Never-Trumpers Never Had a Chance

[robosmith]

Never-Trumpers Never Had a Chance

Quote

Since the moment Trump took the G.O.P. primary lead in 2015, he’s never relinquished his hold on the party. And since Trump’s hostile takeover and unexpected 2016 victory, the G.O.P. has also experienced consistent losses. Democrats seized the House from Republicans in 2018. They took the presidency and the Senate in 2020. In those two elections, the Democrats accomplished a political feat not seen since the Herbert Hoover era: winning the House, Senate and White House in a single four-year span.

And the Democrats’ success didn’t stop there. In 2022, despite political conditions that should have been overwhelmingly favorable to Republicans, Democrats made a modest gain in the Senate and barely lost the closely divided House. Election-denying MAGA candidates were routed in multiple swing-state elections. Yet none of those setbacks broke Trump’s grip on the G.O.P.

One of the sobering realities of life is that we often don’t understand our true hierarchy of values until they come into conflict. We might say, for example, that we believe that our political leaders should be men or women of high character who broadly agree with our policy positions. But do we believe that at the cost of actually losing a political race? Or is victory the necessity, and character and ideology the luxuries?

I don’t regret my arguments against Trump. I’d make them again, and I will continue making them. I do ask myself how I missed the sheer extent of Republican anger. And I’m deeply, deeply grieved by the thought that I did anything in my life before Trump to contribute to that unrighteous rage. Animosity is the enemy of liberty and unity. Before Republicans can reject Trump or end Trumpism, they’ll have to ease the anger that dominates far too many right-wing hearts.

It's clear that for the MAGA CULT, victory is the ONLY necessity. 🤮