Supposedly, the best advice for any person stuck in an ill-fated faceoff with an alligator or a gorilla is to go limp — just play dead. It’s strategic impotence. Well, elected Republicans are starting to move now, but their weekslong reticence to challenge President Trump’s election fight publicly suggests they have had survival in mind.
These are smart people. Nearly 74 million citizens voted for Trump, and presumably, a good many were motivated to do so by his impulse to fight his and their political enemies. Elected Republicans are accountable to the same voters and, for worse, coming out against Trump’s litigation efforts risks elevating even them to enemy status. (Sorry, Secretary Raffensperger, it doesn’t matter that you wanted Trump to win. Are you going to do anything right now to make that happen?)
The Georgia secretary of state notwithstanding, that’s what former Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich was getting at when he recently said that Republicans fear Trump. “They’re afraid that they’ll be primaried, or they’re afraid they’ll be severely criticized,” he told NPR. They’re also afraid of losing the Senate, but yes, Kasich’s theory is self-evidently true. You don’t even need Carl Bernstein’s list to determine that.
Sen. John Cornyn, himself an eminent Republican, offered his assessment before the election. It was loaded with regret. “I think what we found is that we’re not going to change President Trump,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the unspoken subtext being, “But my god, we sure wish we could.”
Cornyn continued, “He is who he is. You either love him or hate him, and there’s not much in between. What I tried to do is not get into public confrontations and fights with him because, as I’ve observed, those usually don’t end too well.”
Yet, plenty of Republicans have found that medium between loving or hating what Trump does. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted the president has a right to file lawsuits, strategically avoiding a value judgment. Cornyn insisted a week ago that Biden “is not president-elect until the votes are certified.” It’s a technically true statement, but a crutch of one.
Finally, though, Cornyn then said Monday that “the outcome is becoming increasingly clear,” and other colleagues are pressing the president to move on. They aren’t all-out, but they aren’t all-in. Certainly, there are those who have pushed back harder against Trump and the election lawsuits.
“To insinuate that Republican and Democratic candidates paid to throw off this election, I think, is absolutely outrageous, and I do take offense to that,” Sen. Joni Ernst said after that one press conference.
Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse, less self-limiting than Cornyn and others with regard to Trump criticism, have pushed back, too. Reserve among the others likely does have something to do with fear. They represent voters, so many of whom supported and support the president. That may not make them particularly courageous, but it somewhat mitigates their culpability in my mind.
One more thing about Kasich, who suffers from the most inexplicable and just plain weird form of Republican Trump fear. Kasich bought the story that under Trump, the United States would all but sink into the earth. Rather than fight Trump’s reelection from the inside, he threw up his hands and endorsed Biden. Refusing to vote for Trump because of his callousness, impropriety, or any other series of reasons is a principled stand for a Republican to take. Kasich had several other options.
