A "Never Trump" Conservative Writes Trump Has Burned His Bridges to 2024

It might be wishful thinking but Washington Post columnist, Jennifer Rubin, writes that this time (as opposed to every previous 'this time') Donald Trump and the GOP are quits. Trump's 'burn the house down on your way out' routine has gone too far for some, not yet far enough for others. There's no way in hell he could win the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. 

Ms. Rubin, like George Will, David Frum and many others, is an old school Republican, no longer the mainstream in today's GOP that finds itself about as divided as the country itself. There are conservative Republicans, the old school; fickle Republicans, the sort who sail to the prevailing winds, like Mitch McConnell; and then there are the radical Republicans, the Freedom Caucus whose origins trace back to the Tea Party lunacy. 

The Freedom Caucus loves Trump. The Fickle Faction fear Trump. The Old School loathe Trump, the Fickle Faction and the Freedom Caucus. How they will sort out their hash is unclear but their Big Tent is coming apart at the seams.

Rubin, like others in the Old School camp argue that the Republican Party has become so debased, so reactionary, that it is beyond redemption. She lists a litany of Trump's sins, from bungling the pandemic to pardoning murderers to his avowed hatred for the United States itself - it's Department of Justice, the FBI, the Supreme Court, Homeland Security and more - that will leave him persona non grata once he's safely out the White House door. Yet the way he's managing his departure could be the best thing Trump has ever done for the Republican Party.

This is the conduct of someone who wants to burn down his party — and the country — if he cannot be president. While his cruelty still astounds, his temper tantrum also reveals the foolishness of Republicans who placated and defended him for four years. They enabled him throughout his presidency, prevented his removal in the impeachment trial, tried to subvert our election so he could remain in power and spent four years insisting that supporting him was the right thing to do for the sake of the “rule of law” and an economic boom (both of which he undermined). He is rendering Republicans who tied themselves in knots even more uncomfortable when they are pressed to answer, “Was it really worth it?” (It was hard enough for them to answer in the affirmative before this latest rampage, with more than 300,000 American deaths from covid-19 and the economy in tatters.)

...Many of us in the Never Trumper camp have argued that the Republican Party is not worth preserving after years of its leaders’ moral abdication, refusal to uphold their oaths and toleration of racism. What we did not bank on was that after corrupting the party, Trump would be the perfect means of destroying the GOP. In doing so, he might finally make a contribution to U.S. democracy.




Comments

  1. What I found astounding, Mound, was that the supine Mitch McConnel and Lindsay Graham, two of Trump's chief defenders and advocates, won re-election. I know their constituents are part of Trump Nation, but still......

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  2. I haven't been in many fights, Lorne, just enough to know that the fists are preceded by a point at which both sides know the fight is inevitable. A point of no return. I'm afraid the American people, broken into their camps, may have arrived at such a point. Two camps that don't talk to each other and have seemingly given up on trying to understand each other. Real Lord of the Flies stuff.

    Biden did well in November but Trump got more votes than any previous incumbent presidential candidate. 81 million to 74 million. 67 per cent turnout, the biggest in ages. Fiercely motivated voters on both sides. Biden won 51.3 per cent to Trump's 47 per cent yet Biden received exactly the same win in the Electoral College as Trump achieved four years earlier when he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

    Chris Hedges might be right. For the past couple of years he's written of America as existing in a pre-revolutionary state. What would it take for brother to fight brother again? Violent civil disobedience leading to an equally violent crackdown? An insurgency that leads to a revolt that culminates in some form of civil war?

    I don't know where this is heading but I'm having trouble seeing the path to reconciliation.

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  3. .. Owen has a post re 'Dogmatism' today.. its a great read.. and I relate it to 'partisanship' as a psych disorder.. My sister who's pretty damn sharp had trouble with my response when she sent the article to me.. thinking I was just on 'a big rant'.. and 'mad about things' .. Duh..

    She's right.. I'm Canadian and see how Trump, GOP, Republicans in general defy belief. They'll do full twisting backflips on behalf of their ludicrous partisanship.. When I see the same in Canada eh.. via our faux Conservatives as Opposition, I describe it as 'Contraryism' - give them a Majority and they will pummel Society with their twisted ideology. Bitumen and Methane uber alles. Attack Healthcare, Education & Environment is top of mind for them.

    In the long run - Trump may be good, just for bringing Animal Farm to life, his part enabling Jeffrey Epstein ie Sexual Predators, revealing what a corrupt Senate Majority can get away with for 8 straight years and proving that John Le Carre was not just blowing smoke re Political Figures for sale to Russian Mafiosa

    Trump will and should go to his grave 'gruntled' - that it was he who got screwed.. not everyone & every entity he ever came in contact with.. aside from his precious children.. all of whom are entitled 'oafs' whether male or female.. 'trophy hunters' all.. That's aside from young Bannon who was dragged mercilessly through hysteric & historic lunacy.. by Mom & Dad, aunts n uncles, stepmoms, girlfriends, ex wives, sex workers and a circus net of Secret Service, US Marine salutes, ludicrous Senator flat earther suckholes and bizarro birthers & conspiracy freakshow asshats

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    1. Hi, Sal. Yeah, I read Owen's post. Left a fairly lengthy comment in response. I wrote of the ascendance of belief-based structures that served both church and state to keep the peasants in line during the medieval period and Dark Ages.

      "When dogma drives its adherents to dismiss fact as hoax, we're all delivered into the hands of alchemists, sorcerers and wizards even as existential threats loom."

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  4. Hmm, will tRump be around in 2024 - hell yeah! With Biden being a one term President and then handing off to to a woman of colour - that is a white supremacist's wet dream. And, tRump is the only one to bring it home.

    What will be fun is the spectacle of the people with ambition - Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio et al being left in the dust once again.

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    1. Ben, there's no end of speculation at this point of what unfolds in Trump's wake. Isn't Trump really just the culmination of a political degradation that, in some respects, can be traced back to the Civil War? He shamelessly exploited passions, hatred and fears, that have been simmering since Reconstruction. He exposed how powerful a force that remains, garnering some 70 million votes.

      I think Lincoln might recognize America 2020 from the America he spoke of when he delivered his "House Divided" speech in 1858.

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  5. The Frum faction (rump) is delighted with the victory of Biden and have almost zero power in the Rethuglican Party.

    Biden's cabinet picks & policies will create the perfect conditions for the return of Trumpism.

    2024 could be Ivanka's year.

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    1. It's all speculation, NPoV, all of it. It's quite possible that America, as we know it today, will be a much different nation by 2024. See my response to Ben's comment above.

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    2. Ivanka is pure speculation. (poking fun)
      Biden's policies & cabinet not so much. Alas.
      Much different? Sure - Kyle Rittenhouse will be a congressman for example.
      The probable outcome that I've predicted - I'll bet a post-covid round at the pub!

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    3. Well, I hope I lose this bet and have to buy your drinks.

      ....
      Just an example of why Biden's policies will bring back the monsters.

      "Biden’s Austerity Zealotry Helped Cut The Stimulus Bill In Half
      The New York Times tells us that the president-elect’s move to undercut progressives “gave Democrats confidence to pull back on their demands” and surrender to McConnell."

      https://www.dailyposter.com/p/bidens-austerity-zealotry-cut-the

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    4. Did you read the source article? It doesn't conform to the cherry picked account served up by "dailyposter".

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    5. Source? Do you mean the paywalled NYT?

      In any case I have confidence in David Sirota

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    6. Well, I did read the article. What you read was cherry-picked and the more dramatic conclusions attributed to the NYT are Sirota's, not the Times'. It's his attribution that troubles me.

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