To Never Trump conservatives, the best thing the Republican Party and the conservative movement could do is distance themselves from former President Donald Trump. But that isn't happening.
Despite facing four criminal indictments and a variety of civil lawsuits, Trump is the clear frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary. A CNN poll released on October 12 finds Trump leading the primary's second-place candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 41 percent. And according to a Fox News poll released a day earlier, Trump leads DeSantis by 46 percent.
Politico's John F. Harris, in an article published on Friday, October 13, stresses that Trump's 2024 campaign is coming at a time when his party is in disarray.
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After Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was ousted as House speaker, Republicans nominated Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) for the position — only to watch Scalise end his speaker campaign because he didn't have enough votes for a confirmation.
"Trump is the only leader with a durable following within the modern Republican Party," Harris observes. "That's true even as the GOP is filled with people who quietly wish he would go away and a smaller number of would-be leaders who loudly advocate for that — so far to negligible effect. So far, no Republican has managed to emerge as a genuine leader in the Trump era — not by seeking alliance with him, nor by standing up to him, nor by trying (to) keep a safe distance from him."
Harris argues that there will be "no return to" the GOP's "regular order" as long as Trump remains its "dominant figure."
Meanwhile, in an article published by Politico a day earlier, author Brian Rosenwald — who heads the Red and Blue Exchange at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia — notes that some right-wing media pundits have been furious over the chaos among the GOP's House majority. But these "angry conservative media hosts," Rosenwald emphasizes, "have only themselves to blame for McCarthy's downfall and the disarray currently facing House Republicans."
"The leaders of conservative talk radio and cable news have spent years assailing GOP congressional leaders — including McCarthy — and they are largely responsible for turning far-right rebels like (Rep. Matt) Gaetz into stars," Rosenwald observes. "Going back to the 1990s, conservative media created the political ecosystem in which torching and targeting Republican leaders is good politics on the right. And they've ensured that the next speaker, whether it's Steve Scalise or someone else, will face the same poisonous incentive structure that took down McCarthy."
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Read John F. Harris' full Politico article at this link and Brian Rosenwald's Politico report here.
