I must add a note of disagreement with Jason’s weekend post on “contact-tracing” Republicans for their connection to Donald Trump’s “stop the steal” effort. Jason writes: “I could never vote for a candidate who tried to help Trump steal the election, who defended Trump’s attempt to steal the election, who is now campaigning for anyone who did either of the first two things, and so on” (my emphasis).
Now, the question of where to draw the line on voting for or supporting Trump has been a hard one for serious conservatives these past six years. I have at all times tried to extend some grace and understanding to people who agree with me on the conservative cause as a whole but made different choices on Trump. I wrote a whole defense in 2016 of Trump’s general-election voters. Some people I respect a great deal supported Trump, worked for Trump, and would gladly support him again in a general election in 2024. Others I also respect a great deal voted for Hillary Clinton and/or Joe Biden to stop Trump. Others landed in various places in between. I lost respect for people who sold out their conservative beliefs to become partisan Democrats, and for people who fell to being Trump propagandists, but at the point of decision, there were no good choices between Trump, a Democrat, and a “none of the above” protest.
So, I won’t judge Jason or Kevin on their choices of which Republicans they won’t support in a general election against a Democrat based on that politician’s own conduct. But it seems to me that adding the additional step of anathematizing any Republican “who is now campaigning” in the general election against a Democrat for problematic Republicans is going a step too far in terms of burning bridges with people who’ve made different choices. Like it or not, politics is a team sport. I judge Republicans who were fool enough to back, say, Doug Mastriano or Kari Lake in their primaries. I do not judge Republicans who refuse to vote for them over the Democrat — but I also do not judge those Republicans who think that even bad Republican candidates such as these are preferable to their opponents, given the great stakes of gubernatorial and House and Senate races on a great many issues of consequence on which Democrats are wrong about nearly everything and aim to make permanent changes to our system of government. We should have some tolerance for differences of opinion in that regard.
One thing I have learned over many years watching politics is that nothing will disappoint you more about a politician than whom he or she endorses. Americans used to have a more lenient understanding of the notion that “politics makes strange bedfellows.” And as a matter of strategy, if we try to read out of the party people who are across-the-board loyal to the party in the general, we may find those people unavailable as allies when the big fight comes in 2024 to keep Trump from being the party’s standard-bearer.