In the end, it doesn’t matter: either way they discredit themselves and cannot be trusted. As Democrats and the news media (cue hoary cliché: “But I repeat myself!”) become increasingly desperate to stave off a much-deserved Democratic Party wipe-out in 2022, the NeverTrumpers are suddenly in demand again even though Trump will not be running. The desperation theory is that such bitter and personally biased flip-floppers can convince saner conservatives and GOP supporters to vote Democrat, even when that party has never been as extreme as it is today, or as hostile to American principles including democracy itself.
Yesterday provided a jaw-dropping example, an op-ed in the Times headlined, “We Are Republicans With A Plea: Elect Democrats.” Like so much we are seeing, hearing and reading lately, the screed is desperation itself, but fascinating. Amazingly, the melt-down of The Lincoln Project wasn’t enough to discourage the Axis of Unethical Conduct (the resistance, Democrats and the mainstream media) from hailing the leaky NeverTrumper lifeboat as their ship goes down. The only justification for the plea is that the authors hate Donald trump. That’s it. Nothing else. What current Democratic policies do the authors approve of? None are mentioned. Which Democratic Party leaders do they view as responsible and trustworthy? Nancy Pelosi? Joe Biden? Again, crickets.
Oh yes, about those authors. The thing is jointly authored by Miles Taylor, who was the Times’ sensational (and dishonest) “Anonymous” Deep State mole, and who famously (and profitably) wrote that he was sabotaging Trump administration initiatives from within the Department of Homeland Security, and Christine Todd Whitman, the failed New Jersey governor and W’s EPA head. She is one more Bush Family acolyte pledged to avenge Trump’s gratuitously mean statements about George and Jeb. These people are relentless. Naturally, the op-ed praises Rep. Liz Cheney, also a member of that club, who supported two illegal and contrived impeachments, violating the intent of the Constitution and permanently rendering the important impeachment safety valve as useless, to slake her personal grudge (Attacking President Bush means attacking Daddy). Whitman and Taylor call Cheney “courageous.”
I started reading the essay because, first, I was curious to learn how two alleged conservatives reasoned that handing the government over to a party that opposed all of their own alleged principles would be good for the country in substantive terms. They never explain that, because they can’t. Then, after they condemned their party for submitting to “Trumpism,” I read further to learn what it was that they thought “Trumpism” was. As far as I could discern, a Trumpist is someone who doesn’t hate Donald Trump and reject whatever he supports because he supports it. Oh. That’s mature.
I’ve been curious about this term, because it’s now hurled around the media and social media like “Commie!,” or “Racist!,” but I know what those labels mean. Does opposing the illegal immigration policies that have led to the mess at the border make one a Trumpist? Yes, it seems, because Trump opposes those policies, ergo, that position must be evil. Does preferring the Trump job market and economy before Democrats weaponized the pandemic constitute Trumpism? Does opposing anti-white racism and school indoctrination mark one as a Trumpist? Again, that’s the only assumption I can make from the vague and content-free arguments made by Mr. Anonymous and Whitman. Anti-abortion? Trumpist! But I’m just guessing.
The one substantive complaint against Trump described in the op-ed to justify allowing the party that is really threatening democracy the way it fancifully accused of Trump of threatening it for four years is this: “We cannot tolerate Republican leaders — in 2022 or in the presidential election in 2024 — refusing to accept the results of elections or undermining the certification of those results should they lose.” This is striking dishonesty. Many Democratic leaders refused to accept the results of the 2000 and 2004 elections. The party, led by Hillary Clinton, never accepted the result of the 2016 election, as it attempted to remove President Trump repeatedly for te rest of his term. Trump was foolish and ham-handed, as usual, in his handling of a suspicious 2020 election marred by the sudden widespread use of inherently insecure mail-in ballots, but the President has an obligation to uphold the Constitution. If he genuinely thought the election was tainted by manipulation and fraud—and after what he endured for four years,why wouldn’t he?—it was appropriate for him to delay accepting the results and investigate until no legitimate alternatives remained. Since Trump is Trump, he hasn’t done that yet (which is outrageous) but public distrust regarding the election is not on Trump’s shoulders alone.
Essentially, Whitman and Taylor believe everyone should vote Democratic because “Orange Man Bad”…when he’s not even running…while the Democrats mount attacks on free speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion, the Supreme Court, the Second Amendment, law enforcement, citizenship, and fiscal responsibility, while seeking to vilify white Americans and the nation itself in the schools.
Never mind. At least Democrats aren’t “Trumpist.” That’s all that matters, right?
Ethics Alarms 
I don’t understand why Miles “Halloween and Pandemics” Taylor is treated with any kind of legitimacy; he abandoned his fiduciary duties so as to actively undermine the administration he was working for, which the left is obviously more than willing to forgive so long as they don’t approve of the administration, but he also went on to CNN and explicitly, overtly and bald-facedly lied on air to Anderson Cooper.
The New York Times listed the anonymous author of a September 2020 hit piece as a “senior administration official”, which Taylor actually wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, which is why it was odd for Anderson Cooper to explicitly ask Taylor is he was that anonymous author (I think he knew), but instead of demurring, Taylor said: “No I’m not. I’ve got my own thoughts on who that might be. I wear a mask for two things, Anderson: Halloween and pandemics. So, no.”
And what consequences did he face for lying to America on a National News outlet? CNN hired him. I mean, I suppose it’s useful insight to CNN’s standards that not only won’t they fire someone for lying on air, but they’ll hire someone who’s name we only know because he lied on air, but I expected him to fade away quickly as his 15 minutes trickled away. Now we’re supposed to believe he was some kind of Republican operative, and this switch is supposed to be meaningful and convincing? To whom? This is just #Resistance insurgency porn. This has no effective target audience.
Surely your “I don’t understand” is an opening rhetorical flourish, HT.
Almost always.
I think this is illustrative of the left’s eager and reliable refusal to ever critique a true believer (or anyone playing one), which you appeared to expect the right to do. Why should we expect the right to attack perhaps sketchy people who espouse conservative positions when it’s all hands on deck for the left? In a perfect world, the right would do this. The biggest example of the left not doing this of course is Bill Clinton. He was literally unimpeachable as far as the left was concerned. Did anyone really expect the left to point out the lack of the emperor’s clothes? In a word, no. And sure, this is “everybody does it,” but it ain’t bean bag.
I wrote a post on Substack about Marxism in 2021 in relation to the BLM moguls, I’ll post the relevant part below, but the left’s ability to pivot drastically on issues they say they care deeply about makes so much more sense after you realize that their actual values are very different from their stated values, and those values are just means to an end.
From April 16th:
“I don’t need to understand Marxism in order to recognize a grift or corruption, unless you think that an understanding of Marxism would make this something other than a grift.
Fact of the matter is that Patrisse Cullors has undergone a multi-million dollar real estate binge in the last couple of weeks, using money that came from the BLM charity organization. Now, I made the mistake of calling that “embezzlement” at one point, but that’s inaccurate and hyperbolic. Because she and co-founder Alicia Garzia could set financial policy for the BLM organization, it’s much more likely they simply gave themselves seven figure salaries or bonus plans. But regardless of the legality of those remuneration packages, it is likely to the point of certainty that the people donating to BLM didn’t do so in order for BLM executives to become millionaire real estate moguls.
My point was that Marxism seems, for whatever reason, to be particularly susceptible to corruption. Reality is that every time someone attempts to actually follow through on a Marx-based system, corruption takes root and you end up with some of the shittiest despotic systems in recorded history. You end up with Gulags, bread lines, economic and intellectual stagnation and loss of human life. Communism has a success rate of approximately zero percent.”
[…]
“I think, and I’m generalizing here, but I think that “communists” (Or “Marxists” or “socialists”), generally, aren’t actually communists (Or). They like the idea of communism because they see it as a path to a better future. And so when they have the opportunity to either choose between self-enrichment or “their principles” (which I’m assuming they don’t actually hold), they’ll choose self enrichment because that was their goal all along. That’s not going to be the story 100% of the time, there are obviously going to be some true believers out there, but I think if you offered basically anyone in the current discourse a million dollars if they never said the word “socialism” again, a majority would take it.”
How is your substack gig going, HT?
Like I said at the top, it was mostly a place to get stuff written down, I shared it once and didn’t expect anyone to actually read it…. Which is why I’m kind of surprised that 200ish people are.
Great post. The Dems aren’t going to let go of Trump. I’m pretty sure their 2022 campaign will be built around “Vote for us. We’re not Trump.”
https://www.salon.com/2021/10/12/democrats-dont-have-to-save-themselves-donald-is-still-here-to-help/
The campaign will be another Weekend at Bernie’s, but ironically, the corpse the Dems will be dragging around won’t be Joe Biden, it will be Donald Trump.
The AUC is already hyperventilating about Trump’s second term!
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/trump-winning-2024-real-election-nightmare/620368/ “a mortal wound to our democracy.” (Sheesh.) Just think, he might even get elected by only winning the electoral college!
These people are nuts.
It’s also going to be, “Don’t vote for X candidate because Trump supports him/her.”
jvb
There is another point here: Many of those who are now NeverTrump forfeited the leadership of the GOP on the following grounds over the last three decades:
1. They did not deliver on various promises (repealing gun control, etc.).
2. Not calling out the lie that Rush Limbaugh incited the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995
3. Failing to secure any accountability for the 1996 DNC fundraising scandal.
4. Not addressing the many times Republicans were falsely accused of racism.
5. Doing nothing when Prop 8 donors were being targeted.
6. Failure to get accountability for Operation Fast & Furious
7. Not calling out the lie that Sarah Palin incited the Tucson shooting
8. Failing to secure accountability for the IRS targeting the Tea Party
9. Failing to secure accountability for Benghazi
10. Failing to secure accountability over the “John Doe” scandal in Wisconsin.
11. Failure to secure accountability over Spygate
12. Failure to call out state attorneys general who sought to criminalize opposition to certain environmental policies.
13. Not calling out Hillary when one of her staffers said Breitbart News had “no right to exist.”
14. Relative silence over Democrats false claims about the 2000, 2004, and 2016 presidential elections.
15. Failure to call out Andrew Cuomo and Letitia James over their targeting of the NRA for opposing gun control.
This is not an exclusive list, but for far too long, many of those who purported to lead the Republican party left their supporters hanging throughout a long string of smears, lies, abuses, and other stuff. And even now, rather than accept accountability, they side with people who HATE the average Republican primary voter, and arguably the average Republican.
Then people like Taylor and Whitman wonder why the average Republican turns to Trump…
Bingo!
It’s all about framing the propaganda narrative and have that narrative parroted ad nauseam by the anti-Trump hive minded cult.
First and foremost; anything and anyone that the political left and Never Trumpers can associate with the “evil” President Trump is also considered evil, period. It’s completely irrelevant to these people if their perceived association with President Trump is warranted or not, it’s completely irrelevant if the accused has actually done something wrong, the accusation is equivalent to a guilty verdict. Correlation = causation. If you support Trump, you’re evil. If you don’t openly condemn Trump, you’re evil. If you support any policy that Trump happens to support then you’re evil. If you don’t actively support Democrats then you’re a Trump supporter and therefore you’re evil. Trump is a racist, racism is evil, if you don’t condemn every word Trump says and and every action that Trump does then you’re a racist. Trump is a liar, liars are evil, if you don’t condemn every word Trump says and and every action that Trump does then you’re a liar and therefore evil too. If you’re not openly part of the anti-Trump hive minded cult then you’re an equally damned Trumpist.
This is how critical thinking works for Progressives, much of the political left and Never Trumpers when thinking about Trump…
Trump is wrong/evil; thus ends their critical thinking.
Magical thinking of the 21st century political left…
If a Liberal or progressive or social justice warrior thinks a thought then that thought is considered absolute fact and any opposition is evil; much the same thing can be said about a GOP never Trumpers when they’re thinking or talking about anything associated with Trump.
Are The GOP NeverTrumpers Genuinely Deranged Or Just Self-Revealed Hypocrites?
The correct answer to that question is…
YES!
P.S. I’m not a Trump supporter. I will not support Donald Trump in the GOP’s presidential primary for the 2024 Presidential nomination.
I hesitate to call Christy Whitman a failed governor, since I voted for her twice and don’t think New Jersey was in such bad shape under her. It definitely wasn’t in as bad of shape as it is now under Phil Murphy who is poised to become the first Democratic governor in decades to win a second term, despite his relatively lackluster record. However, I don’t recall her distinguishing herself as EPA administrator, and I haven’t been too impressed with her since she decided to become a never Trumper. Mr Anonymous is a snake, a criminal, and a borderline traitor, and I can’t see why anyone who isn’t drunk on Trump hatred would give a damn what he says. If the guy couldn’t handle serving under trump, The Honorable thing to do would have been to resign, not to betray your oath of office.
This attempt to tar the majority of the Republican party, who might not like trump, but have accepted that he isn’t disappearing and they have to work with him, as evil, or deluded, orbitrators of what this country is supposed to be all about, is an interesting reversal from the time of Obama who told his faithful in off year elections to vote like he was on the ticket. The fact of the matter is that Obama had created a cult of personality, and, when he was on the ticket, he won, but when his policies were on the ticket without him, his policies lost. That’s not saying much for Democratic party voters, or voters generally, who saw that his policies were no good when he wasn’t around, but when he was all they saw was that black face and figured they’d better cast their vote for him lest they be accused of racism. Now these people want to do the opposite and tell everyone to vote like Trump is on the ticket even when he’s not, because he is a reverse Midas and everything he touches turns to filth and evil and racism. Actually, they’re doing more than telling everyone to vote like Trump is on the ticket, they are telling everyone to vote like everyone from the Republican party who has not specifically distanced himself from Trump is in fact Trump.
The fact of the matter is that these few remaining never trumpers are hoping to go back to a Republican party that really doesn’t exist anymore. They essentially want to go back to a Republican party that is not really responsive the needs and wants of ordinary people, although it throws them a bone on tax cuts now and then, and spends most of its time carrying water for big business and big finance. These are the country club republicans, the chamber of commerce Republicans, and frankly, they don’t appeal to ordinary folks. These are the same folks who couldn’t cave fast enough on religious freedom because they spoiled themselves every time someone whispered the word boycott, and the same people who were walking right alongside black lives matter last year, despite what it stood for. Since then, also, a lot of big business and big finance has gone woke and it’s definitely not on the side of ordinary people. These are the businesses that demand anyone who does work for them fill out exhaustive questionnaires about the racial makeup of their staff and what percentage of their profit is directed to what charities.
On March 6th, 2016, we argued about some of these issues here, and I pointed out that the Republican party had, in my opinion, made a mistake in letting things get as far as they had for Trump without stopping him early on, and made a bigger mistake by asking John McCain and Mitt Romney to effectively scold the party and its voters. I pointed out then that only Donald Trump seem to be addressing the issues of ordinary Americans with mortgages, kids, and ordinary lives. Like it or not, Donald Trump spoke to ordinary people. He was a populist, just like Andrew Jackson, who was the first president who was not a gentleman from Massachusetts or Virginia and ordinary people could relate to, or could relate to better. He also delivered on a lot of what he said he would do. Just by way an example, he actually moved the United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Other presidents before him had said they would do as much, but as soon as they were elected, they had bigger fish to fry. He was also pulling back from the idea of being involved in endless conflicts around the world and starting new ones that did not necessarily benefit the United States. He also said it best in front of the United nations, socialism hasn’t failed because it hasn’t been done right, it’s failed because it’s been done all too faithfully.
The United States is starting to come to the conclusion rather early that it made a mistake to elect the current administration. In all my life, I have never seen one administration fail so badly in its first year. The independence who decided that anything would be better than Trump are having second thoughts, especially those who lean towards the moderate or conservative side who counted on Biden governing as a moderate. They took him at his word. Of course, they also had 40 years worth of seeing what he was really like to know that taking him at his word was probably not a good idea. Nonetheless, anything had to be better than trump, right? Wrong. Not only have the problems which erupted under Trump not blown away like smoke, but this country is running into a large number of new problems. Arguably, some of the problems are getting worse.
What is more, a lot of that worsening is completely logical and foreseeable. The Democratic party is the party that grabbed onto and pushed the idea of defunding the police, and now can’t understand why crime is through the roof in a lot of the cities. The Democratic party is the party that wants to throw the border wide open, and has now turned a long standing issue into a full-blown crisis, which they would just assume pretend doesn’t exist, or if it does, it’s a result of heavy-handed border enforcement, nothing more. The Democratic party is the party who is press secretary just said that businesses won’t pass costs on to the customers. The Democratic party is the party that is driving wedges between every single sector of society.
I submit to you that not only would FDR, JFK, and even a lot of the democratic politicians from the time of the Cold War not recognize what the Democratic party has become, they would be horrified. I also submit to you that no Republican, from the beginning of the 20th century up to today would view the current iteration of the democratic party is anything other than a menace to what American society is supposed to be.
There is absolutely no basis for agreeing with the writers of this article, and less still for agreeing with the few remaining never trumpers. This country is in danger. This country has to keep its fingers crossed that it’s going to make it through the next 4 years without a real disaster before falling from inside. That’s assuming we don’t get a major foreign policy crisis, which the Biden administration is clearly not up to handling. I’m sure as hell not putting this country more at risk by handing more power to those who clearly aren’t capable of wielding it. If you choose to vote that way, I can’t stop you, but you’re foolish if you do.
Less than a year into Biden, if anyone hasn’t yet realized that Trump was actually a pretty good President, then they are hopeless fools.
Trump had some flaws, but there was never any question whose side he was on. There was never any question of who he was either. The polls (I know, polls) are showing that a lot of the American people think that they got snookered last year, and that’s going to be reflected next year, which is going to be essentially a referendum on Biden. Presidents and parties lose when elections become referenda on a less than wonderful performance.
Michael West wrote, “Less than a year into Biden, if anyone hasn’t yet realized that Trump was actually a pretty good President, then they are hopeless fools.”
Unfortunately we’ll never know what President Trump’s full potential could have been during his administration if the political left and their Pravda like media attack dogs hadn’t completely lost their collective minds trying to undermine and get rid of him. What happened is a permanent stain on the once classic liberal* minded Democratic Party.
*liberal: adjective 1. willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; open to new ideas. 2. relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.
So, the next question is whether Trump will get out of the way for the GOP to clean the Democrat’s clock.
There is a rather depressing editorial in the Wall Street Journal today — it’s saying that Trump is threatening to tell Republicans to stay home for GOP candidates who won’t agree that the 2020 election was stolen and that he won. We saw how well that approach worked in Georgia this past January — I certainly don’t want to see a repeat.
I think the Republicans are poised to give the Democrats a historic shellacking next year. I think that’s likely what this country needs to shock it back from the precipice. But to accomplish that, we really need to focus on issues and not go down all these other rabbit holes.
I also am concerned that Trump spending 2024 obsessing over the 2020 election might be the one thing that could lose that election.
So, the next question is whether Trump will get out of the way for the GOP to clean the Democrat’s clock.
Of course not. He’s an asshole. He’s always been an asshole. He’ll always be an asshole. Maybe there’s some deal they can cut with him.
So, Legal Insurrection ran a story about this that reminded me of something I’d temporarily forgotten.
Basically, their story was that Trump’s critics have always tended to take him literally but not seriously, and his supporters have taken him seriously but not literally.
I.e. lots of folks look beyond the precise meaning of what Trump says and garner his intent or his policy. Their point is that Trump supporters are not going to see him endorse Republicans and also literally believe he means them not to vote. It’s a valid point — and I hope the actual one. We’ll get an idea in about a year — or maybe in about two weeks if Virginia is really as competitive as some folks are saying.
Of course, your point is valid as well. But……..he’s our asshole. And he is nowhere near as bad as the AUC — he is almost a model of rectitude by comparison.