If Republicans do decide that backing Trump is more trouble than it’s worth, Sen. Romney has the opportunity to become the moral voice and leading force in a post-Trump Republican Party, not to mention to justify his somewhat bewildering decision to become a Utah senator.

Romney is Goldwater 50 years later. Both men were Republican Party nominees for president, lost to an incumbent Democrat because they allowed their opponents to define them as extreme and unrelatable, and both men won Senate elections after losing their White House races…

This newfound willingness to break party orthodoxy might be more out of shrewd calculation than courage. A YouGov poll found that only 49 percent of Republicans opposed impeachment when confronted with the facts of the Ukraine scandal. A poll two weeks earlier found that 79 percent of Republicans believed Trump should not be impeached. One poll won’t torpedo a presidency, but if future polls find similar results, down-ballot Republicans might start to jump ship.

Shrewd calculation may be exactly what the party needs. If 2019 is like 1972, Republicans are smart to be putting space between themselves and Trump. If Romney’s place in the Senate is to be the elder statesman who can help that process along, the party — and the country — will thank him for it. Eventually.