52 pages • 1 hour read
McKay CoppinsRomney: A Reckoning
McKay CoppinsNonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Tension Between Individual Conscience and Party Loyalty
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. The paradox of moderation also meant that his bipartisan appeal marked him as a “flip-flopper.” As the Governor of Massachusetts, he passed universal health care and a ban on assault weapons—broadly popular policies that his Republican opponents later used to brand him as a liberal. Achieving legislation often meant compromising with the other side, reflecting his tendencies towards pragmatism rather than idealism. The higher he rose in politics, the more he was burdened by the notion that representing a party also came with the implication that he would support all party decisions. This “grim kind of team loyalty” became harder to stomach as the decisions of the GOP became even more dangerously misguided (84). As Trump gained power, Romney became more opposed to the increasingly inflammatory rhetoric of Ted Cruz, Rush Limbaugh, and Newt Gingrich, marking him as an enemy of his party’s most incendiary figures.
Trump’s presidency and the insurrection forced Romney to acknowledge that he longer recognized his party, which had transformed from its original economic conservatism and to embrace and enable authoritarianism. In an early interview with Coppins, Romney shares, “A very large portion of my party […] really doesn’t believe in the Constitution” (9). This troubling assertion signaled Romney’s willingness to finally acknowledge the ramifications of ignoring Trump’s rise to power.
Coppins explores Romney’s evolution away from traditional GOP ideals and shows the difficulties of breaking away from his party identity.
The Responsibility of Privilege
Romney’s sense of privilege evolves throughout the text. While he remains a rich white man who benefits from nepotism, the Trump presidency and unraveling of America revealed to him the true extent of his privilege. Throughout this text, his most crucial moments of growth are revealed when he realizes the extent of his privilege.
All politicians struggle with likeability and relatability; Romney’s extreme wealth isolates him even further from the average voter. Coppins describes the lack of responsibility that stems from the privilege of being the governor’s son: “And yet, he clearly understood something about his place in the world because from a young age he carried himself with a kind of rich-kid carelessness—the untroubled air of someone who knew he could get away with anything” (21). In this context, Romney’s mission trip is framed as an essential coming-of-age experience. He confronts uncomfortable living conditions and sees real poverty for the first time, and in the aftermath of a tragic car accident, he realizes that he must grow up and take more responsibility for improving the lives of those around him. As Coppins depicts, Romney’s return from this mission trip leads to a conscious dedication to becoming a more serious person and acknowledging his capacity for action.
After Romney’s evolution into an adult who at least somewhat understands the power and privilege of extreme wealth, he is also forced to acknowledge the responsibility of being the “adult in the room.” According to Coppins, Romney’s willingness to divulge so much intimate communication for this book stemmed from his personal need to work through the role that he played as a member of Donald Trump’s Republican Party: “And what role had the members of the mainstream establishment—people like him, the reasonable Republicans—played in allowing that rot to fester?” (9). Power is privilege; there is tremendous responsibility in wielding power.
Romney seems not to fully understand the extent of his privilege until he realizes that the physical safety of his family has been compromised by Trump’s actions. He fears speaking out against Trump in his own state: “‘There are deranged people among us,’ he told me. And in Utah, ‘people carry guns’” (281). Here he sees the ramifications of enabling people who support violence; since Trump was not corralled, his most zealous supporters do not feel that they need to be corralled. He pays a private security firm $5,000 a day to protect his family, a luxury that most of his peers cannot afford. Romney regrets that the state of American politics is such that only the wealthy can afford to express dissent for fear of violent repercussions. Because he can afford private security, he can afford to speak out more than his colleagues can, and this is a considerable burden to bear.
Romney learns to acknowledge the responsibility of privilege, recognizing that his wealth—far greater than that of most of his colleagues—allows him a greater freedom to speak out, and that he therefore has a responsibility to use that freedom for good.
Reconciling the Public and Private Selves
As Coppins depicts, much of Romney’s political evolution has come through a decades-long struggle to reconcile his public and private identities. As he struggles to remain faithful to a widely misunderstood religion, to demonstrate empathy with middle-class challenges despite his immense personal wealth, and to balance his moral principles with political expediency, he must accept that these identities inform each other and cannot be separated.
Romney’s struggle to balance the public and private began before he entered politics; as Coppins shows, Romney’s religious identity made him a unique competitor at the management consultant firm where success was often defined by the number of hours spent in the office or with clients. Romney established boundaries (“unusual demands”) that would allow him time with his family and with his church, and he made it clear that these were non-negotiable (36). This meant that he had to compensate and work extra hard during his working hours in order to ensure that he could keep up with the peers who prioritized work above all else.
Romney’s personality and beliefs were heavily scrutinized as his faith became a point of contention with evangelicals and Christians who opposed him. While he had succeeded in balancing faith and his corporate career, his political career was prone to reductive considerations of him as “a rich guy from a liberal state who’s got a funny religion” (71). Though many of his early advisors appeared anxious about this, he refused to downplay the importance of faith in his life, and refused to pander to those who questioned his faith. Romney’s Mormonism was often sensationalized to make him appear different. His religion, combined with his “old-fashioned civic starchiness and golly-gee diction” made him seem “broadly familiar, and largely beloved” in Utah, but made him seem a “relic of a bygone era” in other states (199). As Coppins notes, this public perception may have seemed slightly off-kilter to voters in 2012 but was revealed to be harmless in a way that no one yet appreciated.
The Pierre Delecto incident demonstrates one of Romney’s arguably unsuccessful attempts to reconcile his public and private identities. In October 2019, a reporter discovered Romney’s “lurker” Twitter account, in which he offered an anonymous take on events surrounding his own campaign. As Coppins notes, “the fact that he had a secret Twitter persona at all was undeniably funny” even though “there was nothing scandalous—or even especially surprising” (233). The “outing” of his secret Twitter account was certainly embarrassing, since his preferred method for venting was exposed, but the incident became just another Romney gaffe that made him appear somewhat silly but not particularly malicious, threatening, or creepy. As Coppins suggests, Romney’s use of Twitter as a place to vent—and his fessing up to it when he was outed rather than blaming it on someone else—may have ultimately worked to his benefit, demonstrating that his secret activities were nowhere near as morally repugnant as those of Trump, nor of many of his other colleagues.
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