Mitt Romney is right.
Mitt Romney is also wrong.
In an op-ed published this week in The Atlantic entitled “America Is In Denial,” Romney — one of the most resolute Republican voices against Donald Trump — cautioned against the risk inherent in ignoring the threat the former president still poses to our frayed national fabric.
While Joe Biden, Romney writes, has yet to heal “our national malady of denial, deceit, and distrust. A return of Donald Trump would feed the sickness, probably rendering it incurable.”
Incurable — otherwise, lethal.
Yet some on the right deceive themselves, opting to continue believing the lies they’ve been told and excusing the behavior that put us on the precipice of a constitutional crisis.
It would have been considered a breach of decorum for Romney to name Sen. Mike Lee specifically, but Romney’s Senate colleague certainly fits the description of those who’ve enabled Trump, laughing off his behavior like that of 3-year-old in a food-tossing tantrum and not the president plotting to subvert democracy — and also throwing his food against the wall.
Credit Romney for his consistent, principled condemnation of Trump — starting all the way back in 2016 when Romney saw Trump for what he was, “a phony, a fraud” whose promises “are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.”
Surely that view was only cemented on Jan. 6, when the senator can been seen on security footage ducking down a hallway as a police officer dashes past with a crazed mob behind him.
But the senator stumbles on his larger thesis: Americans writ large are also lying to themselves about issues like drought, debt, climate change and immigration.
“The right thinks the left is the problem for ignoring illegal immigration and the national debt,” Romney writes. “But wishful thinking happens across the political spectrum. More and more, we are a nation in denial.”
It should be apparent that the senator here is falling back on a false equivalency, whereby policy disagreements between the left and right are put on the same level as the existential threat posed by a man who actively tried to destroy a fundamental pillar of our nation — free and fair elections.
It also pretends Republicans have been willing to seriously confront immigration since the Bush administration, or done anything except add to the debt with tax cuts. And never mind their unwillingness to even engage on climate change or drought.
Beyond that obvious point, though, Romney misses the mark in a more fundamental way: Americans are not in denial about any of the things Romney cites. In fact, the overwhelming majority are very clear-eyed about recognizing them as a problem and desperately wanting solutions.
Take climate change. A Pew Research Center poll in 2020 found that 63% of Americans said climate change was impacting their communities and two-thirds of the country would like the government to do more. The data showed that 90% wanted more trees planted, 84% wanted tax credits for companies that capture carbon, 80% wanted tougher standards for power plants and 73% wanted to tax polluters.
Half of Americans cited drought as the single biggest threat posed by climate change, according to an earlier Pew poll. In the West, the number was even higher, at 63%. And a Morning Consult poll in March reported that more than half of residents in Colorado and Arizona believe there won’t be enough water for their grandchildren. Three-fourths would like to see Congress act across party lines to address the threat.
On immigration, a Gallup poll earlier this year reported that 78% of Americans believe illegal immigration is a critical or important issue, while 75% believe immigration is a net positive for our country and 68% would like to see immigration remain at the present level or increase.
And on the debt, three-fourths of Americans agree too much debt can hurt the economy, two-thirds said it was unfair to future generations and just 30% favored more tax cuts if it increased the debt, according to an Ipsos poll conducted for the Committee for a Responsible Budget.
For all the talk of our divided America, on each of these issues significant majorities recognize the problem and are begging for action. The problem isn’t that Americans are in denial.
The problem is that Congress is utterly broken. It’s plagued by a lack of leadership and courage, as Romney notes. Further, it is hamstrung by toxic partisanship exacerbated by gerrymandering. It is an institution teetering on the brink of collapse — part of the reason a man like Trump can even pose such a dire threat. It is in desperate need of reform and leadership, both of which are nowhere to be seen.
But blaming Americans for Congress’ abject failures is the truest form of denial.
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