Last Thursday, Mitt Romney, a Republican Presidential candidate in the 2012 race, voiced his profound concern for the future of our nation if Donald Trump were to be chosen as the Republican nominee for president. After praising Trump and accepting his endorsement in 2012, Romney accused Trump of being “reckless” and a “phony” at his recent press conference. He also attacked Trump’s personal qualities, specifically his “absurd third grade theatrics,” as well as “bullying” and “misogyny.” Now, maybe Romney truly does believe everything he said in his “State of the 2016 Election” speech and is trying to posture himself as a prophet of warning for the national public. But I’ve been around politics long enough to know that when a 68-year-old former governor and presidential nominee forgoes a leisurely retirement, he probably has stronger, more obsessive and politically-inclined motives than he’s letting on.
Trump is an interesting candidate, and I think I speak for most people when I say I thought it was some kind of joke when I heard he was running for president. But he has quickly become the new face of the Republican party, and his campaign platform could be indicative of the GOP’s future in this country. People are seeking someone new — a personality and visionary who will disrupt our political system.
The economic stagnation we’ve faced is exhausting people and there is an appeal in Trump’s eccentricity and drive to “Make America Great Again.” He’s extreme, yes, and maybe he’s an arrogant asshole who relentlessly takes shots at critics’ self-esteem. But with Trump in office people see change as inevitable. And, to many, Trump’s idea of change is better than anything else we’ve got going for us. People want someone to rock the boat and be a little radical because playing it safe isn’t doing enough good for enough people — and it has had a harmful effect on our country overall. But while many people feel inclined to ally with Trump and move away from more traditional Republican candidates, Romney hasn’t shied away from defending the party establishment.
I speculate that, after warning the public about both Trump and Clinton, Romney is really rooting for what is known as a Brokered Convention. At the Republican nominating convention, if a single Republican candidate doesn’t have the minimum number of delegates going into the convention to earn the nomination, then there’s no clear winner in the primaries, and a contested convention would likely follow. The candidates with delegates would meet with party leaders and negotiate until a candidate emerged who could earn enough delegate votes to be elected the party’s nominee. That process would probably include a lot of promises and good old-fashioned horse trading.
Hypothetically, if Rubio doesn’t feel confident that he’ll be elected in either the primaries or the general election, he may forfeit his delegates to Trump, who has a better shot of winning, and walk away with the promise that he’ll hold the position of Vice President. Also, during a brokered convention, members are able to allocate delegates to people who weren’t initial candidates themselves, such as Romney, if they see them as more suitable than the current nominees. Romney, as of now, claims that he is “not a candidate [and is] not going to be a candidate.” According to S.A. Miller of The Washington Times, Romney said, “even if the people of the [Republican] party wanted me to be president, I would say no to it.” This may or may not be true, but even if it is, Romney may still have his eyes set on some negotiated and powerful involvement in the future of our nation’s politics.