Why do sections of the American Right lust after bloviating decay? Because they’ve convinced themselves that just one more hit will disappear their pains. Unfortunately for them, there is no future with Trump except one of ruin.
Whatever good came about from his presidency has been consumed by the cost of doing so, with Trump-aligned politicians and justices in Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Michigan experiencing electoral massacres where moderates would have had a fighting chance. Republicans crow about Obama’s Democrats losing hundreds of state seats during his term, but Trump’s Republicans were drubbed in 2018 and have been losing more since — once-solid GOP governorships, state supreme courts, and legislatures have evaporated.
There Are Superior Alternatives
It’d be one thing if Trump were all the Republicans had to offer, but three candidates and two non-candidates are quantifiably superior: Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Brian Kemp, and Glenn Youngkin. Notably, each of these is either ambivalent toward or explicitly anti-Trump, and all won big numerically or succeeded in states that Trump lost. Haley won her last race by 15 points (2014), DeSantis by 19 (2022), Scott by 26 (2022), Kemp by 8 (2022), and Youngkin by 2 (2021).
The American Spectator’s Scott McKay wrote on Friday:
There are some who say Haley had a good night — I call that pure insanity. As Kurt Schlichter put it, Haley comes off as everybody’s ex-wife, and honestly, she’s offensive.
I disagree. Nikki Haley appears to be manifestly inoffensive to the average American, for, while she may have failed to secure the McKay nod, she gained 17 points of support after the debate. If “going full Karen” got her a plus-17 swing, Haley should consider going nuclear Karen. She handled smarmy Vivek and was wise enough to jump from Trump’s Homeric ship in 2018. It says a lot about her that she maximized her time at the UN and had the good sense to get out while the getting was good.
(Side note: Ramaswamy is a scrub who turned off two voters introduced to him at the debate for each one he convinced. If you could preload a vacuum salesman with the right-wing clichés and half-baked observations heard around a McDonald’s table at 5:30 a.m., the result would be Vivek. And while early a.m. coffee klatches are awesome, realistic policy isn’t nearly as fun as happy lunacy and so rarely merits consideration.)
The former South Carolina governor moved to third place from fourth post-debate, according to InsiderAdvantage. (READ MORE: If Trump Sits on His Lead He May Lose Iowa)
So, alas, it would appear that what Haley lost in the curmudgeonous neo-paleocon (but I repeat myself) vote, she more than made up for in the normie vote. A political pragmatist with a winning record and on-stage chops? Egad. Better shove her into a corner for the audacity to verify that she’s a woman (one never knows these days) and for speaking to the skittish suburban bloc that could carry her and a conservative agenda to the White House.
Insider 8/19 – 8/20:
DJT 51
RDS 10
Ramaswamy 6
Haley 5
Christie 4
Pence 3
Scott 3
Hutchinson 2
Bergum 1 https://t.co/8ZlwmuZehS— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) August 28, 2023
Trump Has Not Earned ‘Presumed Nominee’ Status
Trump is sub-50 percent after the debate. He deserves neither charity from the pack nor the “presumptive nominee” title that The American Spectator’s Melissa Mackenzie suggests he’s earned.
She argues:
Donald Trump is not the Republican front runner. He’s the presumptive nominee. Further, he’s the most popular politician in America. Trump created a coalition that made the Rust Belt winnable. He turned Ohio, Florida, and Iowa reliably red. He made Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin gettable. In Florida, he out-won Ron DeSantis by 1 million votes.
DeSantis and Trump ran for reelection in different years, so the numbers are muddled. For the 2020 presidential, 11 million Floridians turned out to vote and awarded Trump 51 percent (5.7 million votes). When DeSantis ran for reelection in 2022, 7.7 million Floridians came out to vote and awarded him 59 percent (4.6 million votes). However, if we control for the same number of interested voters (11 million) in a general election cycle, DeSantis would beat Trump by almost 1 million votes (6.5 million to 5.7 million) insofar as the favor of Floridians is concerned. DeSantis won slightly (2018), then bigly (2022), while nationwide, Trump won barely (2016) and then lost embarrassingly (2020). (READ MORE: Thoughts on the Debased Debate)
That Trump chose the warm porridge served to him by Tucker Carlson instead of the sterner fare of debate is a sufficient testament to his losing a step and losing his edge. The only thing worse than an old fool is one who can’t even argue in his own defense. That the last two presidential victors fit such a description is absurd.
Trump’s Merits Are Limited and Already Spent
I agree with Melissa’s broader point that Trump is suffering legal abuse by left-wing prosecutors. I’d just add that he should have been impeached by Congress and removed from office following Jan. 6, as his actions were more politically egregious than they were outright criminal. If the Republican establishment has failed, it’s done so by not prosecuting and removing Trump in 2021. Congressional Republicans were strong enough to finalize the election but too weak to remonstrate their leader. Some blame, thus, falls on their shoulders.
Trump is fentanyl: He promises to take away all the evil things while insisting that there can be no success without him. This is a lie, and it has always been a lie. Like mustard gas that is found to kill cancer cells, his contributions to exposing D.C. corruption are acknowledged but don’t merit absolution. Those who champion Trump are addicts to ego who have given up on America’s ordered strength, its economic dynamism, and the possibility of adult leadership.
READ MORE:
An Inconvenient Trump: Republicans Are Living an Enormous Lie