A lot of conservative pundits have hitched their stars to Donald Trump. What if he loses?
The Fix
A lot of conservative pundits have hitched their stars to Donald Trump. What if he loses?
By Callum Borchers August 28 at 7:00 AM
In future elections, Republicans seeking office will have to answer an important question: Where did you stand on Donald Trump?
Some seem acutely aware of this looming litmus test and are riding the fence (See: Ryan, Paul). Others are boldly offering what they hope will be the right answer.
Ted Cruz, counting on a Trump defeat in November, has positioned himself as a principled holdout, apparently convinced that refusing to endorse his party's presidential nominee will boost his 2020 stock among Republican voters, who will realize they nominated the wrong candidate this time around. Chris Christie, betting on a Trump victory, could be angling for a cabinet appointment but, absent that, may be setting himself up to be able to say in his next campaign that he got in on the ground floor of a rebuilt GOP.
The same thing is happening in the conservative media. Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Breitbart News are all in for Trump. If he wins, they can rightly claim to be the voices of the party — or, at least, the wing of it — in power. If he loses, fierce Trump critics such as Glenn Beck, Bill Kristol and the National Review will enjoy a kind of told-you-so validation that could bolster their credibility going forward.
That’s how it looks to me, anyway. For perspective from someone who is actually a player in this high-stakes game, I talked to National Review editor Rich Lowry about what he thinks is on the line in this election for his publication and everyone else on the right side of the press who has taken a strong stance, one way or the other, on the polarizing Republican nominee.
The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
THE FIX: You guys came out strongly and quite early in the race with your “Against Trump” issue. When we spoke about that in January, you talked about how you think of yourselves as a conscience of conservatism. Let’s say Trump wins. Will you have lost that status because the conscience is now with him and not you?
LOWRY: Well, conservatism needs a conscience whether it’s in power or not. We’ve gone through these phases before. Richard Nixon was elected president twice, and we were never quite comfortable with him and were very often at odds with him. It was always a very fraught relationship. Kind of the same thing with George H. W. Bush, once he broke the tax pledge. So we’re here to hold up the banner for these ideas. We’d prefer that people in power believe in them and try to pass policies in accordance with them, but that’s not always the case. It’s our role to keep banging the drum, regardless.
READ MORM: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fi...
A lot of conservative pundits have hitched their stars to Donald Trump. What if he loses?
By Callum Borchers August 28 at 7:00 AM
In future elections, Republicans seeking office will have to answer an important question: Where did you stand on Donald Trump?
Some seem acutely aware of this looming litmus test and are riding the fence (See: Ryan, Paul). Others are boldly offering what they hope will be the right answer.
Ted Cruz, counting on a Trump defeat in November, has positioned himself as a principled holdout, apparently convinced that refusing to endorse his party's presidential nominee will boost his 2020 stock among Republican voters, who will realize they nominated the wrong candidate this time around. Chris Christie, betting on a Trump victory, could be angling for a cabinet appointment but, absent that, may be setting himself up to be able to say in his next campaign that he got in on the ground floor of a rebuilt GOP.
The same thing is happening in the conservative media. Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Breitbart News are all in for Trump. If he wins, they can rightly claim to be the voices of the party — or, at least, the wing of it — in power. If he loses, fierce Trump critics such as Glenn Beck, Bill Kristol and the National Review will enjoy a kind of told-you-so validation that could bolster their credibility going forward.
That’s how it looks to me, anyway. For perspective from someone who is actually a player in this high-stakes game, I talked to National Review editor Rich Lowry about what he thinks is on the line in this election for his publication and everyone else on the right side of the press who has taken a strong stance, one way or the other, on the polarizing Republican nominee.
The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
THE FIX: You guys came out strongly and quite early in the race with your “Against Trump” issue. When we spoke about that in January, you talked about how you think of yourselves as a conscience of conservatism. Let’s say Trump wins. Will you have lost that status because the conscience is now with him and not you?
LOWRY: Well, conservatism needs a conscience whether it’s in power or not. We’ve gone through these phases before. Richard Nixon was elected president twice, and we were never quite comfortable with him and were very often at odds with him. It was always a very fraught relationship. Kind of the same thing with George H. W. Bush, once he broke the tax pledge. So we’re here to hold up the banner for these ideas. We’d prefer that people in power believe in them and try to pass policies in accordance with them, but that’s not always the case. It’s our role to keep banging the drum, regardless.
READ MORM: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fi...
