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Fifty years from now, Mitt Romney’s speech will ultimately emerge as the most important thing to come out of the impeachment of Donald Trump, according to Eliot A. Cohen, dean of the Johns Hopkins University SAIS and former State Department counselor under Condoleezza Rice.
‘From our grandchildren’s point of view, however — and it is safe to assume that the other senators know this — those who voted to acquit will leave at most confused and shallow smudges on the sand. Romney will leave footprints.’
That’s Cohen explaining in an op-ed for The Atlantic how Romney’s vote to convict the president will be remembered for generations to come.
For now, however, he said Romney will suffer the short-term consequences of going against his party.
“Armies of trolls and sneering louts will come after him, their jeers all the louder because they emanate from a terrified emptiness within,” he wrote. “Shambling, tongueless, and invertebrate politicians who deep down know better will resent Romney for having the courage to say what they believed, but dared not utter.”
Cohen’s probably referring to sneers like this:
And, of course, this:
But it’s the speech, not the critics, that will be remembered, Cohen said.
“When future anthologies of great American political speeches are published by the Library of America, Romney’s remarks will be there,” he wrote in his piece on Sunday. “The language was American rhetoric at its best: not flowery and orotund, but clear and solid and stark.”
Here’s Romney’s full speech from last week:
