Romney: A Reckoning

Much of the text is preoccupied with Romney’s growing isolation within the Republican Party. Coppins explores Romney’s place within and evolution from the GOP, charting how the evolving party’s identity and priorities ostracized Romney and motivated him to go against the grain. 

Romney’s political ideology was very much influenced by that of his father, who also gained a reputation as someone whose beliefs countered the mainstream beliefs of his party. In the 1960s, George Romney became an outspoken civil rights advocate who could not believe that Barry Goldwater—who opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act—was rising to prominence and was horrified by the “‘extremists’ and ‘purveyors of hate’” who were using the banner of conservatism as justification for explicit racism and calls for segregation (16). Teenaged Mitt Romney joined his father at the Republican National Convention, where he watched thousands applaud for racist policies that his father strongly opposed. For Mitt, his father’s determination to do what was right rather than what was popular gave him the courage to stand up against party leaders. 

Coppins demonstrates that even in the early days of Romney’s political career, his position as a moderate conservative meant that he took positions that were palatable to both sides of the aisle.