How Romney’s vote to convict Trump paid homage to his rabble-rousing Republican father

In 1963, Michigan Gov. George Romney (R) appeared unexpectedly with a group of black leaders and civil rights activists in the mostly white Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe.

The march took them past real estate offices as hundreds demonstrated against housing segregation. Romney called for “the elimination of human inequality and discrimination,” and pledged to appoint a civil rights commission, and received a standing ovation for his remarks, according to a July 4, 1963, edition of the Grosse Pointe News.

“I am here because the issues involved in this march today are so fundamental that they are above the partisan level,” Romney said then.

He forged ahead with his support for civil rights and against extremism, which at times pitted him against members of his own party. A half-century later, his son Mitt would stand as the lone Republican in the Senate chamber to cross party lines. In voting to convict President Trump of abusing the power of his office, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Wednesday became the first senator ever to vote to remove a president in his own party.

“I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it of me,” Romney said in his floor remarks. He added: “Were I to ignore the evidence that has been presented, and disregard what I believe my oath and the Constitution demands of me for the sake of a partisan end, it would, I fear, expose my character to history’s rebuke and the censure of my own conscience.”