I suppose the realization wasn’t shocking, given that the conservative movement at this point revolves completely around President Donald Trump and Romney is no longer a part of the U.S. Senate, but I was disappointed.

I’ve always liked Romney. I’m sure I don’t agree with him on everything, but I consider him the last truly great moderate. Bipartisanship in this country pretty well died when he lost his run for the presidency in 2012, and we’re all continuing to suffer from it.

So I was pleasantly surprised last week to see that Romney had penned an op-ed for the New York Times. In the piece, Romney advocated for increasing taxes on the rich – like himself – as a means of helping save Social Security.

My first reaction when I saw the headline was, “Interesting.”

Ryan Comer, Standard-Examiner

Increasing taxes on the rich is not a notion I would instinctively agree with, but it’s also not something I have great reason to think is completely wrongheaded. I understand fully that it goes against traditional conservative orthodoxy.

I won’t go into the depth of Romney’s argument here, since the article is behind a paywall, but suffice it to say, it reminded me of all the reasons that I liked Romney and wished that people appreciated him more.

Intelligent and well-educated people can disagree, but I give Romney the benefit of the doubt on so much of what he says because of how strong he is at making his case.

I still think of his first debate performance against President Barack Obama in 2012. At every point, Romney knew exactly what he wanted to say and exactly how he needed to say it. It seemed effortless for him as he picked apart what he saw as the major flaws of Obama’s first term and advocated for what he thought should be done.

A lot has been said about how disinterested and unprepared Obama supposedly was for that debate, which was widely accepted as a victory for Romney, but I think Romney won it more than Obama lost it. People finally saw who Romney really was and it didn’t match who they thought based on how he had been caricatured.

“Voters saw clearly that Mitt Romney was very ready and able to be President; that he held strong opinions and beliefs and had the confidence in those opinions and beliefs to challenge President Obama,” said former Romney strategist Beth Myers in an article by CNN.

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau noted, as cited in that same CNN article, that Romney came off as “affable,” “confident” and “charming.”

Unsurprisingly, Romney was lampooned by conservatives on social media for his New York Times proposal. Of course, the attack was predictable, that this was proof that Romney wasn’t really a conservative.

Do we really need to be reminded of all that Trump has said and done that has gone against conservative orthodoxy that conservatives have suddenly been willing to accept?

Conservative influencer Michael Knowles gave a speech at Turning Point’s AmFest convention this past weekend and spoke of how conservative positions have changed over the decades on various issues, like tariffs, immigration and foreign policy restraint.

“If there is one thing conservatives pride ourselves on, it is our relationship to reality,” Knowles said. “… And one of the crucial facts about reality is that circumstances change. Politics is not some pure science of abstract ideals. It is the practical art of applying eternal principles to constantly changing circumstances among real people in a specific place in time. Is that too wordy? Well, I’ll simplify it. Politics is about getting along together. That’s what it comes down to.”

So let’s not pretend that a targeted proposal to tax the rich more – in an effort to help save Social Security – is a bridge too far for conservatives to cross.

It’s peak intellectual dishonesty.

I’m not sure, ultimately, what Romney hopes will be achieved with his article. He surely must have known conservatives would scorn him. But Democrats will no doubt hold up his words as affirmation of what they’ve been saying for decades, and according to a September Gallup poll, 63% of U.S. adults support “increasing income tax rates for upper-income Americans,” and 54% support “increasing tax revenues by making major changes to the federal tax code.”

Perhaps it’s his way of helping force a debate – one that is necessary to have.

Regardless, people would be wise to take his plan seriously, and hopefully, we’ll continue to hear from him.

Contact Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.