When your political enemies tell you whom they fear and whom they don’t, you should listen. Liberals do not fear Trump.
Donald Trump has been very, very good for liberal and progressive pundits. He’s great copy, giving them an endless array of targets that will incense their readers, viewers, and listeners. He gives them a wholly unearned sense of moral superiority that allows them to posture as defenders of democracy, the rule of law, acceptance of election outcomes, and even seriousness in foreign policy — all values notably at odds with their own agenda and conduct and that of the Democratic Party. “Whatabout Trump” is an all-purpose Get Out of Jail Free card in any argument. Fear of Trump has given them a license not only to excuse and ignore bad behavior on their own side, but also to consolidate the power of illiberal progressivism over all manner of institutions by paining anyone right of center as a dangerous, potentially insurrectionary Other. And, of course, he has given Democrats a string of electoral victories since 2017 and allowed them, most recently this fall, to escape an overdue reckoning from voters for an unpopular president, a failed agenda, and a conspicuously insane approach to the culture.
In light of the gifts that Trump keeps on giving, one would expect this crowd to be rooting very hard for Trump to win another presidential nomination. He needs the help: Trump has yet to hold a campaign event nearly a month into his announced reelection campaign; is limiting his media appearances mostly to niche outlets on the right; has yet to capitalize on Elon Musk’s allowing him back on Twitter, instead sticking with his obscure Truth Social network; and seems unable to focus at any length on anything but his continuing grievances about the 2020 election. Certainly, helping promote the worst aspects of Trumpism is how Democratic campaign organizations acted in 2022, pouring tens of millions of dollars into promoting the Trumpiest stop-the-steal candidates on offer in Republican primaries, most of whom won their primaries — and after which all of those Democrat-backed candidates lost to Democrats. In 2016, many liberal and progressive pundits openly rooted for Trump to win the Republican nomination, some on the theory that he would be an electoral boon to Democrats, and some on the theory that even if he won, he’d be less effective at pursuing conservative policy than would Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. All of those people were stuck wiping egg off of their faces when the stars aligned for Trump to win, and they spent years writing that he was Robo-Hitler . . . whom they had effectively endorsed in the primary. Hilarity ensued.
The only question was how long it would take this crowd to start openly cheering Trump again. Many have simply gone over to the anti-anti-Trump beat, attacking Ron DeSantis because he is Trump’s chief rival and would be more electable and more effective in office. Somebody had to go first, and Michael Tomasky of the New Republic has volunteered with “The Case for Hoping the GOP Nominates Donald Trump.” He starts by offering a hostage to fortune, given that his own party will be nominating a man who turns 82 shortly after the 2024 election and has been visibly declining for years: “there is not only no chance Trump can win; there is no chance he can even keep it close enough to steal it.”
Here’s Tomasky’s most risible argument:
We want Trump out of public life as soon as possible. But there’s something else we need if the republic is to survive: a sane and reasonable conservative party. It’s hard to see that happening at all in the foreseeable future. But the most likely way for it to happen is that the GOP nominates Trump; he leads them to a defeat so operatic that the Democrats hold the Senate and take back the House; the Democrats ditch the filibuster and pass a lot of things for middle-class people that prove to be, as such things usually are, pretty popular; and Republicans finally begin to see that as a matter of mere survival, they’d better think about trying to do things besides cut taxes, troll the libs, and take away the rights of women and every minority group they can think of. Replacing this neofascist party with a reasonable conservative party is our country’s only hope for survival. In my estimation, Trump’s nomination would hasten that day’s arrival.
Of course, by “reasonable conservative party” Tomasky means one that ceases to pursue any form of economic, social, or culturally conservative agenda. By contrast, if the goal is simply to get the GOP to move on from stolen-election conspiracies and the rest of the genuinely insane, unethical, and antisocial aspects of Trump, the better outcome would be for Republican primary voters to reject Trump, thus breaking the remaining spell over those people who think Trump’s 2016 successes represent some sort of magic that is endlessly repeatable.
By contrast, Tomasky regards with real, visceral fear the possible outcomes if Trump loses to a better Republican:
In contrast, imagine that the Republicans nominate Ron DeSantis or Glenn Youngkin. . . . The party establishment will be largely united. There will be a rump Trump caucus in the House, but I’d imagine that even most Freedom Caucusers would say we love Donald Trump, but the voters have spoken and the important thing here is to defeat those loony socialists. In other words, the master narrative will be: The Republican Party has returned to planet Earth. The Republican Party is normal again. . . . But all that will be forgotten if the party nominates someone other than Trump. Party elders like Mitch McConnell will say we’ve definitively moved on from all that. Kevin McCarthy, who as we know is capable of saying anything, will say . . . anything. Fox News and the other propaganda outlets will gleefully hammer the nails into Trump’s political coffin. The Republicans, they will say, are the party of Reagan again. Oh, there will be tons of Reagan imagery! . . .
And independent voters? They’ll vote for a DeSantis or a Youngkin over Biden. Or at least those two will play him to a draw among independents. And neither will cause the convulsions within the GOP that Trump will. Either of them, and possibly a couple others, are far, far more likely to beat Biden (or another Democrat) than Trump is.
When your political enemies tell you whom they fear and whom they don’t, you should listen. Democrats, liberals, and progressives do not fear Trump. They are terrified that he will go away. Republican primary voters should think long and hard about that.