of consequences both dire and preventable. On critical issues, warnings from numerous observers have been ignored or minimized. Can we shift course and take heed of the Dr. Listers of our time?
I have no doubt he chose this example quite deliberately. It is about consequences of being ignorant of science or ignoring science. Taken a step further, it is an example of what can happen when people in power ignore the facts and the truth.
His entire OpEd following the first two paragraphs describes what he calls the growing existential threat of China until his final paragraph when he returns to the fate of President Garfield.
Will we respond to the growing threats to our country? In 1881, Garfield entered a train station unaware of the assassin waiting for him. The doctors who treated him were unaware of the bacteria they introduced into his body. We have no such excuse.
I think Romney used writing about China to send a not-too-subtle message to the Trump sycophants in Congress. I may be reading too much into this. Only Mitt Romney knows for certain.
With Trump still firmly in control of Congressional Republicans it remains to be seen how long he will be able to assert this level of dominance. At some point, perhaps in the not too distant future, many of his sycophants will see him and his support as a liability. Those who break from him early on as Cheney and Kinzinger will have an advantage if public opinion also swings against Trump when it comes to further elections.
Both Cheney and Kinzinger already have a good shot as running as spoilers in the next presidential election primaries as Republicans or in a new party in the general election.
They have a chance of winning the Republican primary in the election after that if Trump has become a political non-entity by then.
Even with Cheney getting a lot of publicity now, Romney is the Republican with the biggest national profile. Let’s face it, whether you support him or not, he looks and sounds like a president rather than like a self-aggrandizing profane smirking former game show host.
What do you think about Romney’s future plans? Take the poll.
Correction on the poll: Adam Kinzinger is a member of the House, not a Senator.
