In his apologia for the MAGA establishment, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, did conservatives a favor by bringing to the surface our real choice in 2022 and beyond.
We can submit to a new establishment that looks a lot like the old establishment. Alternatively, we can fight for a revitalized constitutional conservatism that focuses its energy on defeating progressive extremism with conservative solutions rather than with grievance and conspiracy theories.
Scott offered his MAGA vision in a blistering and belittling response to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) concerns about “candidate quality” hurting Republican chances of taking back control of the Senate this fall. In a Washington Examiner op-ed, Scott argued that people who agree with McConnell are “fools.” Those who “trash-talk” Republican candidates are cowards who are committing treason against the conservative cause, he says.
A few problems.
First, Scott accuses “people” (McConnell and his allies) of causing Republicans to lose the Senate last cycle. But “people” weren’t responsible for losing the Senate — one person was responsible: Donald Trump. Second, in typical MAGA manner, Scott fashions himself as a beleaguered and victimized outsider who can’t get a word in edgewise with the clubby “D.C. crowd” that he says is calling the shots. Of course, McConnell isn’t in charge of today’s Republican Party. Trump is. The old William F. Buckley rule urging voters to nominate the most conservative candidate who can win has been replaced by the Trump rule that urges voters to nominate the candidate most loyal to Trump. Period.
Scott also implies that the problem isn’t candidate quality but insufficient cheerleading from the “D.C. crowd.” But no one in McConnell’s orbit asked Pennsylvania Senate Republican nominee Mehmet Oz to pass the “crudites.” Voters now know that candidate quality and conservative fidelity are secondary to fealty to Trump. And let’s be clear: We’re talking about candidates Trump, the MAGA Establishment, and, in some cases, the DCCC told voters they could choose. We’ll see how that works out in November.
Third, Scott’s unspoken but clear demand that disloyal and insubordinate Republicans get on board with the team by unifying around Trump’s picks is the same argument the old establishment used against yesterday’s more principled reformers. In the 2000s, Republicans blasted my former boss Tom Coburn (R-OK) for exposing their overspending, pork projects, and institutional corruption. Party leaders said Coburn should stop embarrassing Republicans for the good of the team. Coburn said the better approach was for the team to rediscover its loyalty to the Constitution and its limited government principles and that if it did so, it would win. Scott should emulate Coburn, not Trump.
Finally, Scott should use the treason charge more carefully. Yes, McConnell has his flaws. He was slow to embrace the earmark ban and too risk-averse on healthcare. He didn’t prioritize a “replace” alternative to Obamacare, which proved to be a mistake. But in today’s party, McConnell is the rebel defending constitutional conservatism, and his critics tend to be RINOs, Rebels in Name Only, who talk a great game but find stopping the Left’s bad policies with good policy too pedestrian.
The Scott v. McConnell argument is the proxy battle for the soul of the party. The conflict is sure to intensify, particularly if Trump is indicted and if Republicans have anything less than a wave election in the fall. Defeating the extremism of the progressive Left, which is currently winning big policy fights, will require Republicans to do more than applaud the juvenile and prurient quest for what Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake describes as “BDE” (Big D**k Energy) or the small dollar and small idea conservatism of Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) that calls for defunding the FBI.
Conservatives should pick real fights that counter the creeping authoritarianism of the Left. They should reject fake fights over lost, not stolen, elections. Let’s have less fake populism centered on listening to a failed party boss — and not the voters.
John Hart is the executive director of the Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions Action (C3 Action) and the former communications director and co-author for the late Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK).
