Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I Wasn’t Never Trump—but I Say Not Again

By staying in the spotlight, he makes it hard to hold Biden and the Democrats to account for their mess.

By Dave Seminara
Sept. 11, 2022 4:36 pm ET


The media typically divides the GOP into two camps, Trump supporters and Never Trumpers. Many Republicans I know fall into neither one. We oppose Never Trumpers on ideological grounds, but we’re also exhausted with Donald Trump, convinced he’s damaging our side’s chances in the midterms and will lose in 2024 if he’s the GOP nominee.

I left the country for nearly a month this summer and came back to find that Democrats were rising in generic polls and President Biden’s approval rating had ticked up. That shouldn’t be possible given the state of dysfunction in which we now live. If the Republicans can’t make big gains in the midterms and recapture the White House in 2024 with the hapless Mr. Biden at the helm, the GOP needs a revolution, starting at the top.

I’m about to turn 50 and can’t recall ever feeling so pessimistic about our leaders and the direction of the country. The stock market had its worst first half of a year in my lifetime, and I don’t have the stomach lately to check and see what’s left of my investment portfolio. Inflation is higher than it has been since I was in elementary school, and mortgage rates are around 6%.

Under Mr. Biden’s watch, disorder reigns. America has lost control of its southern border, drug overdoses have reached an all-time high, and violent crime has increased thanks to soft-on-crime policies and a lack of support for the police. His party’s commitment to teachers unions and p******c school closures have led to declining test scores and an epidemic of chronic absenteeism. Abroad, the U.S. has bumbled into disaster after disaster. We gifted the Taliban billions in weaponry during a chaotic withdrawal in Afghanistan, which—along with other administration ineptitudes—emboldened Vladimir Putin to launch an invasion of Ukraine.

Yet our president blames his failures on “ultra-MAGA” Trump v**ers, whom he often likens to d******c t*******ts. Consumers of conservative media gorge on clips and coverage of Mr. Biden’s every gaffe and wonder how anyone can support him. People still do in large part because the mainstream media keeps the spotlight off the president and on, you guessed it, Mr. Trump. Independents and moderate Democrats should be flocking to the GOP, given Mr. Biden’s commitment to radical and haphazard progressive policy. But many v**ers don’t want anything to do with a party that’s clueless enough to keep Mr. Trump as the headliner of its show.

The former president’s most ardent fans fail to grasp the depths of his unpopularity. Some seem to live in a fantasy land, still believing he won 2020 in a landslide. Many Republicans who should know better continue to indulge these delusions to the detriment of their party and the country.

Only 27% of Americans want Mr. Trump to run again, and there are better options for 2024. While the former president is fixated on himself, the governor of Florida, my adopted home state, is more focused on policy. A recent Economist/YouGov poll showed that while Mr. Trump’s favorability is 17 points underwater, Gov. Ron DeSantis is plus two—despite ferociously negative and misleading press.

And yet we’ve seen no indication that Mr. DeSantis or any other leading Republican with a serious chance of beating Mr. Trump is willing to engage in the brass-knuckle brawl necessary to dethrone him. (Rep. Liz Cheney has a 17% approval rating among Republicans, so she can make lots of noise but won’t get anywhere.) And so, anti-Trump and anti-Never-Trump Republicans like me are stranded in the political wilderness.

This problem extends beyond potential 2024 contenders. Though they have to know Mr. Trump is a liability for the party, many influential conservatives seem afraid to criticize the former president and risk offending his base. This allows Democrats and the media to suggest that the choice for Republicans is between Mr. Trump or someone who can never get the party’s support, such as Sen. Mitt Romney or Ms. Cheney. Only 57% of Republicans want Mr. Trump to run again, but that could be enough with a crowded field. On Super Tuesday in 2016 he won 34% of the v**e, compared with 29% for Ted Cruz and 22% for Marco Rubio.

If Republicans want to escape the nightmarish conditions Mr. Biden has inflicted on the country, they can’t allow Mr. Trump to continue to lead the party. Mr. DeSantis and other conservative leaders don’t have to denounce the former president. But they must distance themselves from him and talk Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters off the ledge, making the case that competency and substance are more important than bluster and bravado.

The best-case scenario for the left is for Republicans to succumb to their fears and stick with an unpopular, polarizing candidate who would re-enter the White House at 78 if elected. The Democrats made a similar mistake in 2016, making the unpopular and polarizing Hillary Clinton their candidate, essentially because it was “her turn” and they didn’t want to offend her supporters. We all saw how that turned out.

Mr. Seminara is a former diplomat and author of “Footsteps of Federer: A Fan’s Pilgrimage Across 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts.”

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

True. Trump's ego is too large for him to get out of politics and keep quiet but I wish he would do both.

fantom Loc: Colorado

btbg

If i***ts like Seminar would just wake up and realize that supporting Trump is a lot better for America then leaving Biden and the progressives he's working with in power then Trump would cease to be a liability. He is only a liability because those in the middle would rather have bad policy than good policy packaged in a persona that they don't like. That is truly insane.

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

My cousin and his family celebrated when Biden won the presidency. His explanation was that he never liked Trump whereas I told him the office of the president of the USA is much too important to be a personality contest. He doesn't follow politics but I'm sure was told how to v**e by his daughters who both are members of the teachers union. I don't see how any fair minded, moral person with common sense can approve of the direction this country is headed. Maybe the few who do will wake up only after it's too late.

Bazbo Loc: Lisboa, Portugal

The more it it is about Trump and his low quality candidates, the less it is about the issues that Republicans would rather be talking about. Trump may well cause the Republicans to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, especially in the Senate.

steve03 Loc: long Lsland

not to mention he is eating up all the donations and not sharing them with all the other Republicans.

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

It's about time someone on the right said it out loud. Biased but overdue.

No mention of Roe helping with the 2022 heavy lifting and doing wonders for women's v***r r**********n.

Now, do they dare take on Tucker Carlson and his 'Putin/Viktor Orbán strong-leader-genius-men' - rah rah boys?


" ... But many v**ers don’t want anything to do with a party that’s clueless enough to keep Mr. Trump as the headliner of its show. ... "

Well earned karma for a now habitually weak and obsequious GOP leadership.

They wish he would go away but they don't have the nerve to throw him out ... cluey guys alright.