Never Trump Conservatives Can Be A Part of The Resistance, But They Can’t Lead It.
Darth Vader. The Terminator in Terminator 2. Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Ben from Lost. In popular culture, one of the most tried-and-true tropes is the seemingly irredeemable, monstrous villain who redeems himself and joins with our hero to vanquish an even greater evil. We currently live in an era where pop culture and real-world politics have become increasingly interchangeable- a reality TV host sits in the Oval Office, a Saturday Night Live cast member sits in the U.S. Senate, and a press secretary becomes one of the most recognizable faces in America.
In such an environment, progressives and Democrats are in many cases looking to emulate Luke Skywalker at the end of the Return of the Jedi, cradling the father he once loathed in his arms. Cases abound across prominent media outlets of figures once despised by progressives now upheld as icons of moral rectitude. David Frum, the author of George W. Bush’s utterly disastrous “Axis of Evil” speech, is featured on the cover of the Atlantic. The climate denialism of Bret Stephens is forgotten as he is bestowed the prestige of a position writing for the New York Times’ editorial page. On the one hand, this impulse is completely understandable. These staunch conservatives’ denunciations of Trump can be effective in showing just how far his brand of right-wing demagogy has transgressed against political norms in America; However, if progressives wish to not just exorcise the demon of Trumpism from American politics, we must present a compelling vision of a better America created in its place- and for that, these thinkers are profoundly unqualified.
Politics is necessarily the art of coalition building, and in order to defeat the monstrous incarnation of today’s GOP, opposition should be welcomed from all ideological corners. History provides ample proof of this. In the 1930s, France was saved from the rising tide of fascism when Communists, Socialists, and centrists joined forces to form the Popular Front, which won control of the French government and introduced reforms that preserved democracy. Mindful of the failure of the anti-Nazi parties in Germany to unite and the disaster that followed, each of these factions had to overcome what in many cases were bitter hatreds of the others (and in the case of the Communists, the explicit orders of Stalin), in order to serve the common goal. The French have not forgotten their history; in 2002 and 2017, forces across the political spectrum joined forces to crush the insidious neo-Vichyism of the Le Pens, and they may well have to do it again.
However, we should be careful not to overlearn this lesson. First of all, on a purely tactical level, what exactly are progressives forming a coalition with? It is a sad commentary on the so-called “mainstream right” of the Republican Party that they have so far been dwarfed in moral courage this year by French right-wing leader Francois Fillon, who endorsed centrist Emmanuel Macron in the runoff against Marine Le Pen. Fillon, whose candidacy collapsed amidst a massive corruption scandal, is a paragon of principle compared to the utter cowards and bootlickers that run the GOP. Whether out of a similar cowardice and partisan loyalty or out of a genuine support for Trump, the overwhelming majority of rank and file GOP voters still support Trump. A strongly worded David Brooks editorial or a press conference where John McCain says he is “very concerned” for the umpteenth time will neither bring back voters who backed Obama and rejected Hillary, nor will it motivate people who sat out to go to the polls.
The route to defeating not just Trump himself, but the poison he represents, runs through inspiring young people with visions of the future, giving the working and middle class of all races a real stake in the future of this country that they currently feel is denied them, and, while that is happening and once that is done, using all legal means at our disposal to defeat the disgusting voter suppression program of the GOP in order to enact this vision at the ballot box.
While in the short term Never Trump conservatives are allies in this fight, the task of remaking the country cannot be left to them in the end. On this point too, we can look to history as an example. During World War II, the British people held firm behind the heroic and resolute leadership of Winston Churchill through their darkest hour as a nation. As the war drew to a close in 1945, he faced the voters in the general election with extremely high approval ratings, and yet, to the shock of the world, not only did he lose, but his Conservative Party was completely crushed at the polls, losing the popular vote by twelve points and almost two hundred seats in Parliament. It remains to this day the Conservative Party’s worst electoral defeat in history.
How did this happen? While Churchill was personally popular due to his heroism in the fight against Nazi Germany, the British people wanted no part of returning to the miserable 1930s, characterized politically by Tory rule. They wanted a leader who would not just stand against the great enemy, but who had a vision for a better world after the fighting was done. Churchill’s opponent in that election and successor as Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, would transform British society in incredible ways- instituting universal health care through the National Health Service, introducing a modern social security and pension system, and vastly expanding access to secondary education. As progressives, we must be open to allies of all stripes in this existential struggle like the French were in the Popular Front, but like the British voters of 1945, we must also never forget that our goal is not to hit the reset button and return to the status quo, but to remake America in our image, not theirs.
