Sounds like a plan!
Quote:Do you think today’s GOP bears any resemblance to the party when you a loyal member?
Oh, I think it’s a completely different party. Any voter who was a moderate, let alone a liberal, has simply been banished. Many others who used to be actively involved at the local level simply aren’t anymore. They may still vote Republican regularly, but they don’t contribute to the party, they don’t go door-to-door. It’s like what happens with religion: People stop going to church, though they don’t stop calling themselves Catholics.
It’s going to have to be like after 1964, where the party Establishment says, “Look, we gave you your perfect candidate, and the guy lost!” After Goldwater, they went to an old face, they went to Nixon. And so the question is: Who is the Nixon standing in the wings?
Trick question? Cruz resembles Joe McCarthy, physically and morally. So of course he’s the ‘Nixon standing in the wings’. There’s always room in the GOP for ‘unloved and unprincipled’!
The Destroy-the-Party-to-Save-It Plan
Gaming out a Trump win and loss with Bruce Bartlett, veteran of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.
Since the summer, you’ve been arguing that moderate Republicans like yourself should welcome a Trump nomination — and a general-election loss — as a way to reset the party.
How’s that going?
Well, it was a hope, not necessarily an expectation. But everything is pretty much on track. The thing I had been thinking about is, Okay, let’s take the point of view of an Establishment Republican, the sort of person who’s not terribly philosophical and just wants to win. You could deny Trump the nomination by playing dirty tricks, but he’s definitely going into the convention convinced, along with all of his supporters, that he’s the legitimate nominee.
And you have to assume it can’t be taken from him legitimately, because there’s nobody to beat him! So it will have to be stolen. We know Trump can get on TV anytime he wants for as long as he wants. What would he do with his time for the next several months after the convention? Seems to me he’d use it to scorched-earth-destroy the party.
If you’re a party regular and believe he will lose badly, you’re mainly concerned with keeping this from destroying your party all the way down the ticket. One option would be to embrace Trump, hold your nose, and vote for him out of tribal loyalty. Another option, and this one I think is already in play, is, there will be a fairly substantial Republicans-for-Hillary push, on the theory that they’ll vote Republican down the ticket.
How far along is that right now?
Michael Gerson, in the Post, is already basically saying the only options are to vote for Hillary or not vote. You’ve got neocons like Robert Kagan saying he’s going to vote for Hillary. And you’ve got Republicans running for House and Senate who are asking, “How do I avoid being dragged down by the guy at the top of the ticket?” They’re going to be running their own anti-Trump ads.
And how will a Trump loss restore the moderates to power?
I can’t see Trump being a continuing presence in the Republican Party the day after the election. He’ll just go back to doing his business crap, right? I think he’s right that a lot of his support is coming from people he’s brought to the party, but I don’t see them hanging around and being the Trump wing. Look at Ross Perot — his people went and started the Reform Party, they didn’t stay in the Republican Party.
The question is: How do we pick up the pieces so that we can win in 2020? And where are the vulnerabilities? Republicans will have to come up with some strategy for getting votes from all the people they lost. It seems to me, at that point, the pollsters and the campaign consultants may say, “Look, I’m just as right-wing as you are, but ultimately we have to win.” That’s how they make their money.
We might see the equivalent of Blue Dog Democrats, the Democrats who run in red states and have to dis the party from time to time just to stay in office — there’s no equivalent on the Republican side. But there will be, there has to be.
Do you think today’s GOP bears any resemblance to the party when you a loyal member?
Oh, I think it’s a completely different party. Any voter who was a moderate, let alone a liberal, has simply been banished. Many others who used to be actively involved at the local level simply aren’t anymore. They may still vote Republican regularly, but they don’t contribute to the party, they don’t go door-to-door. It’s like what happens with religion: People stop going to church, though they don’t stop calling themselves Catholics.
It’s going to have to be like after 1964, where the party Establishment says, “Look, we gave you your perfect candidate, and the guy lost!” After Goldwater, they went to an old face, they went to Nixon. And so the question is: Who is the Nixon standing in the wings?
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