Out of all of President Trump's achievements -- and despite what his detractors say, he had a large number of them -- the greatest one of all was not in policy. It was a political accomplishment, and it's one that will loom large even after he is out of office, especially as the fallout from last week's rushed second impeachment continues.
If nothing else, Donald Trump has exposed all the faux conservatives and "in name only" Republicans that infest and plague the Republican Party. He is forcing the GOP to have a reckoning. Will Republicans stand strong and fight for what's right, or will they acquiesce and fold and surrender to the liberals in the name of getting along or preserving decorum?
I admit being a late comer to the Trump train. Ted Cruz was my first choice among all the candidates who sought the presidency in 2016. Trump certainly wasn't in my list of favorites, but he was infinitely preferable to weak candidates like Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and other squishy pretend conservatives. I agreed with most of Trump's policy positions, but his demeanor on the campaign trail -- especially during the nomination process -- was a bit off-putting. But Trump's straightforward approach won over a majority of Republican voters in the primaries and caucuses, and he improbably ended up with the nomination.
Up until the last few days of the general election campaign, I intended to write someone in. (Former Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher is my go-to write-in choice for just about every race where I can't stomach those on the ballot). But since Kentucky doesn't count write-in votes unless that person has officially filed to be a write-in candidate, and none of the third-party candidates appealed to me, I decided to vote for Trump because casting my ballot for him was the only way to express my contempt for Hillary Clinton.
I warmed to Trump as his campaign wound down and he rallied his supporters, but like most Americans, I was astonished that he won. Astonished, but pleased. I was thrilled that Hillary wasn't going to be president, but I was also glad to see Trump win because I was on board with most of his policies.
And that's the thing with most of his RINO (Republican in name only) or COIN (conservative only in name) detractors. Those people have little to nothing in common politically with Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden. But their "never-Trumpism" led them to sell out their beliefs. Bill Kristol has become a laughing stock. The con artists at the Lincoln Project can't even pretend to be Republicans or conservatives anymore. And the so-called conservative pundits (think David Brooks, David Frum, etc.) are anything but conservative. If Bush, Kasich, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, or any of the other Republicans who ran in 2016 had won and implemented the exact same policies as Trump, those same folks would have been drooling all over themselves chanting "four more years!"
I've long maintained that while Donald Trump isn't a conservative, he's governed as a conservative. His wins during his four years in office read like a conservative's letter to Santa Claus. Sure, Trump wasn't conventional, but look what doing things the way they've always been done got accomplished.
And then there's Mitch McConnell. Kentucky's senior senator has long frustrated the base of his party. His hostility to conservatives and his willingness to cave in to liberal demands has long aggravated those who don't want Republicans to be Democrat-lite. McConnell's move away from Trump has prompted an unheard-of movement within many in the Republican Party of Kentucky to censure him. Conservative local party leaders may force a statewide vote to call McConnell out.
The base wants Republicans to have spines. They want them to stand on principle and not surrender. McConnell stands for nothing but himself.
McConnell swept to victory in easier than anticipated fashion last fall. Challenger Amy McGrath was one of the most qualified opponents McConnell has ever faced, yet McConnell steamrolled her in November. Part of that can be attributed to McGrath failing to inspire her base, and also to "candidate fatigue." A good chunk of the state had grown tired of her during her failed run for Congress two years prior, and her message of being a retired Marine and a mother just didn't resonate. But the biggest reason McConnell, who remains deeply unpopular among members of his own party, was able to win so convincingly is that he rode Trump's coattails to victory. Had Trump not topped the ticket, McConnell's margin would have been much smaller.
But once McConnell's new term was secured, he had no need for Trump, with whom he'd always had a tenuous relationship. McConnell cautioned Senate Republicans against challenging the presidential election results. McConnell also falsely blamed Trump for losses in the two Georgia runoff elections that handed Democrats control of the Senate by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote. (Remember, McConnell himself is the one who bears the blame, as his opposition to $2,000 stimulus payments to Americans was the key issue in the Georgia races.)
Now, McConnell is signaling that he's open to voting to convict Trump on the spurious impeachment charges. Even though Trump will be out of office and unable to be removed, the theory is that the ultimate goal is to prevent Trump from running again for another term in 2024. There's already open speculation on how well McConnell and President Biden will work togehter to broker deals, showing that McConnell will be more interested in giving in than standing strong.
The establishment types are rushing to say that the party needs to purge itself of Trump and his supporters. Of course they are. Grassroots movements such as the tea party or "Make America Great Again" threaten the establishment's grip on power. McConnell will find it easier to deal with Biden, a longtime Senate colleague, than with Trump. The RINOs and COINs only want the GOP base when it comes time for elections. Once they've used the rank-and-file voters, they discard them.
Trump was effective because he was unconventional. Since he didn't come from a political background, he wasn't beholden to the establishment. The party elites weren't able to keep him from getting the nomination. In fact, the 2016 process was novel because the last two Republicans standing, Trump and Cruz, were far from the leaders' top choices. Some unlikely Trump allies emerged, including Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul and, to a lesser extent, Sen. Lindsey Graham. But on the flip side, some of Trump's early allies, like Christie, have become opponents.
Trump's post-presidency shadow will loom large over the GOP. The base has already shown it's no longer willing to be led around by the nose and be force-fed candidates like Mitt Romney and John McCain. Trump will no doubt campaign against politicians who turned against him, including Georgia's governor and secretary of state, the 10 Republicans in the House who voted for his second impeachment, and any senators who vote to remove him from an office he will no longer occupy.
Frauds like the pretend conservatives in the Lincoln Project and others will continue to promote liberal candidates and ideology in their zeal to punish anyone who backed Trump, but they'll find themselves up against increasing backlash from grassroots conservatives, and even their newfound liberal friends will eventually turn on them once they're no longer of any use.
The incoming Biden administration is already indicating it will reverse some of Trump's greatest policy accomplishments. Biden wants the United States back in the Paris climate accord, back in the Iran nuclear deal, and out of any guidelines that restrict those from nations that sponsor terrorism from entering the country.
Policies come and go. But Trump's enduring accomplishment -- exposing the pretenders among Republicans -- can't be taken away. In fact, it will continue as the "Make America Great Again" movement itself continues. Among all those things for which we should be grateful to Trump, shining a light on those snakes and swamp dwellers may be what those of us who care about conservatism appreciate most.
