#NeverTrump movement has disintegrated. It’s now the political equivalent of a doomed exotic species, attracting a lot of stares from bystanders, but no longer playing much of a role in the actual biosphere.
As a Republican strategist and NeverTrumper myself, I speak from inside the belly of the beast. Mr. Weld’s announcement offers a glimmer, but I see little chance that conservatives disillusioned with President Trump will revive NeverTrump as an actual movement.
President Trump has made the party his own, with a near 90 percent approval rating among Republicans. Before the 2018 midterms, many NeverTrump voters, donors and activists had already jumped off the Republican ship to independent or even Democratic galleons. So they may not get to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary without re-registering.
And now, as we head into the 2020 election season, some notable conservatives formerly opposed to Mr. Trump have decided to throw their support to him. The conservative writer and radio host Erick Erickson is a good example.
“Some of my concerns about President Trump remain,” he wrote in a recent column. “But I also recognize that we cannot have the Trump administration policies without President Trump and there is much to like.”
Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who was seen as a ringleader of an effort to block Mr. Trump’s nomination at the 2016 convention, will also help the president. He and Mr. Erickson both voted for the independent candidate Evan McMullin, and they are far from alone in now supporting President Trump.
The bottom line for people like Mr. Erickson is this: Mr. Trump has terrible character flaws and has eroded norms and worsened our system of government. But Democrats seem to have responded to the election of Mr. Trump not by pushing forward sensible, moderate candidates who understand the fundamentals of government and policy but rather far-left legislators in Congress (like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib) and policy like the late-term-abortion laws in Virginia and New York.
Mr. Trump may be a nutter with bad-to-nonexistent morals and ideas, but he has at least succeeded on policy goals that are important to people like Mr. Erickson.
In his column, he noted that President Trump had “delivered on tax reform” as well as “regulatory rollbacks,” “undermining Obamacare” and “solid executive appointments, including to the judiciary.”
Those things matter to lots of different types of conservatives That leaves relatively few of us undecideds pacing the proverbial political mall, window shopping. Our efforts to affect the 2020 map might just be pointless: A lot of us live in states that neither have early primaries nor are likely to be in play in the general election.
The only way to have an impact on the electoral map and ensure NeverTrump exerts serious, quantifiable political power is for all of its 2016 members to somehow get on the same page in terms of whom to support, and then collectively move to Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida. Short of that, our influence will be more subtle (campaign contributions, an endorsement, advice on debate technique). Ideally, what we do will help counteract the work done by others like Mr. Erickson.
As things stand right now, I’m inclined to vote my conscience and back Mr. Weld. I voted for him when he ran on the Libertarian Party line in 2016. He had a solid fiscal conservative rating as governor. He’s more capable than Mr. Trump of doing the job of commander in chief. He is likable and funny, and I can see him working well with other world leaders.
For the Democratic Party to have its best shot at retaking the White House, by grabbing not just swing voters in places like the Midwest but also some disillusioned Republican voters wherever it can, perhaps helping it win somewhere like Arizona, it needs to nominate someone at least perceived as more moderate than your average House Democrat and more levelheaded than the hate-tweet-happy Mr. Trump. It probably means its safest choice is Joe Biden, or if he doesn’t run, maybe Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., or Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana.
If the Democratic Party can play it smart like that, NeverTrumpers might count for something this election cycle. But if it doesn’t, we will most likely carry on as the political version of the West African black rhino — active and occasionally visible until it dies off altogether or is permanently integrated into another subspecies in American political life.
As a Republican strategist and NeverTrumper myself, I speak from inside the belly of the beast. Mr. Weld’s announcement offers a glimmer, but I see little chance that conservatives disillusioned with President Trump will revive NeverTrump as an actual movement.
President Trump has made the party his own, with a near 90 percent approval rating among Republicans. Before the 2018 midterms, many NeverTrump voters, donors and activists had already jumped off the Republican ship to independent or even Democratic galleons. So they may not get to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary without re-registering.
And now, as we head into the 2020 election season, some notable conservatives formerly opposed to Mr. Trump have decided to throw their support to him. The conservative writer and radio host Erick Erickson is a good example.
“Some of my concerns about President Trump remain,” he wrote in a recent column. “But I also recognize that we cannot have the Trump administration policies without President Trump and there is much to like.”
Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who was seen as a ringleader of an effort to block Mr. Trump’s nomination at the 2016 convention, will also help the president. He and Mr. Erickson both voted for the independent candidate Evan McMullin, and they are far from alone in now supporting President Trump.
The bottom line for people like Mr. Erickson is this: Mr. Trump has terrible character flaws and has eroded norms and worsened our system of government. But Democrats seem to have responded to the election of Mr. Trump not by pushing forward sensible, moderate candidates who understand the fundamentals of government and policy but rather far-left legislators in Congress (like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib) and policy like the late-term-abortion laws in Virginia and New York.
Mr. Trump may be a nutter with bad-to-nonexistent morals and ideas, but he has at least succeeded on policy goals that are important to people like Mr. Erickson.
In his column, he noted that President Trump had “delivered on tax reform” as well as “regulatory rollbacks,” “undermining Obamacare” and “solid executive appointments, including to the judiciary.”
Those things matter to lots of different types of conservatives That leaves relatively few of us undecideds pacing the proverbial political mall, window shopping. Our efforts to affect the 2020 map might just be pointless: A lot of us live in states that neither have early primaries nor are likely to be in play in the general election.
The only way to have an impact on the electoral map and ensure NeverTrump exerts serious, quantifiable political power is for all of its 2016 members to somehow get on the same page in terms of whom to support, and then collectively move to Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida. Short of that, our influence will be more subtle (campaign contributions, an endorsement, advice on debate technique). Ideally, what we do will help counteract the work done by others like Mr. Erickson.
As things stand right now, I’m inclined to vote my conscience and back Mr. Weld. I voted for him when he ran on the Libertarian Party line in 2016. He had a solid fiscal conservative rating as governor. He’s more capable than Mr. Trump of doing the job of commander in chief. He is likable and funny, and I can see him working well with other world leaders.
For the Democratic Party to have its best shot at retaking the White House, by grabbing not just swing voters in places like the Midwest but also some disillusioned Republican voters wherever it can, perhaps helping it win somewhere like Arizona, it needs to nominate someone at least perceived as more moderate than your average House Democrat and more levelheaded than the hate-tweet-happy Mr. Trump. It probably means its safest choice is Joe Biden, or if he doesn’t run, maybe Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., or Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana.
If the Democratic Party can play it smart like that, NeverTrumpers might count for something this election cycle. But if it doesn’t, we will most likely carry on as the political version of the West African black rhino — active and occasionally visible until it dies off altogether or is permanently integrated into another subspecies in American political life.
