What are Republicans so afraid of?
GOP officials in South Carolina and Nevada just announced the cancellation of their state primaries. They now join Kansas in that all three states will award their convention delegates to President Trump automatically. Yes, that’s right: Three state Republican parties just canceled their elections to shield an incumbent, unpopular president from his primary challengers.
This move isn’t completely unprecedented, as numerous states did something similar in 2004 to shield President George W. Bush. But it’s shameful nonetheless, and if Democrats ever did something like this to protect say, a President Hillary Clinton, conservatives would scream bloody murder or at least laugh uncontrollably.
The primary season is supposed to offer Republican voters the chance to choose their nominee. Instead, at least in South Carolina, Kansas, and Nevada, party elites will rig the nomination in Trump’s favor. It’s a disturbing attack on the democratic process, one that deprives the president’s three announced GOP challengers, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, and former South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, of their right to a fair shot at the nomination.
Voting is the ultimate right of speech in America, and Trump’s machine has just told millions of Americans that they don’t need to be heard.https://t.co/ExeBIqd2Bq
— Gov. Bill Weld (@GovBillWeld) September 7, 2019
This isn’t “disappointing.” It’s not “unfortunate.” It’s not “regrettable.”
It’s f***ing un-American. It’s undemocratic. It’s wrong. It’s what they do in places like Russia and China. Not here.
Denying Americans the right to vote in order to protect Donald Trump? Outrageous. https://t.co/NF64F8Pzt8
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 7, 2019
The bizarre stunt also seems entirely unnecessary, even from a pro-Trump perspective. The president currently boasts a roughly 80% approval rating among Republicans, meaning that he likely has an easy path to renomination. Why would the GOP rig a primary election in Trump’s favor — and incur the expected backlash — when Trump is going to win anyway?
The only answer is that they secretly fear Trump’s vulnerability.
After all, Trump’s primary challengers are not without their own baggage and shortcomings. Weld is a supporter of abortion rights whose views on social issues do not really resemble those of the average Republican primary voter, Walsh has a long history of what critics call racism and xenophobia, and Sanford’s already been plagued nonstop by his infamous “Appalachian Trail” infidelity scandal upon his announcement.
Thus, unfortunately, none of these campaigns seem likely to succeed. That state parties nonetheless feel they must protect Trump reveals they’re well aware of the weaknesses a prolonged primary could dredge up.
The president’s abysmal trade policies have hurt economic growth and now threaten a recession. He has completely failed to govern as a fiscal conservative. His Twitter feed tests the patience of even his most stalwart supporters.
Of course the Trump administration does have its fair share of successes to tout too, from criminal justice reform to tax cuts to conservative Supreme Court nominees, but these successes will no doubt in part be overshadowed by criticisms from his primary opponents.
And this is a good thing. In fact, it’s an important conversation that needs to happen. Only now it might not.
Republican state parties must resist the urge to skew the election in Trump’s favor, so that the party and the conservative movement more broadly are forced to fully think through the future of the GOP. After a first term full of both successes and tumult, Republican voters deserve the opportunity to decide whether Trump really represents their values or not.
