It’s always fun to begin a column by incurring the wrath of the Escalator MAGA faithful by breaking their “Thou Shalt Not Criticize Donald Trump” rule, but I don’t worship politicians and this subject has been bugging me since January.
Honestly, the 2024 United States presidential election already has everybody in a bad mood and whatever I write about it angers someone on my side. I am routinely accused of being both too pro-Trump and anti-Trump, often on the same day. There’s a small contingent that thinks that I shouldn’t write anything about the election unless it includes a couple thousand words about fraud. When I do write about fraud, it’s never enough. If I write anything positive about Ron DeSantis, heads start catching on fire.
The joy of 21st century politics.
Back to the topic at hand.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel has been, put mildly, absolutely horrible in the role that she’s occupied since 2017. She’s presided over three trainwreck (for the GOP) elections, including last year’s Red Trickle collapse. If she were working in the private sector, security would have escorted her out of the building years ago.
Politics aren’t governed by normal rules, however, especially in Washington. People routinely fail upward. It happens a lot more with the Democrats, but the Republicans aren’t strangers to letting some useless people hang around. Once anyone is firmly ensconced inside the Beltway, the uniparty stink is hard to get rid of.
There was no good case to be made for McDaniel being elected to another term as RNC chair after last year’s pathetic midterm elections. Heck, she shouldn’t have even been allowed to run. That the old guard Washington GOP types (I call them “Harumph Republicans”) wanted to keep things the same wasn’t surprising. The status quo is practically a sexual fetish for them. The real head-scratcher was that Donald Trump thought she should have another go at it.
Fourth time’s a charm, maybe?
The Donald Trump I liked had that outsider swagger that rubbed so many Establishment Republicans the wrong way. I would like to see that Trump back in the White House. Endorsing McDaniel felt really Swampy though. It didn’t inspire great confidence that Trump would return to Washington ready to overhaul the dysfunctional GOP. It felt like he’d become rather chummy with the Establishment.
Relevant: I’m All-In if Trump Promises a Scorched-Earth Second Term
This next presidential election is going to be the most important one since the Civil War era. Now is not the time to adopt a “well, it’s broken but we don’t want to fix it” approach. It’s more like the time to replace the entire starting lineup with people who want to play harder.
The Trump faithful who keep saying that DeSantis is “just another George W. Bush,” are all-in on a guy who thinks a freakin’ Romney should be overseeing 2024. There aren’t many degrees of separation between the Romneys and the Bushes, kids. In fact, I sometimes can’t tell where W ends and Mitt begins, especially since Trump was elected in 2016.
Yes, I know that the RNC chair isn’t solely responsible for how an election turns out. In one where there will be no margin for error, however, the spotlight and the job get a lot bigger.
A Romney. Yeesh.
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