I have issues with Never Trumpers.
It is difficult to work with the group who created catastrophic destruction, with which we are now dealing, in the effort to repair that destruction. It is even more difficult when that group regularly and arrogantly attacks us for being too disordered and ineffectual politically, and for allowing this catastrophe to happen by being so ineffectual.
I’ve read all of two books on the subject of our current woes: Rick Wilson’s Everything Trump Touches Dies and Stuart Stevens’ It Was All a Lie. If there is a continuum of books addressing Those Four Years we went through, Wilson’s is on the end that represents boorish venom and Stevens’ on the opposite end that represents studied historical reflection. There is no better and blunt cut than the phrase ETTD, but the book is a puerile and self-absorbed. I appreciate his fight, but Rick Wilson seems nothing more than fight. He’s a tactician focusing on the future. For insight into how we got here, Stuart Stevens–as a longtime Republican party strategist who worked on several presidential campaigns–examines the past 40 years of Republican culpability and his and their complicity in creating the end game of a party that canonizes Trump and his offsprings: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, the late Madison Cawthorn (who, admittedly, proved a bit too much for the Republican party), Elise Stephanic (whose campaign he worked on), and so many others ignobly holding power across the country right now. I’m obviously biased in my assessment of their assessments since the former denigrates most Democrats and the latter admits blame with insight and humility.
The party ended up being the caricature that the far left always painted them as, and Stuart Stevens confirms the authenticity of that caricature.
The Never Trumpers who started out supporting him merely because they were against Hillary Clinton are the most difficult to understand. They represent in condensed form the 40-year offense that Republicans inflicted on the country. There is no more paradigmatic example of “oops?” than these people. Granted, I’ve heard them, possibly without exception, voice sincere regret–and that is appreciated–but their original sin of party-over-country is difficult to square.
One concrete example: Liz Cheney recently said that Democrats want to kill babies, but when Democrats criticized her the NTs bemoaned Democrats’ inability to put petty differences aside. Even as supposed allies, conservatives wage asymmetric warfare against Democrats. Why didn’t Cheney put petty differences aside? Why aren’t liberals allowed to both defend themselves against attacks and work with NTs to defeat fascism? Such attacks from NTs feel like they’re laying the groundwork for when after success is achieved (optimistic, yes). During this alliance, they will freely attack Democrats, tut tut when Democrats defend themselves, and mock them for being in disarray, and later NTs will use those events against them in political ads. Scorpion, frog, etc. It’s just morally icky to ally with those who both perpetrated a crime and are also actively abusive to you as you work together to repair the damage.
But all of this is kind of petty of me.