I believe it absolutely essential for the Republican Party to make peace with the results of the 2020 election if the candidates they endorse have any hope of influencing government in any significant way in the foreseeable future.
Perhaps what is necessary is a different perspective on the man at the center of the maelstrom – one Donald J. Trump.
Disclaimers up front: because I believe in the rule of law I can’t also believe that Donald Trump has a right to claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him without proof.
So far none has been found. If one is to believe the “we was robbed” version of that election then the claim that Hillary Clinton was robbed in 2016 is also credible. I also don’t believe that, for the same reason; there was never any proof.
Perhaps we should be asking ourselves whether the man who claims to have had his re-election stolen has behaved like a leader who deserved to be president for a second term.
What has been on display since that fateful election does not support the idea.
Would a principled leader stand by while people claiming to be acting in his/her name storm the Capital building in violent protest and try to overturn an election?
The rule-of-law response to the rioting would be for that leader to stand up and declare that the protestors are not acting on his behalf, nor the good of the nation, and demand that they cease and desist. The loser of the 2020 election did not do any of that, and to this day is not in the least bit contrite over the event nor his response to it.
If Donald Trump is the legitimate leader of the Republican Party his primary mission would be/ would have been to get those who are running for election in 2020 to leave the unfounded claims and speculations of illegitimate election results out of their campaigns and focus on what they are going to do for the people they want to be elected by. It is difficult to launch a campaign to push back the tide of victim-centered “woke” socialism when ‘victim’ is the center of one’s own campaign.
Although not a complete sweep, many primary candidates that Trump endorsed against other Republicans lost their general election races.
Many of those defeated primary candidates would have been much stronger general election contestants; some even winning their races.
Had Trump acted as leader of the Republican agenda instead of as high priest of The Donald’s Disciples cult there would be a stronger Republican presence in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
It is reasonable to believe that Republicans would have also won down-ticket influential races.
Donald Trump’s endorsement of two senate candidates who had no business running for office - Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania and Hershel Walker in Georgia - almost certainly caused the loss of those two seats for the Republicans, and with them the majority in the Senate. That is not the mark of a Party leader.
We have a right to expect our political leaders to be able to think strategically. Those of us who claim to be conservative expect for our political leaders to apply this strategic thinking to things like smaller government; secure borders; sufficient military strength to defend ourselves and support our friends; adherence to the rule of law as understood when the text was written; and among other things, an electoral system which is above reproach. Trump is focused on none of these.
Trump’s unsuitability to be president again also shows up in how he is handling his legal problems – which just keep coming - since he left office.
For these to be just part of a conspiracy to keep him from running for president again, as some believe, two unlikely things must be true: first, that these anti-Trump actors are capable of the kind of co-ordination required to pull off such a conspiracy and, second, that Trump has not provided these opportunities they use against him.
And, here again Mr. Trump is calling for protests and mouthing not-so-thinly veiled threats rather than legally proving his tormentors wrong.
These are not the actions of a person who deserves to have been re-elected to the ‘leader of the free world”.
But the silver lining for Republicans, and even conservatives, is that we may have an opportunity to elect a better person to capitalize on the positive changes that the 45th president started, but without his distractions.