There are quite a few Republicans who have become so disenchanted with, and even alarmed by, the direction that. creepy Donald Trump has taken their party, that they have become what are called Never Trumpers. Some have found a home in a site called The Bulwark. There you will find neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and David Frum, the very people who urged the Bush-Cheney administration into the disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003, seeing it as way of showing American global dominance and the first step of a plan to take over the Middle East by successively invading or instigating regime changes in those Arab countries that were seen as enemies of Israel. Their goals were outlined in a document somewhat grandiosely titled Project for a New American Century.
At The Bulwark you will find commenters like Tim Miller who is urging other Republicans who are disenchanted with creepy Trump to not sit on the fence but instead rally round and endorse the Harris-Walz ticket. He applauded the few Republicans who attended the DNC rally and spoke in favor of voting for the Democratic ticket but wondered why so many much higher-profile Republicans who held high office in the creepy Trump administration but have publicly distanced themselves from him and even excoriated him, did not show up.
A handful of other Republican officials came to the convention stage last week, including John Giles, the sitting mayor of Mesa, Arizona, and on the last night, Adam Kinzinger, a Bulwark contributor and former congressman. Two former Trump staffers were given time as well, my friend Olivia Troye and onetime Trump spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham. All honorable individuals and patriots.
But again (and, once more, with no offense) were there not a few more resonant speakers available? Because my attendance sheet showed quite a few absences.
Did Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney not have anything to say about the upcoming election?
How about Mike Pence, the man Trump was happy to see hanged in service to his coup attempt?
…Once the strategic, logistical, and ideological concerns are resolved, there’s only one thing left to explain the lack of anti-Trump Republican support for Kamala.
These people are chickenshit.
Let’s just peruse a small sample of what a few of these MIA officials have said about Donald Trump, with an assist from Al Franken.
- John Kelly: “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. . . . He’s the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”
- Jim Mattis: “He’s dangerous. He’s unfit.” “The president has no moral compass.” “This degradation of the American experiment is real.”
- Dan Coats: “He doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie.”
- Rex Tillerson: “A moron.”
- Mitt Romney: “I think he’s not smart. I mean really not smart.” “A whack job.”
- Gary Cohn: “Dumb as shit.”
- H.R. McMaster: “Cannot understand Putin’s hold on Trump.”
He says that the argument that these people may be wanting to preserve their future political viability by not burning their bridges with the party does not hold up since most of them are either not political figures or have no future with the party anyway. Thus the only conclusion is that they are cowards.
These people aren’t endorsing Harris because they don’t want to deal with the hassle.
The bleats from Trump. The media requests. The chastising emails from their MAGA friends (or spouses, in a few cases). Getting an earful at the club every time Kamala does something that conservatives don’t like. Maybe they have a board position or another influence-peddling gig that’s dependent on their status as a Republican in Good Standing.
Dealing with all that is a pain in the ass. Doing nothing is easy.
…IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR THESE PEOPLE to heed their better angels. Donald Trump must be stopped. It is incumbent upon everyone who sees this clearly—and who played a part in getting us here—to speak out and deal with the personal ramifications. Frankly, it’s the least we should expect of them.
So, to all the anti-Trump cabinet officials. To all the GOP politicians who, deep in their heart, know that Trump is too grave a risk. To the seventeen Republicans who voted to impeach and convict him. To the vice president he would’ve happily left for dead.
Say it loud and proud: Kamala Harris for president.
I promise you it will be a relief to get it off your chest. Because doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.
I would of course like all the people named by Miller to at some point endorse the Harris-Walz ticket. But not doing so may not be entirely due to cowardice or narrow self-interest. It is one thing to not endorse your own party’s nominee. That shows your dissatisfaction with him. But to endorse his rival means that you approve of their agenda, which may be much harder to do.
As a counter example, I have a very progressive friend who was so outraged by Joe Biden’s inaction on stopping Israel’s genocidal treatment of Palestinians that he vowed that he would not vote for him (this was before he dropped out). But there was no way in hell that he would ever vote for creepy Trump because he absolutely despises him. Voting for him was a bridge that was very much too far. He consoled himself that he lived in a very red state where his lack of voting for Biden would have no effect but be symbolic. In America’s weird electoral college system to elect the president, only voters in the so-called swing states cast ballots that have any real significance.
So I can see why someone might be really disgusted with creepy Trump but not endorse or vote for Harris. But their criticisms of creepy Trump are on the record and helpful to the general cause of defeating him. I am sure those criticisms will be used by the Harris-Walz campaign. And who knows, some of them might issue endorsements at some strategic time.
There is another interpretation… Note that all of these criticisms are of Trump as a person, not of his policy platform (such as it is). I’d argue that the real situation is that they’re largely happy with the overall political direction of the GOP under Trump, they’d just like to have somebody with a bit more polish leading it -- but when it comes down to it, they’re prepared to hold their noses as long as they get their agenda moved on. After all, it worked out OK for them the last time, didn’t it? They got the SC stuffed with loyalists, and that’s what really matters to them.
As far as I am concerned the Republicans showed their true colors under Dubya.
Let the whole stinking structure get towed to the Marianas Trench to be scuttled, and let some new conservative party take over.
The problem is they’ve bought into their own BS, and as much as they hate Trump, they hate “socialism” even more.
Tabby Lavalamp @ 3
Saddam Hussein and Dubya show what happens when you start believing in your own propaganda lies. Boris Johnson is a more recent example.
@birgerjohansson #2,
A new conservative party would be even more unhinged than the Republicans, because it would be more populist. The Republican old guard are the only ones within the party putting up any resistance to Trump and his ilk, however ineffectual.
That might be a good thing for the rest of us as far as splitting the conservative vote, of course. But a return to “sensible” conservatism is pretty much impossible at the moment. The Republican elite have been diligently nurturing anti-intellectualism, rage and fear in their voters for the last fifty years or so, and now they’re suffering from their own success.
birgerjohansson @2: Another “conservative” party would drift into fascism for the same reason this one did: their entire philosophy, ideology and policy set were never anything more than a scam, and once people start seeing through it, they’ll need bigger and better scammers, and more mob rule, to keep themselves from being overthrown and kicked to the curb.
birgerjohansson @2,
Raging Bee’s point @6 is reinforced by the way the “respectable centre-right” parties of Europe have started joining coalitions with far-right parties, andor copying their policies. The era of right-wing parties accepting the democratic norm that when beaten at an election you accept the verdict, which began in the aftermath of WW2, appears to be ending. Initially they accepted aspects of “centre-left” welfarist policy, which were overwhelmingly popular in the wake of WW2, then from the 1970s, and even more following the collapse of the USSR, turned to “free market” dogma, ratcheting socio-economic policy rightwards and increasing economic inequality when in office (while the “centre-left” parties caved in to this, focusing on socially liberal measures); now, since 2008, the stark failure of the “free market” economic model being obvious, they have turned to “culture wars” (i.e. scapegoating minorities, conspiracist science denial) and increasing authoritarianism -- areas in which the “centre-right” can always be outbid by the crypto-fascists. The left needs to recover both its nerve, and its vision of a better life for all -- liberty, equality and solidarity.
…and of course, rationality and sustainability!
KG @ 7, 8
I wish I could prove you wrong but now, the conservatives -- even in the Scandonavian countries- have started allying themselves with the far-right populists. My one comfort is, the parties in Sweden that sold out have lost a lot of voters.