MAGA GAME NOT WORKING FOR GOP
Defeated former President Donald Trump has nearly outlived his welcome in the Republican Party. GOP donors, operatives and, increasingly, voters have had enough of his legal problems, his ravings about 2020, his unhinged anger and even his lame nicknames for rivals (“Meatball Ron” DeSantis?). They’ve gotten sick of losing.
But Republicans’ problems for the 2024 campaign and beyond run much deeper than a single politician. And they won’t go away by themselves.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) tentatively acknowledged the issue when asked Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the “conservative town square” choked with lies from election deniers and right-wing media such as Fox News. “Well, there’s no question there’s a lot of misinformation out there,” he said. (Disclaimer: I am an MSNBC contributor.)
Hogan is nervous about conspiracy theories, but he framed the problem essentially as one of electability: “I think we’ve got to get back to a bigger-tent party that can appeal to more people, otherwise we’re going to keep losing elections.” Unfortunately, DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, will be able to argue that he won big by deploying “critical race theory” furor and vaccine skepticism.
Georgia’s former Republican lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” was somewhat more forthright. “There’s never been a bigger divide from state party politics and the average Republican that’s worried about their job, worried about inflation, worried about crime,” he said.
Both of these Republicans actually have rejected election denial. But their tentativeness about taking on the conspiracy-mongers isn’t much of a model for chasing MAGA cultists out of the party.
Unsurprisingly, these and other Republicans are nervous about imparting any tough love. How could they not be? Former representative Liz Cheney (Wyo.) got clobbered after telling her party that “the tragedy is there are politicians in this country, beginning with Donald Trump, who have lied to the American people.”
In the states, plenty of Republicans refused to engage in coronavirus denialism and other MAGA stunts. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine won reelection by 25 points after handily beating three pro-Trump candidates in the primary. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is among the most popular state chief executives in the country. Non-election-denying Republican Govs. Asa Hutchinson (Ark.), Charlie Baker (Mass.) and Doug Ducey (Ariz.) all left office with strong approval ratings.
In short, Hogan and any other reality-based Republicans should feel comfortable taking on scaremongers such as DeSantis, whose policies sent COVID-19 rates soaring, whose political stunts convulsed already failing schools, whose culture wars savaged state businesses, whose mean-spirited attacks on LGBTQ families caused them to flee and whose race-baiting wasted police and court resources.
Whether Hogan or Hutchinson or Nikki Haley (should she recover some nerve), the Republicans battling Trump and his mini-me imitators can and should make an affirmative case that the MAGA crowd makes life worse for Americans. They should be clear in declaring truth an essential component of accountability and, hence, democracy.
Calling out the style of politics that rejects problem solving and relies on anger won’t be easy. Truth-telling and sanity might flop in a Republican presidential primary election. But the alternatives — mealy-mouthed arguments that lying is counterproductive and pleas to change the Fox News business model — aren’t likely to impress voters, either.
If Republicans want tough fighters, then a staunch critic of cranks, bullies and panderers who is willing to point out the MAGA side’s lousy results might be what the doctor ordered. Perhaps voters are tiring of being treated like rubes by MAGA politicians and their captive media.