The Patriot Post® · In Brief: Rethinking Trump
Opinions are clearly divided among Republicans over who the presidential nominee should be. We’re even divided in this humble shop. But most of us agree with the case laid out by the editorial board of National Review.
To say Donald Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination is an understatement. He is above 60 percent in national polling averages and leads by roughly 30 points in Iowa. His lead is much narrower in New Hampshire, although the state, where Democrats and independents can vote in the GOP primary, is not necessarily predictive.
Trump feels inevitable, but nothing is settled until Republicans actually caucus and vote. They would be well advised to opt for one of the alternatives who are far and away better on the merits, more likely to win in November, and, if elected, more likely to deliver — free from the wild drama of a second Trump term — conservative results.
It’s worth noting that a former president with Trump’s stellar record should be enjoying 90% support among Republicans. That he isn’t speaks to the truth of the criticism.
Trump’s defenders tend to dismiss the conservative criticisms of him as concerns about his “mean tweets,” or now, to be more accurate, his mean Truth Social posts. It’s true that his fulminations on social media are crude and ridiculous, but this isn’t the fundamental problem. Because he couldn’t bear to admit that he’d lost to Joe Biden in 2020 (after trailing him in every national poll), Trump insisted he’d won and did everything he could to overturn the result, including trying to bully his vice president into violating his oath and preventing and delaying the counting of the electoral vote. When a mob, fervently believing Trump’s lies, fought its way into the U.S. Capitol to try to end the count, Trump did little or nothing to try to stop it.
These were infamous presidential acts and represented serious offenses against our constitutional order. Nothing can justify them, and it’s wrong to simply pretend that they didn’t happen. It’s impossible to imagine Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley, whatever their other flaws, engaging in such grotesquely selfish behavior injurious to our republic. On this basis alone, both are vastly preferable to Trump.
It’s true, the editors concede, that Trump is currently polling strongly against Biden, which does weaken one of the core arguments against him. But it’s also possible that what they call his “radioactive persona” could jeopardize that.
In his first term, Trump notched some important conservative wins and even forged some creative victories (think the Abraham Accords). He’d be an enormous improvement over Joe Biden on many policy questions. But much energy would be wasted on his personal vendettas and fighting back against the Left’s sure-to-be-unhinged reaction to his return to the White House. He’d have trouble attracting talent to serve him. His bad instincts on trade and NATO, tendency to personalize everything including foreign relations, contempt for rules that get in his way, and erratic nature would risk real harm to the country. He’d be an easily distracted 78-year-old one-termer sure to get wiped out in the midterms, once again.
DeSantis or Haley, still Trump’s main competition, are far younger, can serve two terms, and wouldn’t have the baggage Trump brings with him everywhere he goes. DeSantis in particular would likely be even more successful enacting a conservative agenda. The editors conclude:
None of this is to deny the outrageous lengths to which the Left has gone to target Trump, most recently by denying him access to the ballot in two states, with perhaps more to come. Much of the GOP has rallied to Trump and considers the fire he draws from his enemies a sign of his strength and efficacy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is one of the most ingrained dynamics of collective life. But Republicans have better friends available to them, who haven’t disgraced themselves by trying to deny the results of an election, who would be quite likely to vanquish Biden, and who would be capable presidents.
It’s not too late to choose one of them, and forge a better path for the party and for the country.