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Letter: Does Romney have a conscience?

(Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post via AP file photo) Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, marches with a crowd singing "Little Light of Mine" in Washington on Sunday, June 7, 2020. Romney marched Sunday in the protest against police mistreatment of minorities in the nation’s capitol, making him the first Republican senator known to do so.

My American Dream is one where women have control of their own bodies, very narrow religious morality isn’t legislated, consenting adults can marry whoever they want, minorities aren’t constantly demonized either overtly or through dog-whistle code words, where greed at the expense of human life and dignity are punished rather than rewarded, where scientific consensus is understood and accepted and where everyone feels it is their civic duty to help their brothers and sisters rise to their level rather than stamp them down into the dirt to elevate themselves, and includes the undeniable fact that Blacks and immigrants built this country.

As a Salt Lake Tribune article points out, Mitt Romney has only been a reluctant advocate at best, voting with the Republicans 80% of the time, and did nothing to control the worst excesses of this administration over the first three years.

Did he speak out after Charlottesville? Lean on Mitch to get an infrastructure bill or any of the other legitimate bills proffered by the Congress passed? How about when Trump gutted environmental laws protecting our water and air?

Particularly disturbing is allowing Chilean billionaires with a history of environmental degradation being allowed to put a copper mine adjacent to the Boundary Waters of California or allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in the middle of the porcupine caribou herd on native land.

So, does Mitt have a conscience? Yes, but perhaps only when the stakes have become so high he can no longer avoid his milquetoast approach.

I’m glad Mitt spoke up about Black Lives Matter, but he’s been reluctant to speak out on so many other issues that divide us. I hope he’ll do so in the future.

John Porcher, Salt Lake City

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