Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
There is only one path back to relevance for principled Republicans
Donald Trump doesn’t get it. Despite the announcement of his next presidential run last week, his time is up. And if sane, principled and reasonable Republicans stand strong, they can reclaim their once-proud party.
In this month’s general elections, voters across the United States put partisanship aside and stood up for democracy and the rule of law. They rejected Trump and his extremist allies, embraced moderation and sent a mandate to elected officials of all political stripes to return to decency.
Even in Republican strongholds, Trump’s handpicked candidates weren’t safe.
Trump ally Lauren Boebert eked out a victory by the slimmest of margins in a western-colorado congressional district that Boebert won by six points in 2020. In Georgia, Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp outperformed Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Herschel Walker by more than 200,000 votes. And in Ohio, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Dewine outperformed Trump-endorsed Senate candidate J.D. Vance by more than 350,000 votes.
In toss-up states, only one of the six candidates endorsed by Trump was victorious —a one-percentage-point victory by incumbent Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.
Overall, a New York Times analysis showed that Trump-endorsed candidates for the U.S. House ran about 5% behind non-trump-endorsed Republicans in 2022. With control of the federal legislature decided by razor-thin margins, 5% almost certainly cost Republicans the Senate and nearly cost them the House.
It could very well cost them the White House in 2024 — each of the past six presidential elections had at least four Electoral College swing states decided by less than 5%.
As a result, the GOP is at war with itself. Who wins the war and fills the void left by years of childish tantrums by the Republican standard-bearer will be entirely up to GOP voters and party leaders. It’s not just the direction of the party at stake, the relevance of the party is on the line. Moderates, now is your time.
You do not have to abandon your principles, but you must stand up to Trump and his toadies, work together with Democrats when opportunities arise for principled bipartisan compromise, and take back the party Trump stole in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
If you don’t, you risk handing control of the party back to the lying, conspiracy-laden and anti-democratic candidates whom voters have already rebuked three times over.
Loyal lifelong conservatives like Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois are waiting in the wings, hoping the party they dedicated their lives to supporting might someday turn back toward principled leadership that puts truth and country ahead of personal political gain.
Cheney is a staunch conservative and former chair of the House Republican Conference — the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership. While we might have hoped she would be voted out of office for her distasteful policy positions, in reality she was ousted by a coup from within.
She was cast aside by Trump’s mob for behaving the way any person who loves their country should behave — with disdain for violent attacks on our elected officials. In the process, she revealed Trump and his cronies for the hate-filled extremists that they are.
GOP moderates have a choice. Trump’s time is over, but that does not mean he is no longer a threat to democracy or the future of the party.
The voters did their part by rejecting extremism in this month’s elections. Now, rational Republican leaders must demonstrate that they are no longer the party that punishes principled conservatives and supports violent mobs.
They must join with voters in rejecting violence, rejecting extremism, rejecting conspiracy theories and rejecting Trump toadies like Rep. Kevin Mccarthy of California. Instead, they should reward conservative leaders who inspire bipartisan solutions and demonstrate that government still works when we all work together.