The revolution is not coming

Mitt Romney and Joe Biden show that change is a very remote possibility

Joe Biden and Mitt Romney.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

There's something in the air. A feeling of hope, a sense that everything is on the brink of collapse, and that maybe this is a good thing. With lockdowns ending across the country, churches and bars have reopened and hundreds of thousands of Americans are taking to the streets to call for a radical restructuring of society, including such progressive luminaries as Willard Mitt Romney.

This is not vice rendering homage to virtue. It's opportunism. The junior senator from Utah has enthusiastically defended the privatization of prisons in Massachusetts in his autobiography. He is a three-strikes, mandatory minimums guy whose idea of criminal justice reform is giving prosecutors the ability to appeal sentences they consider too lenient. If you think Mr. 47 Percent became a Black Lives Matter protester overnight after a lifetime of tough-on-crime talk for any reason except spite for the president who decided not to make him secretary of state, have a look at this pamphlet for a new blood testing startup I just founded.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.