Most Never-Trumpers are just Never-Republicaners

It's great to be anti-Trump, but if you can't find any Republican you'd support, you're just a Democrat.

There’s been a whole lot of discussion, ever since he descended that famous escalator, about Never-Trumpers - and I’m not talking about Democrats. No, I’m talking about Republicans, or conservative-leaning unenrolled voters, who like to constantly yammer on about how they would never support Donald Trump - they could never, in good conscience, do that! - yet they never seem to land on a plausible Republican presidential candidate they could support instead. Rather, they simply enjoy boasting about their alleged principles as frequently and as loudly as CrossFit devotees.

If you ask them to pull a name out of a hat, they’ll probably point to Bill Weld. Who’s Bill Weld, you ask? Well, that’s a good question, since most of America probably has no idea. He’s a conservative (sort of) former governor of Massachusetts who once ran for President. No, not that one - Mitt knows when to call it quits. That’s why he didn’t run against Trump again in 2016, despite heavy rumors that he was seriously considering it, and why he didn’t challenge Trump for renomination. No, Weld was governor of Massachusetts from 1991 - 1997, when he did…some things. Mostly, he did things that were perfectly reasonable but led to his nomination as Ambassador to Canada being withdrawn by Bill Clinton because Jesse Helms was an idiotic retrograde social conservative. He ran against Trump for the 2020 nomination and got exactly one delegate in Iowa.

That’s right, literally one.

If you’re shocked that a pro-choice, pro-gay rights, former governor of Massachusetts didn’t catch fire against Donald Trump, raise your hand.

OK, that’s what I thought. So, moving on.

Today, one would think that conservative Never-Trumpers would be rallying around Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the leading alternative to Trump. Sure, he’s a firebrand who’s controversial in the mainstream media, but in reality he’s just an updated version of George W. Bush: a social and fiscal conservative who liberals love to hate. Yes, his views on social issues have swung more to the right, but so have the party’s. Yes, he’s been aggressive using his power as governor both to score political points and to enact his agenda in preparation for a presidential run, but that’s standard operating procedure for politicians in both parties.

Yet, the so-called Never-Trump conservatives aren’t backing him. Indeed, many of them are echoing the talking pointsof anti-DeSantis media - whether conservative or liberal - to take him down.

Now, this isn’t a defense of Ron DeSantis. He’s not my first choice in the primary by any stretch of the imagination. Still, wait and see how the most prominent Never-Trumpers (whether Republicans, Democrats, or unenrolled) discuss Nikki Haley, or Tim Scott, or Mike Pence, or anyone else: their reaction will be exactly the same. They will joyously celebrate their shortcomings and mistakes, just like they will for Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis. They will criticize them any time they praise Donald Trump, or fail to criticize him, or just aren’t vocal enough in criticizing him. None of those Republicans - nor anyone else - will ever be good enough for many of the Never-Trumpsters or their enablers in the mainstream media. If any of them are ever praised by that crowd, the praise will only last until they actually win the Republican nomination or are close to doing so; then they’ll revert to being Public Enemy Number One.

This is why the Never-Trumpsters will never coalesce behind any one particular, viable alternative for the presidency who could actually win the Republican nomination and defeat Joe Biden in the general election. The truth is, they’ll criticize Haley and Scott because they don’t want them to win, either: they want Joe Biden to win re-election. They want him to be able to continue his terrible liberal policies, his disastrous domestic agenda, and his endless march towards our fiscal doom. Rather than being principled conservatives by any stretch of the imagination, they have become instead useful idiots for the institutional left.

It’s perfectly understandable that traditional, honest, principled conservative voters are unwilling to support Donald Trump. That’s consistent. It’s also understandable that traditional conservatives are willing to support Donald Trump, despite his faults; that’s common enough in the history of our country, given our limited two-party system. What’s neither understandable nor reasonable is that people who publicly self-identify as traditional conservatives are unwilling to support any viable conservative alternative to Joe Biden. At that point, they’ve simply become Democrats, and that doesn’t strengthen our two-party system, nor our democracy. Instead, it weakens it, leading to our further decline as a nation.

This particular breed of Never-Trumpers really ought to be ashamed of themselves, but they don’t seem to possess the capacity. If they really wanted to save the country - from liberalism and from unprincipled Republicans alike - they’d take action, rather than sitting on the sidelines and taunting. That’s the real move of principle, but it’s also one that requires courage and moral clarity - two things that don’t typically garner cable news bookings or book deals. At the end of the day, that’s what most of the prominent Never-Trumpers seem to be after: not saving the country or the Republican Party from Donald Trump, but making a quick buck. To that end, they’ll say and do anything that gets them attention, just like any of the sycophants they claim to loathe.

For that, they are to be mocked, rather than admired.

You may follow Jim on Twitter, Substack, or Facebook. He is also a weekly political columnist for the Portland Press Herald, Maine’s largest daily newspaper.