Ignoring The Long-Term Threat: POLITICO's Unserious Take On "Never Trumpers" And A Post-Trump Era

If our Republic manages to escape a second Trump presidency (a big "if" at this point), the lessons of the last fifty years should not be squandered by a return to the kind of "politics as usual" bullshit being offered in the latest edition of POLITICO Playbook.

With just over a week to go until the most fateful national election since 1860, Adam Wren at POLITICO Playbook offers what can only be described as the kind of inside-the-Beltway, blinkered, amnesiac "reporting" that ignores rather that highlights the true stakes of the Harris-Biden contest.

With the headline of "Never Trump faces the ever after," Wren provides quotes showcasing how some of Trump's most implacable and consistent critics are themselves lapsing back into a pre-Trump era mode of thinking.

Tim Miller of The Bulwark:

I would trade anything for me to not have to beat the drum of a Trumpian threat anymore.

Heath Mayo, founder of the "never Trumper" Principles First group:

After [Harris] wins, how do we use this political leverage — because we will have delivered her the White House — how do we use that leverage to communicate what it looks like for a Harris administration to tack in our direction? What does that mean for NATO and our commitments to our allies abroad? What does the foreign policy look like? What does an economic policy look like?

Charlie Sykes, former Bulwark podcast host and long-time Wisconsin GOP operative and radio personality:

I would like to think that we could kind of close up the stand, have a garage sale and go back to our lives. Then the conservatives in the Never Trump movement would shift into the loyal opposition again. But I don’t see that happening.

Not a word from Wren, Miller, Mayo, or Sykes about the actual lessons of the Trump era.

Indeed, in my lifetime thus far, I've witnessed two presidents game the political and legal systems in an attempt to remain in power...and neither has suffered the consequences they deserved for trying to undermine the foundations of the Republic.

Had the inept Watergate burglers not been caught, it's possible the country would not have learned for years, perhaps decades, how successful Richard Nixon's covert, subversive tactics against his chief Democratic presidential rival at the time, Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) were at driving him from the presidential race, allowing Nixon's preferred fall opponent, Senator George McGovern (D-SD), to become the Democratic Party nominee in 1972. Nixon crushed McGovern in the general election.

Nixon's actions after the Watergate break-in were as much or more about keeping his larger political subversion campaign secret than about the break-in itself. Once it became clear he could no longer remain in power in the face of certain Congressional impeachment and conviction, Nixon resigned--and his successor and 1972 running mate, Vice president Gerald Ford, preemptively pardoned Nixon for any campaign-related crimes for which he might have been prosecutable. Ford's was an act of political and moral cowardice that set a terrible precedent.

As we all know, just over a quarter-century after Nixon's resignation in disgrace, Trump attempted to remain in power after his electoral defeat--including making bogus claims about election fraud and engaging in fraud himself through the "fake elector" scheme that is at the heart of the federal January 6-related criminal case against him in D.C.

And throughout this 2024 campaign, Trump has said repeatedly that if he regains power, he will use it against his political enemies with gusto.

During his first term, Trump showed time and again a willingness to wield in genuinely authoritarian ways the enormous power accumulated by the office of the president over the last 100 years. Less than two weeks ago, Trump's former Defense Secretary Mark Esper made clear that Trump's threats to use American troops against his domestic political opponents should be taken deadly seriously. Esper should know: he managed to stop Trump from using troops against Black Lives Matter protesters in the summer of 2020...barely.

But even if Trump is defeated this time around, he's demonstrated that a nativist demagogue can capture an entire political party and achieve the nation's highest elected office. Curbing the powers of the presidency, not angling for political "leverage" on conventional issues, should be a top priority of "Never Trumpers" and everyone else concerned with the restoring the rule of law and the survival of the Republic.

In August, I laid out a legislative and policy blueprint for achieving exactly that objective. Those proposals include:

1) putting the DC National Guard under the direct control of DC's mayor, so another insurrection attempt can be quickly crushed.

2) modifying the Insurrection Act to make clear that it cannot be invoked or funds allocated for its implementation in connection with a presidential election, certification, or inauguration absent a 2/3 affirmative vote by both chambers of Congress via joint concurrent resolution.

3) moving the Justice Department under the Federal Judiciary, so that no future president can use the FBI or other federal law enforcement agencies against their political opponents.

4) restructuring our military ground force components so that nearly all of the combat units (armor, mechanized infantry, and artillery) resides with state National Guard units, not the active duty force, thus reducing the ability of a would-be presidential autocrat to unleash the American military against domestic political protesters. Active duty quick reaction capabilities (XVIII Airborne Corps, Special Operations Command units, U.S. Marine Corps units) would still be available to meet immediate foreign threats or contingencies.

5) abolishing the Department of Homeland Security, thus removing another potential lethal instrument of domestic repression from a president's grasp.

None of these measures would require a constitutional amendment, just passage by both chambers of Congress and a president committed to upholding the Constitution signing them into law.

"Never Trumpers" like Miller, Mayo, and Sykes are well aware of the history I've recounted. If they want a political legacy to call their own, one that would "coup proof" the Republic from someone like or even worse than Nixon or Trump down the road, then the the political reform program I've outlined is the one they should get behind.

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