Mitt Romney’s political career may be over soon.

Not for the usual reasons: not because he broke faith with his constituents, or lied on TV, or committed adultery, or used his public office for personal gain. He did none of these things.

Instead, his career may end because he took a stand on principle, a stand that went against his party’s official position. And in today’s political environment, that’s something an elected official simply cannot do. Especially when that stand is explicitly in opposition to the President of the United States, explicitly in opposition to the party that brazenly sheltered that president from anything like accountability for his actions.

He did what he thought was right, and now he will bear the consequences.

Oh, the poor bastard, you might say. A wealthy man gets kicked out of the club, and now he has to go home and enjoy his millions in retirement. Come talk to me when he takes a real risk.

Fair enough. But the fact that his principled stand won’t leave him destitute doesn’t mean his act was without courage. In fact, I think in light of the spineless behavior we’ve seen from Congress in this term, his stand was courageous indeed.

The cowardice hasn’t been confined to Republicans or Democrats, House or Senate: deviation from the party line, whichever the party, whatever the party line is at the moment, is not tolerated.

Because politics in the U.S. is no longer about governing and compromise and forward motion. It’s about winning legislative victories, being reelected, and crafting memorable sound bites and tweets.

It’s government of the Congress, for the Congress, by the Congress. The people have little to do with it except as convenient visual aids.

It puts me in mind of a quote I heard attributed to George Washington long ago:

An army of asses led by a lion is vastly superior to an army of lions led by an ass.

I don’t mean to imply that our nation is an army. Nor that we are uniformly asses or lions, although I choose to believe our people are still much nearer the latter than the former.

All I mean to imply–never mind. I’ll just say it:

We are a nation led by asses.

Thank you, Senator Romney, for refusing to be an ass. I’m not your constituent, and I’m not likely to vote for you if you run for president again–but it’s good to know courage is not entirely dead in our government.

Maybe Romney’s willingness to stand alone will encourage others to choose principles over party.

I’m not holding my breath. But I’m hopeful.