Burn(t) down the GOP?

Does the Republican Party need to burn down in 2018 and 2020 in order to save the Republican Party? That is the thinking of so-called Never Trump conservatives — those so aggrieved by the rise of Donald Trump to the presidency, and congressional Republicans’ ostensible supplicancy in the face of “The Donald,” that only a landslide Democratic victory in November can save the party.

Not atypically, however, these “Never Trumpers,” representing the fusty establishment wing of the GOP, are a day late and a dollar short. They are correct in that the party absolutely needs to be burnt down, and it was.

In 2016.

By Donald Trump.

{mosads}What those now clamouring for a cleansing electoral fire throughout the Republican Party fail to recognize is that they are too late; that the party was torched two years ago in order to cast out those conservatives now agitating for an electoral rebuke of Trump.

That the rise of Donald Trump engenders as much enmity from some quarters on the right as it does on the left is no surprise. Among those under the big tent of Never Trumpism are the single-minded interventionists — those hawkish neo-conservatives who have never seen a country in whose affairs they did not wish to meddle, or a rebel group whom they did not want to arm.

The self-styled experts, whose haughty post-nominalism masks an utter inefficaciousness in matters of policy and foreign affairs. Then there are the politicians whose ambitions were stymied by Trump, and their embittered hangers-on who had hitched their wagons to those now-falling political stars. Disparate motives joined by the common thread of reflexive opposition to the president, and a collective lament at their individual loss of influence within a Republican White House.

To be fair, there do exist principled “Never Trumpers,” those who hew close to its original intent of not voting for Donald Trump in 2016, or 2020, owing to legitimate grievances over his abrasive personality and Twitter antics, but who nonetheless recognize and applaud his policy accomplishments as president, and continue to cast votes for Republicans down ballot.

The election of Donald Trump upset many a lucrative apple cart on the right, and they are none too happy.

Accordingly, these ostensible conservatives now demand that Republicans embrace a sort of political suicide pact. “The Republican Party must first be destroyed before it can be rebuilt,”  wrote Max Boot, calling the GOP a “sick institution.” “Principled conservatives” such as Jennifer Rubin and right-wing stalwart George Will agitate for a Democratic blue wave in November. Likewise, Tom Nichols advocates a straight-ticket Democratic vote even down to the local level. “Character matters,” sniffs Bill Kristol, as he and others prepare to throw away the opportunity for Republicans to reshape the judiciary over foppish personality differences.

But make no mistake. Never Trump Republicans are not motivated by conservative principle, but rather a desire to see that power remains vested in the right people — the experts, the D.C. lifers, the elite — and far out of reach of the chattering masses.

Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum — he of “axis of evil” infamy — is illustrative of this point in comparing Donald Trump to hapless Fredo Corleone. Frum lamented, “The Corleone family had the awareness and vigilance to exclude Fredo from power. The American political system did not do so well.” In invoking “The Godfather,” Frum let slip how he and other high-minded conservative elites believe the government should be run: by the chosen sons of a tight-knit circle of the elite; precisely the sort of attitude that saw 16 GOP rivals fall victim to Trump in the Republican primary.

Perhaps, though, this was no slip. In a subsequent interview with Canada’s state broadcaster, Frum doubled-down, stating: “The whole system of the U.S. was supposedly designed to keep people like Donald Trump away from power, and if they somehow slipped into power, to control them while there. That system is failing.”

Unfortunately for Frum, et. al., Republican voters cottoned on to this dynamic in 2016. What appears still to be lost on the Never Trump wing of the party is that Donald Trump’s election was as much a rejection of chummy Republican business-as-usual politics as it was of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. The hawks flogging inefficient, interminable and profitable military adventures in the Middle East; the bought-and-paid-for Washington lifers, and the conservative elites who hold Middle America in as much contempt as do Democrats, all finally had the rug unceremoniously pulled out from beneath them.

And so they will mewl about “principles” and “character” as they now carry water for the Democrats — at least until the party has its own insurgent Trump moment and casts out its establishment baggage. A last-ditch effort of the endangered RINO to prevent its disappearance from the savanna of American politics. Perhaps, in a moment of honest introspection, Never Trump conservatives will recognize the role they ultimately played in their own demise, rather than devoting their energy towards shepherding in a Democratic landslide in November.

Allan Richarz is a privacy lawyer in Japan and certified information privacy professional in Canada, splitting his time between the two countries. Follow him on Twitter @AllanRicharz.