Rubin:
Prominent #NeverTrump advocate and GOP consultant Rick Wilson (reportedly assisting in the independent Republican bid of former CIA veteran Evan McMullin) persuasively argues that it is in the party’s and country’s interest for Donald Trump to lose — by a lot. He explains:
[I]f there’s a loss by a slim
margin in the popular vote or electoral college, millions of already embittered
Americans, worked into a frenzy by a shameless leader who will surely refuse to
accept the returns, will start the next four years convinced that the United
States of America is little more than a banana republic — and the presidency of
Hillary Clinton is irretrievably illegitimate.
That will be awful for the
country.
The second reason Trump needs
to fall hard in November is that the Party of Lincoln needs a complete,
top-to-bottom reset — one that completely purges the Trumpkins who believe
racial animus is a governing philosophy and that their ignorant and angry
primal screams can ever build a Republican majority.
In
other words, Trump, Trumpism and the unhealthy network of right-wing apologists
(the American Conservative Union, talk radio, Fox Non-News primetime hosts, the
senior staff of the Republican National Committee) all need to go down to
crushing defeat so that the center-right can begin anew. (“No more hate and
reckless group blame. No more fact-free fearmongering,” Wilson urges. “No more
feeding the obese ego of a man who’s transparently unfit for the job.”)
If
there is to be a viable alternative to liberal statism, a center right party
must prioritize character, tolerance, intellectual honesty and decency — not a
check list of policy positions from the 1980s — as the minimum requirements for
elected office and party leadership. Most large organizations have a “mission”
statement and the post-Trump center-right party surely needs one that
emphasizes those attributes. A national center-right party should not be
tethered to a check list of granular positions on dozens of issues, but instead
to general propositions (e.g. American leadership in the world is essential;
all Americans are deserving of the right to pursue earned success) and to a
type of political honor code that insists upon civility, respect for fellow
Americans and cultivation of an informed electorate. If this sounds ethereal
and old-fashioned it is only because the GOP and Republican leaders have
demonstrated incivility, lack of respect for their fellow Americans and
perpetration of political myths and flat-out untruths. The party at the highest
levels must eschew the politics of resentment, anger and hate.
Defining
how the center-right party must
behave needs to precede the decision
as to whether the GOP can be that vehicle or whether a new party is preferable.
Frankly if the Trumpist elements cannot be purged and will not tolerate an
extensive reworking of the party, it will be time for men and women of good
conscience to leave the wreckage of the GOP. The resulting political entity,
whether the revised GOP or something altogether new, will need to be a
21st-century party that does not cultivate kooks, conspiratorialists and
bigots.
A party
that treats Sean Hannity as a journalist, the National Enquirer and talk radio
as authoritative, and the email harangues and score cards of Beltway hucksters
as more authentic than the views and needs of actual voters cannot survive. It
does not deserve to survive. The election exposed a raft of right-wing media
types undeserving of the center-right’s attention or indulgence. Voters can
tune off or click past the schlock news, but the party itself should cease
treating propagandists as legitimate journalists. Conservatives should decline
to go on their shows, refuse to invite them to moderate panels or officiate at
party functions; or speak respectfully of outfits that have flacked for Trump,
contrary to the interests of conservatives and the country.
Trump
belonged in a fringe right-wing, nativist party akin to the far-right European
parties. If there is a segment of Americans who prefer that sort of thing, so
be it. But that party cannot be the
GOP or its successor. So, yes, after the election it will be time to clean
house and clean out the intellectual cobwebs. Honor politicians who resisted
Trump and look for future leaders among their ranks.
The
election already has discredited the evangelical charlatans who claim political
virtue and moral authority. Meanwhile, Libertarians (on limited government, trade,
immigration and individual rights) in many respects have preserved the essence
of the modern conservative movement (or 19th-century small “l” liberalism). It
is time to reconnect with the latter (despite some significant differences of
opinion) and to end toadying to the former.
Finally,
it is time to eschew anti-immigrant fervor, opposition to gay marriage (which
is as much a part of the legal landscape as is desegregation) and
anti-government nihilism. These are not consistent with 21st-century America
nor the attributes of a successful national party. The country will never
return to its pre-New Deal size, nor will the American people tolerate
evisceration of the safety net. Federal regulations of some sort will exist.
The question is what kinds of government, regulations, tax and budget measures
are implemented — ones that enlarge the federal government and centralize power
or which, where possible, employ market forces and cultivate strong
communities.
All of
this requires, per Wilson, Trump’s sound thrashing. Then reform, revitalization
and refurbishment of the GOP — if not abandonment — can proceed.
