The work of the Never Trumpers is just beginning

[catbyte]

Opinion by
Max Boot
Columnist
November 2, 2020 at 12:14 p.m. EST

What a weird, wild ride it has been — and it’s not over yet.

When Donald Trump began running for the presidency on June 15, 2015, I never imagined he would win the Republican primaries, much less the general election. Back then I was still a Republican and still believed that my party could never support a dangerous charlatan for the office once occupied by Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. It never occurred to me that Trump would take over the Republican Party and I would leave it.

The rise of Trump was a character test that most of the GOP failed. Watching the takeover unfold reminded me of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Who were these people who looked and sounded like my friends but were espousing kooky conspiracy theories and pretending not to notice Trump’s blatant race-baiting? It was a dispiriting experience that caused me to rethink not only my political beliefs and partisan affiliations but even my social ties.

There were times over the past five years that I thought I had gone down the rabbit hole to a nightmare land where the normal rules of morality and politics did not apply. Trump has turned out to be far more destructive than I could have anticipated — and also far more popular. As I watched Trump careen from one disaster to another, while maintaining the backing of almost his entire party, I sometimes wondered whether it was Trump supporters who were going mad — or was it me?

snip

Whatever the outcome after Tuesday, the Never Trump mission is not yet done. If Trump somehow manages to squeeze out a narrow electoral college victory — possibly by getting partisan judges to toss out mail-in ballots in swing states — then our democracy will be even more imperiled and the imperative to speak out even greater. But even if Trump is defeated — an outcome that is likely but by no means assured — the battle for the soul of the Republican Party will continue. Trump’s supporters are not going anywhere, and, if history is any indication, they may prove even more rabid in opposition than they have been in power. Trying to create a sane center-right party in America is the work of a generation. We are just getting started.

snip

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/02/work-never-trumpers-is-just-beginning/

[niyad]

1. Max, the puke party has NO soul. There is no battle, because there is nothing there.

[KatyMan]

8. And never was

Trumpers are just saying out loud what the R party has stood for since the Southern Strategy.

[JonLP24]

2. I didn't like Republicans before Trump

I still won't like them after Trump.

[Thekaspervote]

3. When a cult leader is resoundingly put out of power the cult tends to splinter, that's a fact

The cult itself splits into factions and they jockey for leadership and power. Those battles further split the cult. Yes, they regroup, but not right away and in smaller less powerful groups.

This is not our first rodeo with these kinds of yeahoos!!

We’ll move forward and they can do whatever they do, hate, spin, plan. They will not win the day

[lapfog_1]

4. sorry Max

your party isn't coming back...

you allowed and encouraged right wing media to brainwash the masses ( well at least those stupid enough to be taken in) and NOW you decry the Q-anon assholes that follow Trump.

you will not get those people to vote for a Mitt Romney or Bob Dole.

without them you have no power base... you won't get a candidate elected as dog catcher... that is why the current group of republicans actually elected are so afraid to speak out against Trump... they don't want to lose in a primary to a MAGAt.

you can try 3rd party but that is not going to get you elected.

You can stay with us democrats... but we are going forward not backward.

I think your best bet is to stay out of politics and vote for any moderate that runs... and vote for Democrats when the moderate isn't on the ballot.

[apnu]

5. Hey Max, gotta pop your bubble. Reagan was a charlatan

You have been bamboozled by his glamor. The Gipper set the stage for Trump, Trump is the natural vileness of conservatism with out all the makeup and lighting turned on fully. You are just seeing it for the first time.

[abqtommy]

6. I have lots of hope and it's tempered by a large amount of cynicism. Time will quickly sort

out who is our friend and who is our foe. My true belief is that the entire reTHUG structure has to die. And good riddance.

[roamer65]

7. If The Lincoln Project is going to play "root-rooter" on the GOP, I'm in.

I’ll help the ratfuckers ratfuck the ratfuckers.



The best defense is a good offense.