Looking for Plan B
In a MAGA-controlled GOP, Anti-Trump Conservatives Need A Home.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election and January 6, there was talk among NeverTrump conservatives on what to do next. How would they organize? One option was the rise of a new political party, an idea that I had long supported. I kept waiting for something to happen. I kept waiting for Plan B.
And waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
It’s been three years since that meeting and since that time, there hasn’t been a real organized counter-conservative movement at all. Here we are in the early days of 2024 and Republicans find themselves again with Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee and he has become not just the leader of the party, but is able to force politicians to “bend the knee,” and as we see the Senate compromise immigration bill go down in flames, decide what if any legislation can get through Congress.
There are a lot of reasons as to why the GOP has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trump Inc, with the main one being politicians not standing up to Trump in the way that former GOP representatives, Lynn Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have done. I agree that pols have been cowardly, selling their souls for a bowl of porridge. A lot of ink has been spilled about that, but less ink has been focused on how NeverTrumpers failed to really create an alternative for voters and politicians.
Where is Plan B? What is the contingency plan when Trump has effective control of the Republican Party?
I think that my side of this fight failed in its responsibilities to not just speak up and speak out, but in building alternative institutions that might be a place, a community for a remnant.
The problem with the NeverTrump movement over the years in combating Trump and Trumpism is that we saw this as just a moral fight. Morality has a lot to do with this, especially when combating someone whose morals are as despicable as Trump’s. But you can’t fight Trump or any authoritarian with moralism alone. The fight also had to be about how to be strategic and how to build new institutions that could counter Trump. We have been great about the danger Trump poses to the American republic. We have failed in understand why people succumb to Trump and provide an effective response.
Back in August of last year, writer and former Obama Administration staffer Michael Wear was perplexed by what he saw as the “self-congratulatory cynicism” of some NeverTrumpers. He wrote:
This is (or, perhaps, was) their party. It was a party that they advocated for through Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, maybe even into Trump’s term as president. It seems to me that Never Trump Republicans hold the greatest responsibility for using whatever rightful influence they have to both increase the sense of possibility for this GOP primary, and to advocate and work for an outcome to the primary that does not end with Donald Trump as the nominee. If you’re going to build an entire political profile off of opposing Trump, you should probably actually do the work of opposing Trump.
Wear continued in saying that some NeverTrumper seemed more interested in building personal brands than they were in persuading their fellow (or former) compatriots in the GOP:
Instead, I worry that for some the pain of losing the primary in 2016 has led some former party loyalists to become too enamored with their own platforms. In the absence of actual political engagement that is bound by time and space, what is built is not a better political future, but a personal brand. The message that is sent is that the Republican Party — of which they used to advocate for and pressure others into supporting — and Republican voters are now somehow unalterable and beyond redemption. Why not give Republican voters the chance to change their mind? What was the cutoff date at which change became unacceptable?
The word that sticks out in Wear’s post is responsibility. In his view, Never Trump Republicans had a responsibility to use whatever influence they might have to persuade people in the party to choose another path.
Responsibility is not something we see much in our culture these days. We don’t see each other as our brother’s (or sister’s) keepers. In an era where we make “self-care” one of the highest virtues, it can be hard to believe we are obligated to something more than our own comfort.
A lot of Never Trumpers saw the corruption and outright cruelty of the Trumpists and wanted no part of that. They didn’t want to be viewed as part of this horrible movement. I totally get this. But in our haste to leave this party behind, what did we leave on the table? What opportunities did we pass up? Like the politicians that failed to stand up to Trump, what did we fail to do? What was our responsibility?
Throughout the election season, the New York Times brought together some fascinating focus groups. One of the groups from the fall of 2023 really caught my attention had the arresting title, “Why These 13 Republican Voters Don’t Want Trump Anymore.” Looking through the results you saw something: nuance. You saw people that were actually thinking about the issues and that were actually thinking about Donald Trump and if they really wanted him as the GOP nominee again.
What I saw from that focus group was not a bunch of cult members as we like to characterize the Republican Party today, but people thinking through things and wondering if there are better choices out there.
I was all set to write about this article to show that there were people who were thinking about options and why NeverTrumpers should work on persuading people like the ones in the focus group. But then I stopped and instead wrote a snarky and poorly written post about how no one really cares. People already have a view of the Republican Party and its voters and among NeverTrumpers there is a belief that the party is lost to ignorant yahoos.
There was never a Plan B. There was never a safe haven created to protect politicians who choose to stand up against Trump and MAGA. There was never an option for rank-and-file Republicans who felt that barring voting for Biden in the General, had to hold their nose and vote for Trump.
NeverTrump expected politicians and voters to make the moral decision against a rapist and coup plotter and damn the consequences. That is a moral decision and it makes sense. It is a decision that I have made. When it comes to Trump, morality matters, but so does being strategic and thoughtful. How do you give those people who don’t want to support Trump a safe place to land? What structures are ready to receive these “refugees?”
Which is why I’m fascinated by Nikki Haley’s ongoing campaign. Even though she hasn’t won a state yet and Donald Trump seems to just steamroll his way to victory, she has stayed in the race. Some pundits wonder why she even bothers since Trump will be the nominee. If the problem of NeverTrump is that they are focused on morals but not on strategy, the pundits are the exact reverse. They want to focus on the big rematch between Biden and Trump and never mind all of the things that make Trump unfit and unworthy to be President. Haley is the balance between morality and strategy. She knows there is a good chunk of the voters that either don’t want to vote for Trump in the primary or will never, ever vote for Trump. She seems to be the one person who adheres to Michael Wear’s belief that those opposed to Trump have a responsibility to be an alternative for those opposed to Trump. When no one was willing to create the Plan B, Haley has become the Plan B, at least for a time. In her tweets and messages, she seems to get that she has a responsibility to carry the principles that the Republican Party used to believe in. In a time when both MAGA Republicans and many NeverTrumpers have succumbed to cynicism, she has remained willing to carry the banner even if it is a lost cause.
Maybe Haley will change her tune in a few weeks or months, who knows? But right now, she is providing a place for conservatives who no longer feel welcome in the GOP and aren’t interested in becoming a Democrat.
In closing this rambling essay, we need a Plan B for one simple reason: hope. Hope isn’t a belief in happily ever after, but it is a belief that the forces that run on fear, grievance, and loathing will ultimately lose. Hope is believing that there are right things that matter. Hope is believing that yes, today’s GOP is run by Trump and his MAGA accomplices. But they won’t last. They will fall. And the values that Haley and others are fighting for will prevail.
Hope has not died. Plan B is in effect. The good will prevail.