There’s a moral high ground that some conservatives think they’re taking by opposing the people who do the most to advance their principles — specifically, President Trump and Mitch McConnell — while supporting feckless spoilers like Michigan Rep. Justin Amash.
Washington Post columnist George Will is the epitome of this form of arrogant, self-centered and ultimately defeatist thinking.
They’re like vegans showing up to a barbecue, the root of endless problems, and with no solutions of their own that don’t involve forcing everyone else to adjust the reality they live in.
Will on Friday offered a glowing assessment of Amash as “admirable” because he’s left the Republican Party and opposes Trump. So, that covers just about everything Democrats want in a Republican. The final leap is to actually become a Democrat but to do that would mean neither Will nor Amash could claim the imaginary moral authority that they wield as ever-so-snobby “principled conservatives.”
Instead, they pretend there’s a third party option that, in our nearly 250 years as a functioning democracy, has so far eluded us.
One would think after having literally lived through the dissolution of the Dixiecrats that someone like George Will would know there will never be a nationally viable third party. There are plenty of reasons for that. For example, Americans are often comfortable with just two major choices. That’s why when you order Coke at a restaurant and the server offers Pepsi as an alternative, you either gag or begrudgingly accept the alternative. Most people won’t ask for R.C.
See? Two choices.
But paramount in American politics is that we only have one office of the presidency and it’s reserved for just one person to hold an entire one-third of federal power (and then some, when you consider foreign policy). The presidency is the ultimate prize and it makes no political sense for more than two parties to compete for it.
Green Party issues are already covered by Democrats. “Tea Party” voters are at home with Republicans. And the Libertarian Party people can get lost. The national appetite for a third party is the same as it is for Joe Biden’s nude photos: not strong.
When Donald Trump ran for president as an unconventional Republican without regard to previous party orthodoxy, it was because he knew it was easier to change an existing party than it would have been to create a new one.
None of this is news to George Will or Justin Amash. They’re not naive. They’re worthless.
