Sorry, but I just can’t agree with you on this one. The level of fascist evil that Trump represents is not something anyone can waffle over or compromise on. I’m sure there were “good Germans” who thought that sticking with the Nazis would allow them to stand up to the regime’s excesses, and…how exactly did that turn out?
"I also want a return to a world in which both major parties were institutional stewards of the system. That cannot happen if the Mike DeWines of the world leave the GOP."
Mike DeWine is currently -- right now -- undermining the system. Actively and passively, via omission and commission.
Rewarding him for knowingly doing that... further undermines the system!
This seems misconceived in strategic terms. Trump's not going to disappear any time soon. Assuming he loses, he will reject the result and most of the Republican Party will fall in behind him. If there is to be any serious opposition, it needs be led by senior Republicans, still in office, who rejected him before the election. This is an empty set at present. DeWine could be in it, but not by buckling as you suggest.
There's no real chance of this resistance succeeding. But it could split the Republican party long enough for the Dems to finally defeat him.
It seems to me that DeWine is making a gamble that a post-Trump GOP, after having enjoyed the raw red meat of Trump, would be willing to give up that tasty dish. I don’t see much evidence that he’s likely to win that gamble.
Your footnote is important. With even just a bit of empathy it's easy to see why so few Republicans oppose Trump. Their families are being threatened. It happens to all who cross MAGA. The country will not return to stability until people feel their family won't be murdered if they oppose MAGA. I say MAGA rather than Trump, because we can easily imagine JD etc being every bit as vicious.
Stewards of what now? The 20th century aint comin' back, man. Why spend any time fantasizing about good Republicans when we can be talking about a weak and ineffectual Republican party that can't win because we've abolished the filibuster and the electoral college? A party that can't win because it's message is anti-democratic would be much preferable than one that can with the help of 'level headed' silent enablers.
Who in the world outside of PoliSci circles gives a fig about "Republicans like Mike DeWine" -- if DeWine is not out there publicly defending the Haitian community, condemning Trump and Vance's rhetoric and discouraging everyone from voting for them, he is good for nothing and doesn't deserve power, as a Republican or otherwise.
He supports everything Trump is running on. Please, I'm begging you, stop pining for a more centrist GOP and leave that to the likes of Nancy Pelosi, because it is, quite literally, depressing.
The GOP may not be showing signs of going the way of the Whigs but it should be. There's no reasonable argument that the country needs the GOP to be the yin to the Democrats' yang in a two party system. There needs to be at least two parties (and in a winner take all system it'll always be two parties, unfortunately) but there's no reason it needs to be these two parties.
I'm not suggesting a new party would be easy to form, county level networks and voter databases can't be created out of thin air. But with the amount of money the conservative party in this country can command it's certainly plausible and needs to happen.
"What plainly irks the governor is how Trump and Vance keep calling the Haitians “illegal” migrants."
What plainly irks me is that Trump and Vance continue to claim that Trump won the 2020 election, not only in the Electoral College but in the popular vote, by, of course, a uuuuge margin, even though he actually lost in both, and lost the popular vote by over 7 million. Not only that, the Speaker of the House of Representatives voted against recognizing Biden as president elect and the six Republican members of the Supreme Court voted to exempt Trump from all legal liability for all of his many crimes, including the crime of sedition, of which Trump is plainly guilty, the biggest criminal in the history of the US of A, excepting only the southern traitors. There isn't going to be any "post-Trump Republican Party". There's only going to be the party of lawlessness. For the Republican Party, Donald Trump is the new normal. People like DeWine, and you, are kidding themselves. You've done this before, when you were writing for the Post, in your article "How Scared Should We Be About 2024?", which I critiqued in my blog Literature R Us under the title "Dan and Jack refuted; Kagan expanded". If you think this is over, you're wrong.
Sorry, but I just can’t agree with you on this one. The level of fascist evil that Trump represents is not something anyone can waffle over or compromise on. I’m sure there were “good Germans” who thought that sticking with the Nazis would allow them to stand up to the regime’s excesses, and…how exactly did that turn out?
"I also want a return to a world in which both major parties were institutional stewards of the system. That cannot happen if the Mike DeWines of the world leave the GOP."
Mike DeWine is currently -- right now -- undermining the system. Actively and passively, via omission and commission.
Rewarding him for knowingly doing that... further undermines the system!
This seems misconceived in strategic terms. Trump's not going to disappear any time soon. Assuming he loses, he will reject the result and most of the Republican Party will fall in behind him. If there is to be any serious opposition, it needs be led by senior Republicans, still in office, who rejected him before the election. This is an empty set at present. DeWine could be in it, but not by buckling as you suggest.
There's no real chance of this resistance succeeding. But it could split the Republican party long enough for the Dems to finally defeat him.
It seems to me that DeWine is making a gamble that a post-Trump GOP, after having enjoyed the raw red meat of Trump, would be willing to give up that tasty dish. I don’t see much evidence that he’s likely to win that gamble.
Your footnote is important. With even just a bit of empathy it's easy to see why so few Republicans oppose Trump. Their families are being threatened. It happens to all who cross MAGA. The country will not return to stability until people feel their family won't be murdered if they oppose MAGA. I say MAGA rather than Trump, because we can easily imagine JD etc being every bit as vicious.
Stewards of what now? The 20th century aint comin' back, man. Why spend any time fantasizing about good Republicans when we can be talking about a weak and ineffectual Republican party that can't win because we've abolished the filibuster and the electoral college? A party that can't win because it's message is anti-democratic would be much preferable than one that can with the help of 'level headed' silent enablers.
Who in the world outside of PoliSci circles gives a fig about "Republicans like Mike DeWine" -- if DeWine is not out there publicly defending the Haitian community, condemning Trump and Vance's rhetoric and discouraging everyone from voting for them, he is good for nothing and doesn't deserve power, as a Republican or otherwise.
He supports everything Trump is running on. Please, I'm begging you, stop pining for a more centrist GOP and leave that to the likes of Nancy Pelosi, because it is, quite literally, depressing.
Trump changed the GOP to an anti-globalist and made-in-America- ist party. If this is a permanent change, that is what he'll be remembered for.
The GOP may not be showing signs of going the way of the Whigs but it should be. There's no reasonable argument that the country needs the GOP to be the yin to the Democrats' yang in a two party system. There needs to be at least two parties (and in a winner take all system it'll always be two parties, unfortunately) but there's no reason it needs to be these two parties.
I'm not suggesting a new party would be easy to form, county level networks and voter databases can't be created out of thin air. But with the amount of money the conservative party in this country can command it's certainly plausible and needs to happen.
"What plainly irks the governor is how Trump and Vance keep calling the Haitians “illegal” migrants."
What plainly irks me is that Trump and Vance continue to claim that Trump won the 2020 election, not only in the Electoral College but in the popular vote, by, of course, a uuuuge margin, even though he actually lost in both, and lost the popular vote by over 7 million. Not only that, the Speaker of the House of Representatives voted against recognizing Biden as president elect and the six Republican members of the Supreme Court voted to exempt Trump from all legal liability for all of his many crimes, including the crime of sedition, of which Trump is plainly guilty, the biggest criminal in the history of the US of A, excepting only the southern traitors. There isn't going to be any "post-Trump Republican Party". There's only going to be the party of lawlessness. For the Republican Party, Donald Trump is the new normal. People like DeWine, and you, are kidding themselves. You've done this before, when you were writing for the Post, in your article "How Scared Should We Be About 2024?", which I critiqued in my blog Literature R Us under the title "Dan and Jack refuted; Kagan expanded". If you think this is over, you're wrong.