It is undeniable that former President Donald Trump has been the catalyst for division in the Republican Party. I happen to think that's one of the most positive influences he's had on the party. A majority of the people whom Trump has driven away from the GOP are deeply entrenched establishment types who have been the bane of conservatives for decades.
They also have connections to the same two prominent Republicans.
The Opinion section of The New York Times is determined to make disaffected, Trump-loathing Republicans feel as if they still have relevance for the future of the party. Because the Times' brand is Trump Bashing, frequent opportunities are given to the wandering squishes to pen op-eds that lament the current state of the GOP and whine about Orange Man Bad. Almost without fail, the people the Times finds for this have deep ties to either George H.W. or George W. Bush.
The members of the Bush political "bloodline" held sway in the Republican Party for so long that they became cloaked in entitlement. They felt they should be allowed to keep the party wallowing in mediocrity forever. If they'd had their way, we would be dealing with Hillary Clinton's second term as president. Look at the damage Biden has done in just three years. Imagine being in the seventh year of Granny Maojackets' Franzia-soaked rule.
That would have mattered not to them — they'd still be getting quality cigar and cognac time in at the Capitol Hill Club, listening to a fiddler whilst Washington burned.
Two such Bush lackeys — Peter Wehner and Jonathan Rauch — put their feelings together and wrote a piece for the Times titled "There Is a Way Out of MAGA Domination."
I'd considered setting this one aside and using it for my "Trump Derangement Syndrome Meltdown of the Week," but it was Monday morning when I read it and I figured I'd have more candidates throughout the week.
These guys really think a lot of themselves.
So two things are happening at once: The Republican Party is thoroughly MAGA and will be for the foreseeable future, and there is a small but influential number of Republicans who are deeply opposed to what their party has become but not prepared to shed their political identity and join the Democrats.
For this group, one viable course remains: create a Republican Party in exile, a counterestablishment dedicated to recapturing the party from the outside.
In world history, exiles, expatriates and their movements have played important roles in fighting unjust regimes. They bring detailed knowledge of their country and its politics to bear on efforts to change the government. They assemble agendas and personnel for its eventual replacement. They provide a rallying point and inspiration for regime opponents who otherwise might succumb to fatalism and fatigue. They connect and coordinate disparate exile factions.
Hoo-boy. These two may have lengthy résumés, but they need to be more honest with themselves about how influential they are with the GOP proper and with the Republican electorate. Because it's The New York Times, the sales pitch that Wehner and Rauch are making only serves to entertain radical leftists. They're aging court jesters who will be sent into exile once their masters are no longer amused.
I'm quite curious to see what either of the Squish Brothers can point to in Trump's first term that would qualify it as an "unjust" regime.
Related: Honest Question for Trump-Averse Republicans: How Bad Do Things Have to Get?
From there, this op-ed descends into some of the saddest, disgruntled Trump-era Republican stuff I've ever read. Wehner and Rauch imagine forming a "Free Republican Party" in exile that will return in triumph to wrest control of the GOP from the raging MAGAs.
No, really:
Fourth and most essential, Free Republicans must set their sights on overthrowing MAGA, not influencing it, partnering with it, bargaining with it, coexisting with it or waiting it out. They must name and explain what Trumpism represents: lawlessness, moral anarchy, conspiratorial thinking and an assault on the Constitution.
The assault on the Constitution has been in full swing since January 20, 2021. The Never Trump Republicans are all too emotionally weak and intellectually dishonest to admit that. If Trump doesn't win in November, kiss it goodbye.
I write often about the Coastal Media Bubble leftists and their insulation from reality. Capitol Hill Club Republican insiders are just as cocooned. Wehner and Rauch don't grasp that a lot of the people who will be voting for Trump in November aren't of the hardcore MAGA variety. We're just dealing with a lot more reality than they are. While they're busy blabbing about saving the party, we're focused on saving the Republic.
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