If the Republicans’ election failure on Tuesday has a silver lining, it’s that it will persuade more of them that former President Donald Trump is a massive liability and turn them decisively away from him. That might compensate for the GOP’s inability to achieve even average midterm success despite facing an unpopular first-term president presiding over an economy in shambles.
But what happened? Why couldn’t Republicans take advantage of those ideal circumstances and tap into the demographics that seemed to be leaning their way? Because the blue party was able to depict the GOP plausibly as the party of Trump and so raise doubts about its fitness to govern. Astonishingly, independents split evenly rather than siding sharply against the incumbent, as historically they do.
Trump’s loyalty tests about the “stolen” election also ensured there were hundreds of GOP candidates who were pushed into the national scene just because they were willing to claim he won in 2020. The public knows this is untrue and that he lost to President Joe Biden. It’s generally the Left, with its woke nonsense on race and gender, that insists people accept obvious falsehoods. But it’s what Trump and his acolytes, gripped by their monomania, do equally implausibly about the election two years ago. Decent, ordinary people disdain mountebank pols who peddle rubbish. Most people don’t want to be governed by charlatans.
Ironically, as the lamentable results for Republicans turned into a spate on the night of the election, Trump reportedly raged inside Mar-a-Lago about bad candidates. But he had no one to blame but himself. They were his people. Every single “MAGA” Republican who was boosted by Democrats in the primaries went on to blow it in the general election, as the blue party bet they would. It was cynical, but it worked. Democrats ran against the people they wanted to run against. They didn’t just define their enemies, they helped choose them.
So why would the Republican Party choose any candidate whom Democrats want as their opponent? Most obviously, why even consider nominating Trump for the presidency again in 2024 when he’s already been handily beaten before? The GOP has many better options. Republicans who governed effectively in Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio, Iowa, Georgia, and elsewhere, to name only the gubernatorial possibilities, cantered home with big margins of victory.
Their success and competence threaten Trump. He cannot abide Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), for example, because he rightly burst Trump’s bubble in Georgia two years ago. Yet Kemp handily beat Democrat Stacey Abrams for a second term. Likewise, and to an even greater degree, Trump is threatened by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who romped to victory in Florida by 20 points, flipping once solidly blue counties such as Miami-Dade red in the process.
Immediately before DeSantis’s landslide became a reality, Trump and his team threatened the governor in a way that was as disgusting as it was fearful. To intimidate DeSantis into staying out of the 2024 presidential race, in which bookies now favor him to beat Trump, the former president said, “If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”
Before that, two Trump lawyers belittled DeSantis, damning him with faint praise. Alina Habba said, “DeSantis is DeSantis because of Trump … I think I like what DeSantis is doing in Florida, but he needs to stay in Florida. He’s not ready yet.” Christina Bobb, another Trump lawyer, added, “Just stay where you are. You are doing a great job in Florida … Don’t jump the gun.” In other words, DeSantis is Trump’s creation, he’s only a big deal because of his patron, he’s getting uppity, and he’d better watch out if he knows what’s good for him.
But none of that explains DeSantis’s crushing victory on Tuesday. DeSantis turned a big swing state deep red. He won 55% of Miami-Dade County, where a majority of the public is Hispanic — 9 points better than Trump managed. The governor aptly summed up his qualifications, explaining, “Florida was a refuge of sanity when the world went mad. We have embraced freedom. We have maintained law and order. We have protected the rights of parents. We have respected our taxpayers. And we reject woke ideology.”
The biggest, most important step toward sanity and full electability that the Republican Party can take is to recognize that Trump is yesterday’s man, not today’s or tomorrow’s. Whether it chooses DeSantis or any one of several other strong possible candidates, it can get an effective and electable happy warrior who focuses on voters’ concerns, not on his own. And it doesn’t need to accept Trumpian drama and chaos to get it.
The needs of the Republican Party align with those of the nation — that’s the thing about democracy. But will Republicans be willing to do what it takes to move forward? For the country’s sake, we should hope so.
