For moderate Republicans who have vowed never to support former president Donald Trump, witnessing President Biden’s unfitness for another term is more than just a little alarming. As Biden struggles to salvage his reelection prospects, I asked my Post Opinions colleagues Jim Geraghty and Megan McArdle: How should Never Trumpers think about this moment?
James Hohmann: We have heard so much about the double doubters or the double haters, and it feels like they’re going to decide this election. Is there any way that the Democratic Party’s nomination process, including an open convention, winds up giving them a more appetizing choice?
Jim Geraghty: It is a dark, perhaps catastrophic moment in public life, spurred by a majority of Republicans who desired a third Trump campaign and an almost 82-year-old man who should have known better but is blinded by his own ego and inner circle.
Megan McArdle: I have long been resigned to voting for Biden, as I did in 2020, not because I like the Democratic policy platform — I don’t — but because he was better than an erratic, impulsive narcissist with a disdain for policy detail and a total disrespect for institutional restraint. At the moment, I’m worried that the Democrats will show me they aren’t much better.
Jim: Two generic Democratic lawmakers without any Biden or Vice President Harris baggage could probably win handily against Trump — think any combo of Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Michael Bennet, Andy Beshear. But it will be almost impossible to get to an open convention unless Biden has a change of heart.
James: It will be fascinating to see how many House and Senate Democrats are willing to go on the record about their concerns this week. Unlike for Trump, there is far less concern about consequences for crossing Biden. But most members want to be team players.
Jim: Yeah, the impulses to protect “the big guy” and dismiss critics of your party’s leader are not just found in the GOP.
James: Biden is coming across as Trumpy in some of his cleanup tour: The defiance, the denial of reality and polls, the boasts about crowd size, the efforts to portray criticisms of him as attacks on his supporters.
Jim: If it isn’t Biden, it’s almost certainly Harris. As I wrote last week, she is now, at least nominally, the less risky option.
Megan: I agree, not least because she’s likely to be fully lucid and in command during a strategic crisis. But as a candidate, she has both upsides and downsides. Democratic primary voters didn’t care for her, even in her home state. The general electorate, which is to her right, is even less likely to be wowed.
James: What do you think winds up determining the outcome of the election then? Or do you think it’s baked?
Megan: I think it will be very hard to stand up a whole new campaign in a few months. The main benefit of switching to a different candidate is that conservatives won’t have as much oppo on that person (unless that person is Harris). The drawback is that voters won’t know them, and the process is likely to be ugly.
Jim: Maybe the best-case scenario for Democrats is that Trump, overconfident from his current surge, starts venting his spleen and seeming even more unhinged. Something where just enough voters in the “blue wall” states say, “Ugh, we just can’t go through that again.”
James: Do you think Never Trumpers see through Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? Obviously, he originally hoped to appeal to Kennedy Democrats. But he has been so unhinged.
Megan: I don’t think RFK appeals to Never Trumpers at all. He’s like Trump, but less self-interested and more unhinged.
Jim: Agreed. Never Trumpers (generally) want things go back to “normal” — pre-Trump, maybe pre-Obama. RFK is the “everything stinks, everyone lies, burn the whole system down” candidate.
James: I guess that brings it back to: What should Never Trumpers do? Just wait and see how it shakes out? We are only 120 or so days from the election!
Megan: I am still reluctantly voting for Biden. But I’m not going to shame anyone who decides that they cannot vote to install a president in clear cognitive decline, whose infirmity may trigger a 25th Amendment crisis. There is no candidate for us, and that’s not a surprise, because the smallest quadrant in American politics is occupied by Never Trump conservatives and libertarians.
Jim: I’d tell people it is entirely legitimate to conclude that no presidential candidate deserves or has earned your vote. As Ted Cruz said at the 2016 GOP convention, “Vote your conscience.” Of course, Cruz knuckled under a little while later.
A few prominent Never Trumpers are pressing Biden to step aside. The Dispatch reports:
Among those on the list to attend the gathering in Washington are former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, lawyer George Conway, veteran Republican operative Mike Murphy, commentators Bill Kristol and Charlie Sykes, and strategist Sarah Longwell. In recent days, several of these Never Trumpers have publicly called on Biden to either drop out of the race or consider doing so. … These pundits and operatives have taken some professional risks to boost the Democratic president; that they are now urging him to step aside is no small development.”
And who can blame them? Fear of Trump’s return can be powerful. The Post’s Ben Terris noticed a weird sort of “PTSD” among anti-Trump voters. Here’s how he describes it:
The affliction presents with an unusual symptom: It makes some critics of the former president believe that anything bad that happens to Trump may end up being good for Trump. It’s a shared worry among liberals and Never Trumpers who have seen so many supposedly damaging or disqualifying events come and go over the years. “Grab them by the p—y.” “Very fine people on both sides.” The first impeachment. The election loss. The election lies. The insurrection. The second impeachment. The criminal indictments. The civil cases. The damning critiques by former aides and advisers. The sinister rhetoric about “evil” Democrats, left-wing “vermin” and political “retribution.” Nevertheless, he has persisted.
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