The Other McCain

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The Agony of #NeverTrump: His Comeback Has Destroyed Their Prestige

Posted on | November 26, 2024 | No Comments

If you want to see something funny — that is, assuming you have a sadistic sense of humor — you should go watch YouTube highlights of The Bulwark’s Election Night podcast, featuring Bill Kristol, Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell, Jonathan V. Last and company in a slow downhill slide from hope to despair. Perhaps never in human history has disappointment been more well deserved. You have to remember how and why the #NeverTrump Grift started to truly appreciate its squalid denouement. If you go back to early 2015, the “smart” money among conservative pundits was on either Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz as the likely Republican nominee. The neocon types like Rubio better, since he came with a Bush-connected political pedigree. There were other hopefuls — Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckbee, John Kasich, et al. — but Rubio and Cruz were seen as real contenders.

Then came the fateful day in June 2015 when Donald Trump rode down that escalator and things began to change. At first, Trump’s candidacy was viewed as a sort of joke, a publicity stunt that surely wouldn’t amount to much. Or would it? After going all-in on the 2012 campaign (“Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption”), I’d decided to avoid the 2016 campaign and was more or less neutral about the GOP primary. But then in September 2015, I got a call from Pete Da Tech Guy, who was covering a Trump rally in New Hampshire. “Stacy, this Trump thing is for real,” Pete told me. “You wouldn’t believe the size of this crowd.”

There was a real grassroots surge of support for Trump, and so the attitude of the Professional Conservative Pundit crowd turned from ridicule to hatred. Whereas they had originally treated Trump as a joke, now he was seen as threat. Their main point seemed to be that Trump could not possibly beat Hillary Clinton. Beyond whatever disagreements they might have had with Trump on any policy, the pundits simply could not imagine Trump winning the 2016 general election but — perhaps more to the point — his winning the GOP nomination would mean that their own favorite Republican candidates would be denied a shot at the White House. Most people can’t comprehend the selfish careerism of the Professional Conservative Pundit crowd, for whom prestige and influence are their real stock-in-trade. They climbed aboard the #NeverTrump bandwagon because it seemed like the “smart” thing to do.

After all, if Trump could not possibly beat Hillary (which was what the pundits keep telling us), then even if he did win the GOP nomination, the #NeverTrump crowd would be vindicated in November 2016, and step forward ready to assert their rightful place as the divinely ordained Intellectual Leaders of the Conservative Movement™.

They bet their bankroll against Donald Trump, and when he won in 2016 despite their opposition, they doubled-down against him. So here we are, eight years later, and now Trump is more popular than ever:

The Hill reports Trump’s rating hit 54 percent in the wake of his runaway election win, which is up from 48 percent pre-election contest, according to an Emerson College poll cited by the outlet.
Trump is viewed most favorably by men, at 61 percent, while 48 percent of women view him favorably.
Among white voters, 59 percent view him favorably, while 53 percent of Hispanics and 28 percent of Black voters view him favorability, the poll found. The Hill offered further detail:
Fifty-five percent of voters under 30 expressed a favorable view of Trump, according to the poll. He is viewed most positively among Americans in their 40s and 50s, with 60 percent viewing him favorably, while 48 percent of Americans over 70 years old view him favorably.
The poll also asked Americans if they didn’t expect the final results of the 2024 race and found that 46 percent of voters were surprised that Trump beat Vice President Harris. Among those who voted for Harris, 67 percent said they were surprised by the results, while 71 percent of Trump voters said they were not surprised.
The poll was conducted two weeks after election day, from November 20 to 22, amid the Trump transition back into the White House.
The president-elect has named most of his nominees for Cabinet posts and choices for senior staff positions, who will help carry out his agenda.

This is very good news for Trump, and for sadists who enjoy watching their enemies suffer paroxysms of agony. The #NeverTrump grifters are doubly humiliated, and are running out of chumps to swindle.

 



 

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Category: Donald Trump, Intellectuals

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