Thanks (?) to my many years of hanging around political conferences and my hyperactive social media presence, I personally know a lot of Never-Trump Republicans. We may not hang out a lot these days, but we haven't drifted apart. However, my patience with their increasingly flawed logic is wearing thin.
Look, I understand a lot of what happened with them in 2016. Donald Trump was a complete wildcard. People were legitimately skeptical. While not part of the Never-Trump crowd, I've written many times that I didn't think he'd govern as a conservative.
He wasn't in office very long before I warmed up to him as a president, however, and that's where the Never crowd and I ceased having any common ground whatsoever.
I have also written quite a bit about the fact that I think feelings are stupid when it comes to picking a candidate. I don't need to like a candidate; I need to know that he or she will represent me — going for the bare minimum here — at least a little bit.
This column will briefly focus on what I believe is the most delusional and dangerous aspect of Never-Trump thinking. I should make it clear that I'm writing about the rank-and-file Never Trumpers, not the consultant class grifter Nevers like the Lincoln Project. Those backstabbers wish this scam could go on forever.
Everything the Nevers do to prop up their contentions isn't reality-based, starting with their oft-repeated assertion that Trump will be just as bad as, or worse than, Biden if he gets a second term. That is an absolutely bat**** belief.
Objectively, Joe Biden is the worst president in the history of this once-great Republic. His eventual successor could actively try to screw things up more than Biden and his puppet masters have and struggle to be worse, even if said successor is a Democrat.
This may very well have been true even if he hadn't mentally checked out and needed a commie cabal to run his brain. Joe Biden's Senate career was exceedingly lackluster. He didn't really have to work to keep the job. It's easy to spread around a lot of favors in a state that is the size of a very small county where I come from and has 27 people. His most notable achievement in the do-nothing office of vice president was dropping an f-bomb during a major press announcement.
Had he come to the presidency with all of his faculties the odds are heavy that he still would have been a wrecking ball. Heck, he might have been worse if left to his own devices.
The "Trump will be just as bad" line falls under the umbrella of the most mentally unwell part of the Never-Trump sales pitch: that in 2028, the country will be able to shrug off another four years of Biden (or any Democrat) in the White House.
The theory is that we just have to wait it out until the 2028 presidential election, when these sniveling ninnies will come back to the fold and help nominate a Republican they like.
As if they're ever going to do anything that's truly helpful to the GOP again.
I recently saw a Never tweet something to the effect of, "The country will be fine if Biden is reelected. We've made through one term of his, we'll make it through another."
Forget the particulars about whether Joe Biden can make it through another Joe Biden term. This is really about the Democrats being in control of the Executive Branch for another four years. As I have written on a zillion occasions, there is almost always a Democrat waiting in the wings who is far worse than the one we can't wait to see go (Looking at you, Kathy Hochul).
Longtime readers of mine know that I'm not really an existential crisis kind of guy. Three-and-a-half years of Joe Biden and the fascist freak-flag flyers who run his brain ripping asunder the fabric of the Constitution are getting me there. Surveying the wreckage of this administration, there is nothing that can be pointed to that would give a person of sound mind the feeling that we can muddle through another term of this.
The presumption that the United States will return to business as usual after Biden and Trump are out of the picture is a redefinition of "fallacious." Biden and his handlers are doing everything in their power to make sure that the United States we've known doesn't exist anymore. Sure, it will still have the same name but, just like with Cher, there will be nothing recognizable from the days when you enjoyed it.
This is a watershed election, not some ho-hum time for a protest vote.
I don't feel like learning how to say "2028" in Mandarin.
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