Stephens, the NYT's oft pilloried (and not undeservedly) conservative columnist, has written a cogent piece on the 2020 elections and state of the Republican party. He is a prominent Never Trumper, but as a loyal and notable conservative his analysis carries weight.
Stephens distills why Trump failed to get re-elected:
Trump lost for two main and mutually reinforcing reasons. The first is that he's immoral--manifestly, comprehensively and unrepentantly.
The immorality didn't just repel his political opponents. It enraged them, inspired them, drove them to the polls...
Trump's immorality also blinded him to his opportunities...He could have spent the past eight months as the nation's consoler in chief...Instead, he went from denier in chief, to quack doctor in chief, to false promise maker in chief-- everything, that is, except the steady and compassionate figure the country desperately needed in the White House.
The second reason Trump lost is that conservatives never tried to check his immorality. They rationalized, excused, enabled and ultimately celebrated it.
Instead of acting as a check against Trump's worst impulses and essentially saving Trump from himself, the Republicans cheered everything did. Stephens decries:
Just as ignorance was strength in George Orwell's "1984," shamelessness became virtue in Trump's G.O.P. The strategy of moral inversion appeared to be vindicated four years ago, since none of Trump's successive scandals prevented his victory.
While there were narrow calculations at work among self-serving conservatives, Stephens points to the development of something more dangerous in recent years:
...political Manichaeism turned into moral nihilism: When the left is always, definitionally, "worse than the right," then the right feels entitled to permit itself everything, no matter how badly it trashes conservative policies (outreach to North Korea), betrays conservative principles (trade tariffs), debase the office (arms-for-dirt with Ukraine) or shames the nation (child separation). Stalinists used to justify their crimes in much the same way.
Finally, Stephens does see the silver lining in all this:
For America, this failure to do much more than flatter, defend and delude Trump these past four years is a blessing. For conservatives, it calls for a reckoning.
I'd agree and say that the election of Biden is a great opportunity for moderate Republicans to reclaim some lost ground--if they are willing. Biden is pre-disposed to compromise and highly experienced in the give-and-take of governance. He'll be sensitive to the political needs of his opponents. While that approach may disappoint many on the Left, ultimately, I think it'll be good for the Democrats and, more importantly, the country.
Another prominent conservative Jonah Goldberg writes change has begun.
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