CARR: The Never Trumpers are back.
Kasich also back testing the waters
The Democrats are still trying to steal a few elections here and there — it’s what they do, after all — but basically the midterms are over. Which means, it’s time for the Never Trumpers to come out from under their rocks and start trying to foment another intraparty uprising against a president who is more popular with his base than, well, just about any earlier president of either party ever. Imagine my nonsurprise when I picked up the Friday paper and saw the headline: “Kristol stoking anti-Trump flames.” So what else is new? In 2016 this guy Bill Kristol created Evan McMuffin, er McMullin, the would-be spoiler candidate. Kristol used to run the Weakly, er Weekly Standard, which is a magazine, in case you didn’t know. His father was Irving Kristol, who used to write for Commentary, another magazine nobody ever read. Woody Allen used to joke that if Dissent magazine merged with Commentary, they could call the new product Dysentery. Anyway, McMuffin got about six votes, one of which was Meghan McCain, daughter of you-know-who, and that’s another connection many of these Never Trumpers have — they worked in John McCain’s feckless presidential campaigns, before they migrated to Mitt Romney’s equally pathetic bids. You know how Robert Shrum is semi-well known for having worked in every losing Democrat presidential campaign since about 1980? These people are the GOP’s Robert Shrums, only most of them aren’t Republicans anymore. This is one thing they brag about, the Never Trumpers — the day they officially quit the Republican Party. ForMaxBoot,itwasNov. 7, 2016; bow-tied George Will earlier in 2016; Joe Scarborough, Oct. 12, 2017; Steve Schmidt on June 19, 2018. It’s a required line on their resumes, like the magazine piece they all wrote urging a vote for Hillary. (David Frum’s was entitled, “The Conservative Case for Voting for Hillary.”) Anyway, they feel compelled to include their anti-Trump bona fides in their resumes, like their birth dates and places of birth. Speaking of which, they’re quite the diverse lot. Frum and David Brooks were both born in Toronto, Boot in Moscow, Ana Navarro in Nicaragua. For some reason, Never Trumpers don’t seem to grasp that when Trump talks about “America First,” he doesn’t really care where you were born, just whether or not you’re on board with trying to Make America Great Again. There are a few words and phrases you very seldom see associated with the Never Trumpers — one is “veteran.” Another is “New York Times best-selling author.” These snoremongers start out writing for magazines like Dysentery, move on to green rooms of seldomwatched public or cable TV networks, and eventually land jobs at alt-left propaganda sheets as “conservative columnists.” It’s dreary work, being a “conservative columnist.” You have to jettison every belief you ever espoused in your previous life as a “conservative,” before you became a “conservative columnist.” But of course, if a Never Trumper ever deviates from the PC line, the socialmedia mob will demand his head on a pike. Bret Stephens is another in the Frum-Brooks line, except for the fact that he wasn’t born in Toronto. He’s an “opinion journalist.” Translation: He’s never covered a fire. Stephens got a gig at the failing New York Times, but he was quickly outed as a “skeptic” on the global warming hoax. There was only one way to save his job: in October 2017, Stephens came out for repeal of the Second Amendment. There have been no further protests. Anyway, they’re baaaaack, the Never Trumpers, starting with Kristol. Usually this time of year he’s on a cruise – that’s how the Weakly Standard supports itself. The joke is all these hacks are, or were, members of the GOP’s Cruise Wing — not Ted Cruz, but boat cruise. I’m guessing business isn’t what it used to be. But never fear, John Kasich is returning to New Hampshire next week. The lame duck governor of Ohio will be back in Manchester, checking out the All-U-Can-Eat buffets. I’m sure Donald Trump is shaken by the news. “This is just a guy,” Trump said of Kasich in 2016, “who’s a stubborn guy who eats like a slob and shouldn’t have press conferences while he’s stuffing stuff down his throat … He’s like one for 42.” Go ahead Never Trumpers. Make Donald Trump’s day. Again.