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The McMullin Strategy vs. The Capitol Riot
The McMullin Strategy
When it became clear that the “Never Trump” strategy was going to fail, and that Donald J. Trump was going to win the Republican nomination, Bill Kristol at the Weekly Standard decided on a new strategy. If a third-party candidate could get enough electoral college votes, maybe even just carry one state, then neither Trump nor Clinton would get the majority and the election would go to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. There, the calm, reasoned, and sober Representatives would choose from the top three. And here is the plan: They would choose the third-party candidate. In short, the next President of the United States of America would, for the first time ever, be someone that a supermajority of voters voted against, and the first to only win by coming in third on electoral votes.
At first, David French was floated, and he seriously considered running, but decided against it. The Kristol search continued and found Evan McMullin as the candidate. Here was a man of noble character to stand up and make history. And there was a chance he could take Utah. All the better. And so the plan was rolled out, and conservatives who were Never Trump had a man to vote for (instead of just not voting). There was a plan to victory to stop both Trump and Clinton. A Win-Win. Of course, has it worked, it would have been a nightmare,
Let’s play this out. If this had happened, then a man 90%+ of the nation did not vote for, would be selected by the GOP in the House to be President. I’ll say this, Democrat and Republican voters would have been united like never before in the history of the Republic. The outrage would have been intense. How supposedly sober and judicious people like Bill Kristol would think this would be a good pathway forward for the long-term survival of the USA is amazing. How could any rational person think this would be a good idea? The Republican party would be rebuked across the nation, not just by Democrats but by its own base. I would never have voted Republican again. It sure would have given the Never Trumpers their dream of “taking their party back”. Not that they would have much of a party left.
Ignoring the overall outcome that surely would have followed, I’d like to go back to the essence of the plan itself. It was as elitist and technocratic as any plan could possibly be. It was worse than the Democrats shutting out Bernie. It was a plan at told the majority of the American voters, no, not just the majority, but over 90% of them, that their votes did not matter. Think about that! Champions of America deciding that We the People of the United States of America should have their preferences ignored. It is as foul a sentiment as “Let them Eat Cake” and the idea that conservatives were willing to not just entertain it, but actively engage in the plan, shows how hollow their defense of freedom and liberty has been in the past. Anyone signing on to a plan to “save” America by overturning the votes of 90%+ of the voters has moved into the “We had to destroy the village to save it” territory.
After their plan did not work, and McMullin did not get a single electoral vote, the cabal moved their planning to getting enough electors to change their votes to still make things happen. That is to say, again, the voters had spoken, but in violation of the way the Electoral College has worked for 150 years, they wanted to subvert that and use rules lawyering to still win. As Hank Hill once noted, “No one likes a rules lawyer, Bobby.” I think that would have gone down even worse than just a McMullin win. It still shows their utter contempt for not just the Republican and Democrat voters, but for tradition itself, by “conservatives”. This plan was nothing short of an attempt to rules lawyer a small group (compared to the millions of voters) of elite individuals to pick who was the President of the United States. If that is not a coup, then nothing is. There is no way anyone can think that McMullin would have been 100% beholden to the cabal who put him into power. He would not be answerable to the voters at all: he would only be answerable to his masters.
The 2020 election was the most chaotic I have ever seen. And it is not just me. A plurality of Americans think that the elections were stolen, and even more are concerned it was not on the up and up. Conservatives have been calling for Voter ID (like they have in, say, Mexico) for some time and the Democrats have been calling that, like everything they don’t like, racist. Any honest and rational person cannot look at the irregularities of the 2020 election and say there is no reason for concern. I am not saying the election was stolen. Frankly, I don’t think we know. It has been proven that it has some irregularities.
The Capitol Riot
Now let us move to the events of the capitol riot. I’ll ignore the evidence of FBI or Antifa incitement and go with the idea that all we had were Americans upset that the election was stolen, based on the irregularities. It is understandable that emotions were high. These people felt that their nation was on the verge of being stolen (ironically the very thing for which they would later stand accused). So, this mob, got out of hand as mobs do, and in a mostly non-violent manner, entered the Capitol, trespassed (one was shot dead), and mostly stayed behind the velvet ropes like normal visitors. Not as out of control as Andrew Jackson’s supporters when he won (who stood on furniture in muddy boots).
So, we have a mob, wanting to put some pressure on Congress to not certify the vote, which, according to the rules, is something Congress could have done. It would be a somewhat arcane use of the rules to get an outcome, but, as we have just seen, there are conservatives more than happy to see that happen. At least, if they get the outcome they want. And here we have the utter hypocrisy: It was moral and right to subvert the will of 90%+ of the American voters, as a premeditated plan of rule lawyering. It was an affront to all that is sacred about America for a mob of people who love America and think that their nation was being stolen to get out of hand.
I cannot emphasize this enough. A cabal of elites schemed to get their man in the seat of power, against the Will of The People. They love America and what She stands for. They had a plan that would use the rules we agree on, even if that meant overturning a tradition of 150 years. This needed to be done to save America, Land that they love. On the other hand, we have a gathering of protestors, who love America, who were afraid that the election was stolen, got caught up in the moment, and went overboard. They hurt no one and killed no one (though one of their members was shot with no warning). They were respectful of the People’s House. They are American Patriots. They got out of control. And they love America. They seek to preserve Her, not overthrow her.
The elites seeking to overturn the Will of the People are the very people calling for the mob at the Capitol to be considered an Insurrection. This shows their contempt for the people. Ordinary Americans cannot hope to engage in some sort of parliamentary tricks to get their hand-picked man into the White House. They are locked out of secret meetings on islands. They are locked out of the halls of power. They don’t have millions of dollars with which to purchase influence. They have nothing but the soapbox and ballot box. The cabal who are calling them a threat to the Republic, are the same people who schemed to take away the ballot box. It makes no difference if you vote, if men meeting on islands nullify that vote and put their hand-selected man into power. Now, these same men, having wanted to make other’s votes meaningless, are outraged that those they would render voiceless rioted. Think about that: Bill Kristol, and every person who signed onto his plan, wants to nullify your vote, and if you protest it, you are the problem. America was founded in a war about not being allowed to vote. Who knew that modern conservatives were Tories?
With all that out of the way, I can finally get to my point. The same people who wanted to subvert the republican processes in which we select our President through a cold, calculated plan, are the same people who want to use the actions of an upset and semi-desperate mob to condemn Trump for all time as trying interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. The people who wanted to use the rules to redirect the peaceful transfer of power to their man, want to claim that Trump was trying to upset the transfer of power because he held a rally, after which, other upset people got out of control.
Those men who schemed, and anyone who supported them with a vote for their man McMullin, have no moral standing to complain about anyone upsetting the peaceful transfer of power. Those men and their supporters planned to do just that, so that their selected man could be installed against the Will of the People.
The next time you talk to someone who wants to blame Trump for the Capitol riot, if you know he or she voted for McMullin, point out that he or she engaged in a plan far, far worse to the Republic. They won’t own it, but maybe anyone else listening will ask questions. The Kristol plan is mostly forgotten. It should not be.
Published in Politics
The problem is a little thing that seems to be the way of the Democrats called lawfare. Basically it is waging war by law suites, interpreting the law in new ways, redefining words, etc. This has now become the standard way for the Democrat / government to do business. After watching the other side to it for their entire life and watching how peaceful protests (riots) are used to great effect you can understand why the Right, tired of losing and seeing something that looks like the Dems gamed the system again decided to try to game it right back. Of course, that in lawfare talk is sedation leading to white racist being locked up for 9 months with almost no legal representation and report of beatings. But they are just Deplorables so as usual, laws and humanity does not apply to them.
This also fits Zuckerberg. To a large extent it also applies to all of the Democrat pandemic election lawfare.
Really well done column.
Thank you
And Yes, it fits the rich and powerful too.
Very good
Thank you.
Great post. Both parties are controlled by a common cabal of corporatists. I am still not worked up about the J6 Sit-in. It looks the FBI is loosing interest, now that people are ask questions about their involvement.
Thank you.
That is a lucid, intelligent, well thought-out objection. — Judge Haller, My Cousin Vinnie
Seriously, very good, cogent, poignant, and powerful article. I haven’t heard this argument before and you state it very well.
Thank you.
Truly great article, especially the quote Rufus highlighted. Deserves better than our humble host.
Thank you.
Nice image. Thank you.
Bill Kristol’s podcast is still part of the Ricochet brand.
THIS MUST END.
Well, I suppose it makes them money, so they keep it.
I can choose to pay for R> or not as my protest. Like with many products, I end up paying for some things that I don’t want or need.
What I am trying to do here is to have a reasonable argument that Bill Kristol engaged in a project to tell hundreds of millions of voters their votes don’t matter.
It’s a great argument. I hope more of the Kristol-boosters read and comprehend it.
Intellectual consistency is not a natural characteristic of Never Trump.
I don’t know. They wanted to overturn Trump’s 2016 election, and now they want to overturn Biden’s 2020 election. That seems pretty consistent.
This is the problem with the Never Trump. They either have a poor assessment of the current environment (social, economic, and government) or they are just rent seekers trying to get back to where they were before we started having all of these problems. Either way, it’s going to be tricky.
That is not to say that supporting MAGA policy is simple. You really have to pay attention to what is happening and think about how we got here, and realistically how we are going to get out of it.
Trump was going to make some mistakes because he wasn’t intellectually curious about government and civics. This was predictable. But that is the price you pay to get some change and some attention on the right things. I thought he did really well with foreign policy and I was terrified about his lack of experience.
I was worried about this too, but it turned out Trump had good instincts.
I think having a President who is proud to be an American and proud of American citizens is a good foundation.
I have absolutely no idea how anybody who isn’t in the business can figure out who is lying to them about foreign policy. That stuff is absolutely fraught unless you’ve spent a little bit of time in the right type of job or position in Congress.
I am not sure even they can figure it out. It is hard.
THIS MUST END!!
Easy on the cancel culture. Don’t drop Kristol. We need to be reminded phonies like that exist.
True. I’m just worried about others being drawn into his cult of suck.
Kristol blew persuasion.
Yeah. Rolled a 1 for sure.
For anyone who missed that:
It’s a good argument in some ways, but ultimately falls a little flat since people did vote for their Representatives. It’s not like the Republican National Committee – none of whom are elected – would have picked whoever they wanted as President.
And remember too, the original system was that the President was selected essentially by state legislatures directly, without a separate popular vote. So “the people” didn’t vote for President then, either. But that doesn’t mean the President selection wasn’t “determined” by the voters, since the voters elected their state legislatures. Even if the legislatures didn’t select the same President that their voters would have preferred.
People have gotten used to “voting for president” but that doesn’t mean a giant hand came down from above to Make It So. Or that It Should Always Have Been So, and Must Always Be So.
And it’s really the same thing as the people not voting on each individual bill that goes through Congress. They vote for who represents them. And then are sometimes dismayed when the person they voted for, doesn’t end up voting “their way” perhaps even 10% of the time. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have “representation.”
That totally ignores the 150 years of precedent. You are are arguing that the rules lawyering is OK because it is the rules. Congratulations, you are pro technocracy just like Bill and his cabal.