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‘Embrace the Suck’: It’s Time to Bridge What Divides the GOP
There’s nothing more zealous than a convert, goes the old saying. Conversions are deeply transformative. Converts more deeply embrace and evangelize their new faith, whether in religion or politics.
It doesn’t just happen with party switchers. Sometimes, someone wakes up and is politically charged when teacher unions keep schools shut down, or they read the homework assignments their kids bring home in utter horror. Or being unable to find infant formula at the grocery store for a newborn. Paying $5 per gallon of gas might do it, too.
I’ve had conversions. I was raised a southern populist Democrat from rural Oklahoma who once volunteered for former US Senator Fred Harris’ (D-OK) presidential campaign in 1976 while attending college. I voted for Jimmy Carter that fall. My first conversion happened in early 1977 when I raced upstairs to my apartment’s mailbox to open my first paycheck stub for my first job out of college and was shocked to find out what was being withheld in payroll taxes. I began to ask where my money was being spent. I didn’t like the answers. I voted for Ronald Reagan and Republicans for House, Senate, and everything else beginning in 1980. I’ve never looked back.
I later worked full-time to help elect dozens of GOP House members and Senators. I would later be nominated in 1995 as Secretary of the US Senate by Majority Leader Robert Dole, who I voted against for Vice President in 1976. Some journey.
I left the GOP for a year, registering as an Independent in Pennsylvania when Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee in 2016. His emergence offended my sensibilities. I held my nose and voted for him in 2016 anyway because I knew Hillary Clinton was worse and didn’t want to throw away my vote. I had my personal experiences with the Clinton machine some 10 years earlier as the nominee to a GOP seat on the Federal Election Commission. I’ve seen government power abused firsthand. I feared that the abuse would return in spades.
I enthusiastically embraced Trump in 2020 after three historic Supreme Court nominations and other successful policies. I didn’t have to agree with everything he said or did. I still don’t.
My latest “conversion,” more of an epiphany, was caused by two events in 2018. The Senate confirmation battle over now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh – not even my first choice for the job – and pathetic propaganda news reporting over the October “migrant caravan” that placed me square in cancel culture’s sites.
I lost a few friends over my Trump support and sympathies. I lost a few more when my angst over January 6th wasn’t acceptable to many. I cast a skeptical eye at some of the initial reporting, some of which was later proven false. I dared not to call it an “insurrection.” I still don’t because it wasn’t.
As a convert, I know both sides of the GOP divide intimately. There has always been conflict between “establishment” and “populist” Republicans, many of whom used to be Democrats like me. It goes back to Reagan v. Bush in 1980 and perhaps even Ford v. Reagan in 1976. Even Goldwater v. Rockefeller/Romney and everyone else in 1964, and Eisenhower v. Taft in 1952. That’s some history. It’s been brewing for a while. It’s more style than substance, but it boiled over with the emergence of Donald Trump. But as friends and allies, we can disagree but shouldn’t be divided over political differences.
The conflict was evident as many populist voters stayed home when hedge fund manager Mitt Romney was the nominee in 2012. On Election Day 2012, my wife and I knocked on some 300 doors for Romney to turn out GOP voters in Lancaster County, PA, a deep red enclave. The lack of enthusiasm for “Pierre Delecto” was palpable. I ignored the warning flags. I still thought Romney was sure to win. Oops. Obama handily won Pennsylvania and the presidency.
In 2016 and later in 2020, establishment and elitist Republicans, from George W. Bush to many of my friends, eschewed support for Trump. Some even proclaimed their support for Hillary Clinton or, later, Joe Biden over “mean tweets,” offensive comments, and perceptions of chaos, narcissism, and erratic unpredictability. For others, Joe Biden was better for their lobbying business (how Washington works). It wasn’t fashionable to be for Trump inside Washington’s I-495 Beltway, and not profitable enough for others.
Look where that has taken us. We traded mean tweets from “orange man bad” for the Afghanistan debacle, historic inflation levels, and a double-digit drop in the stock market. The value of the dollar and our 401(k)s are shrinking faster than inflation is going up. At least my home value has gone up, but where would I move if I were to sell it?
It’s a mistake to attribute too much “credit” or “blame” to Donald Trump since he’s more a symptom than a cause. But the truth is that the “Trump era” conveniently exposes, if not defines, the division that plagues the GOP and the broader culture. But as a recent trip to France during their presidential election confirmed, it’s also a global phenomenon. Rural versus urban. Working-class giletes jaunes versus the Parisian technocrats and managers. Nationalists versus globalists. The privileged versus the disenfranchised. That’s not all on Trump.
By the way, France had plenty of infant formula on their shelves. I saw it for myself. So does Canada, I’m told. The infant formula shortage is a crisis of the Biden Administration’s own making.
This divide continues to play out across the US in political campaigns at all levels, from the attorney general’s race in Texas to Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial nomination, where “Ultra MAGA” candidate Doug Mastriano powered his way to a 44 percent win over 8 other candidates, none of whom were close. It is both cultural and political. Many in Pennsylvania’s business and political establishment, at least those aligned with the GOP, are apoplectic over retired Army Colonel and current St. Senator Mastriano’s nomination.
After writing about Mastriano’s win in a blog post – I supported another candidate – I outlined how he could win. It’s a narrow path, but it’s winnable given the solid anti-Biden, anti-Democratic political climate. It’s the kind of post a loyal Republican makes even if his candidate loses.
I posted it on my Facebook page. A friend, former lobbyist, and an ex-county GOP chair, whom I greatly respect, quickly disagreed. I seriously doubt that he read my post. “Sorry to disagree. I think he’s (Mastriano’s) done. As (a former) County Republican Chairman and involved in Pennsylvania campaigns for over fifty years, I have never seen a worse state of affairs—bad candidate, united opposition, dysfunctional GOP—and all at a time when we could take that office. I’d rather concentrate on holding the Senate seat.” Hugh Scott, call your office.
That was illustrative, and I’ve heard it elsewhere from other Republican professionals. I espoused it myself briefly in 2016 when Trump decimated my preferred candidates, from Rick Santorum to Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz when Pennsylvania’s primary finally rolled around. I could not imagine a candidate like Trump heading my party. I heard it again in 2020 when friends and former GOP members of Congress like Charlie Dent (R-PA) endorsed Joe Biden over Donald Trump. They pick up their marbles and go home when they don’t get their way. Or worse, they grift like the discredited Lincoln Project, which donned blue jerseys and took cash from Democratic funders to trash GOP candidates. And they made serious money.
Trump supporters and your average, everyday Republicans who don’t don suits and ties and aren’t part of the Washington culture or employ lobbyists traipsing around Gucci Gulch have noticed. And Republicans can’t win without them.
Establishment GOP types take populist votes for granted when their preferred candidates are nominated and wonder why populist voters stay home in large numbers. But when a populist candidate wins a primary, establishment types pick up their single malt scotches, hide their checkbooks, and head to the Metropolitan Club or Union League to lament the deplorable rubes who have taken over their party. They abandon party nominees who offend their sensibilities. Even if they can win.
This is how you get a Joe Biden. How is that working out?
Ronald Reagan was an exception. You may have been for George H. W. Bush in 1980 (I was), or perhaps Howard Baker or even Robert Dole. Your candidate lost, but Reagan exuded sunny optimism with class. He was a terrific communicator, a genuine unifier, and downright impressive. He knew how to bring you into his tent. I doubt even Reagan could do that today, but I wish he were around to try. Or someone like him.
The question is, whose party is it? And if it is a big tent, is there a way to bridge the divide?
Mastriano, whom I’ve never met, is at least saying all the right things post-primary about unifying the party. I outlined several other steps he needs to run a more attractive and inclusive campaign as the “happy warrior” for conservative change on issues that matter to everyday Pennsylvanians. He has some missionary work with suburban and other voters bothered by some of his careless pronouncements on election integrity and “J6” affiliations. But those are fixable in an environment where Republicans have a 9-point lead or more on the generic ballot test. Other issues focus voters’ minds, from infant formula and other shortages to $5 per gallon gasoline and raging inflation.
Mastriano says Pennsylvania Republicans ‘absolutely have to come together’ after intense primary | Just The News https://t.co/D6okBS1Zk7
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) May 19, 2022
It’s smart politics to help Mastriano this fall. A rising tide lifts all boats. At least the ones that haven’t had too many holes shot through the hull, especially the starboard side.
Sure, a primary may produce a candidate so odious that party leaders feel obliged to reject him or her. That happened in Louisiana in 1990, when notorious racist David Duke, who was running as a Republican, made the runoff against incumbent Democrat US Senator J. Bennett Johnston (no relation). My candidate lost, so I would either support the toxic Duke or Johnston. That was a no-brainer. The GOP, led by President Bush, Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, and others, quickly lined up behind Johnston. He was handily re-elected.
Side note: Duke wasn’t done. A year later, he sought the governorship against the colorful and ethically-challenged former Democratic Governor, Edwin Edwards. Late in the campaign, Edwards’ new bumper stickers read, “Vote for The Crook; It’s Important.” Edwards won handily and later found his way to jail nine years later. He was convicted of extorting money from companies for casino licenses. Edwards died last year. Louisiana politics are interesting, to say the least. Duke would later run unsuccessfully for US Senate again in 1996 and 2016. He’s still around. He endorsed Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign for President in 2020 and then Donald Trump’s reelection. Both repeatedly disavowed him.
And while Democrats no doubt will try to contort Mastriano into a David Duke, the 30-year Army veteran and retired colonel with 4 overseas deployments (three of them to Afghanistan) doesn’t fit the mold. He’s worthy of support based on everything we now know. Other candidates like him are winning nominations for other offices around the country. Most are relatively new to politics, which also bothers a few old-timers.
Perhaps Republicans instead should focus on the Democratic nominees and their questionable records. Democratic gubernatorial nominee and current Attorney General Josh Shapiro took Catholic nuns – The Little Sisters of the Poor – to court to strip away protections they’d won not to distribute contraceptives as part of their health care to women (it violated their strongly-held faith). There’s more from Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Partners and Chamber of Entrepreneurs:
As attorney general, he went to court to defend Gov. Wolf’s draconian and unpopular business shutdown orders. Shapiro also fought in court to allow schools to continue denying students in-person learning. And he betrayed his blue-collar union supporters when his office signed off on Pennsylvania’s entrance into the job-destroying Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
And then there’s this weirdness in the Shapiro household when a “My Pillow” commercial came on their family television. Shapiro tweeted on December 15, 2020: “That awful My Pillow guy just came on while our family is watching the Sixers game together. Lori and I yelled at the TV and told the kids to avert their eyes because there was inappropriate content on the screen.” LOL.
In northern Virginia this weekend. Republicans nominated retired Navy Captain, home-school dad, and Vietnam refugee Hung Cao in Virginia’s marginally Democratic 10th District over a better-funded elected official from Prince William County.
Politics is a numbers game. He or she with the most votes wins. And governs. My favorite candidates don’t always win, but I have learned to embrace my party’s nominee whenever possible. It doesn’t mean that I embrace everything they say or do. I have also seen the consequences of fickle and self-interested party elders abandoning nominees, resulting not just in defeats but in national security and economic disasters.
I may disagree with my nominees half the time. But I disagree with Democratic nominees all the time.
In times like this, it’s time for all hands on deck. There’s too much at stake. You may not like the primary results. I don’t. But as one friend told me, sometimes we must “embrace the suck.” And that includes the increasing likelihood that Dr. Mehmet Oz will be Pennsylvania’s GOP nominee for US Senate.
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This poster speaks with a forked tongue, eh?
The Ukrainian one was a complete sham. The J6 one is a closer issue. I think it was overblown, the right decision was reached, and J6 is an insane overreaction. That having been said I can appreciate the other point of view at the time. It hasn’t worn well 16 months in.
I actually addressed this last year on August 30, 2021. https://ricochet.com/1038929/apologies-owed-by-a-biden-and-b-trump-voters/
Biden was far worse than I had expected due to Afghanistan at the time of the writing of that post, but Trump had topped himself after the November 2020 election with his refusal to acknowledge his loss and his insistence that Republicans adore the emperor’s new clothes, leading to the January 6th riot.
Since then Biden got worse in the area of inflation, but partially redeemed himself in Ukraine. Trump has stayed just as horrible as before. So I did not realize the degree to policy rot that Biden would show, or the degree of integrity rot that Trump would show.
Knowing what I know now, I really don’t know how I would have voted in November 2020, as both Biden and Trump have turned out to be far, far worse than I thought at the time.
My solution now is to foster sane Republicans. My giving this cycle is 10:1 for Non-Trumpy Republicans as opposed to Democrats. (I am sure that an expose will be done by Kozak about my donations this current cycle.)
I gave to both Brad Raffensperger and Brian Kemp and am ecstatic about their victories. I gave to the Republicans who voted for Trump’s second impeachment and conviction. I gave to the sole sane Ohio Republican for Senate who came in third out of five.
I am in State Senator Wendy Rogers Legislative District #7, and defeating her is a high priority. I have given to her primary opponent, State Senator Kelly Townsend who is far more conservative than me, and have offered to walk a precinct for her. Rogers was censured by a majority of Republican State Senators. If Rogers wins her primary, my only ethical choice will be to vote for the Democrat if he or she has a pulse.
I have given to House Speaker Rusty Bowers who is very conservative, but never bought into the State Senate Maricopa County Ninja Recount B.S. Bowers was a profile in courage. Bowers is running for the State Senate in District 10.
For Governor, I can’t stand Kari Lake and would vote for the Democrat if she is nominated. The same is true as to Mark Finchem who is running for Secretary of State.
Why are you donating to state elections you don’t live in?
I can understand senate and house races, sorta, but this feels like it’s just as unethical as foreign governments donating. It’s not your state. It’s not your community. It’s not what you need to live with.
It matters who is in Congress, and who controls each body.
As for Georgia, Brad Raffensperger and Brian Kemp are the bravest Republicans running for Governor or Secretary of State in the United States, so I gave to them. I literally have a First Amendment Right to contribute to other Americans.
This has never come up before, but I don’t give to candidates in foreign countries.
People won’t even embrace the suck for bad service at a restaurant. And why should they? But we are told we have to put up with the sucking and failure of a party that is letting this country get destroyed because they suck and fail. No thanks. The party should die instead of the country.
That’s fine but let’s stop pretending you’re about localism or small government or whatverr other bromide the worthless right has pushed for 45 years. If all elections are national and the nation gets a say then let’s stop with the fiction that states or districts matter and that you want more control in their hands.
Yes and no. When it comes to walking in my precinct, I will be walking against State Senator Wendy Rogers who is my State Senator.
Wendy Rogers was censured by a majority of Republican State Senators. She suggested that the Buffalo killer was a federal agent. She consorts with White Supremacists. She has said that we need gallows to punish traitors.
Right. But you don’t think other states have a right to an interference-free election for their own state officials. Stop talking about senators and reps. I said I get that a bit more. I still think it’s wrong, but it’s more understanding as their reps and senators affect national laws. But the state Governor and AG? No. Those have no effect on you. That’s you influencing a process that someone else must live with.
And given the wide wide wide definition of white supremacist, I don’t believe you on that and that’s the only thing on that list that says anything out of line. The FBI is a mess and I think the legal consequence of treason is death, isn’t it?
I very much agree with you on this, Stina. I also think it is nonsensical that Donald Trump is endorsing candidates for state legislatures and state executive offices in states where he does not live. If Donald Trump makes endorsements in Florida, good for him. But Michigan, Texas, Arizona? I would prefer that everyone mind their own business and tend to matters in their own state. I don’t want Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Gary Robbins, or even Ted Cruz telling Republicans whom to back in state primaries where said endorser does not live.
How about this. As with other situations, including here on Ricochet where we’re told that we don’t need an “ignore” feature, just scroll past people you don’t want to read… people are free to ignore any or all endorsements they think don’t matter. But there are bound to be people in pretty much every state who would like to know who people like Ted Cruz or even Donald Trump support as being similar-minded, etc.
So for you and the others, I’ll repeat what we often hear from TPTB at Ricochet: if you don’t care, just scroll past. They’re not talking to you anyway.
I’ll close with a happy “neener!”
@soupguy, thanks for this post. It shows a very nuanced understanding of campaigns, candidates, and party-building.
In the 1990s, I was a member of the Orange County (CA) GOP central committee. During most of that time, Orange County was heavily dominated by the GOP. (Sadly, it’s less true today.). We had a gentleman, a retired Marine LTC and business executive, who was elected to the State Assembly. He was pretty reliably conservative in the State Assembly and was not known as a troublemaker.
When the State Senate seat for that district was going to be open in the next cycle, he wanted to run for that seat. So did several others. There was a hotly contested primary, and he lost. He spent his remaining time in the legislature, and later as a retired politician, complaining bitterly about the county party, our county chairman, the state party, and his fellow local electeds. He seemed to think the seat should have been his, the party should have cleared the field for him (something neither we nor our chairman could or would do) and the local donor base should have fallen in line behind him. He hinted darkly at conspiracies to marginalize him. He was the epitome of sour grapes.
As a former Assemblyman, he spent more time complaining and hurling invective at the GOP than the Democrats. Keep in mind that Willie Brown was the Speaker of the California Assembly at the time, and he and his majority were running roughshod over the state, and doing damage that persists to this day.
What I took from this episode is that there are some people who, when elections don’t go their way, lose their perspective and become sunk in bitterness and recriminations. I’ve seen it since then in other contexts. Sometimes it’s the candidate’s inner circle or strong supporters who buy into that view. They want to tear down, not build up. They’re not worth listening to, in my view.
Politics is a long game, and it’s one of addition, not subtraction. If you don’t like the GOP, keep working to improve it, and don’t be easily deterred. It took a long time to get to this place, and it won’t be undone quickly.
ETA: Endorsements don’t carry as much weight with voters as politicians think they do.
The GOP state assemblyman you referred to, but did not name, is/was Gil Ferguson.
I deliberately didn’t name him, but yes, I knew his name. Did you live in OC back in those days?
Yes. I grew up in San Bernardino county and started working in Orange county a year after I graduated from college. I moved to Orange county in 1993 and left in 1996.
I was a volunteer for the recall campaign against Doris Allen, the Republican who allied with Willie Brown in 1994-1995 to prevent GOP control over the State Assembly.
You’ve got a good memory for someone who only lived in OC relatively briefly. I lived there from 1980-2005. Still have good friends there. (Not all the Republicans have moved out of state!)
Doris Allen…..what a traitor. She richly deserved her eventual recall and ignominious end of her political career. There’s another good lesson in her story.
I was a political junkie back in the early 1990s and remain a political junkie to this day.
I remember sitting in a restaurant at a large family event sometime after the 1994 elections, when the Republicans gained about 8 state assembly seats, bringing their total number to 41 out of 80.
I was talking to some guy who was a businessman and I mentioned Jim Brulte, the leader of the Republicans in the Assembly at the time (I think) and how he would be the next Speaker of the Assembly.
The person I was talking to asked, “Is that really a done deal?”
A month or so later, Paul Horcher, a Republican representing Diamond Bar, voted for Willie Brown, causing a tie vote. So, the recall of Paul Horcher began.
It was a crazy few years.
I wonder what Brown offered him, maybe access to Kamala Harris?
In other words, many Never Trumpers made it personal and continue to do so. So yes, it’s personal
It could be a “David Duke” type situation. Some politician does something or says something that causes you to say, “I can’t vote for that person.”
I think everyone has their “line in the sand.” For some, it’s the 2nd Amendment. For some it’s abortion. For some it’s racism (the David Duke example).
Put it this way. If Lisa Murkowski won the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, my guess is that many life long Republican voters would not vote for Murkowksi.
I didn’t vote for George W. Bush and would never vote for another Bush.
I spent the evening of the 1994 elections in a hotel suite at the hotel where the county GOP had its election night party, with a bunch of political junkies, obsessively watching both state and national returns. This was pre-smart phones, and the candidates were periodically calling the Secretary of State’s office directly to get updates. I’ll never forget that night . Not only did we take the state Assembly majority (until the treachery of Doris Allen and others) but the historic takeover of the Congressional majority, after so many years in the minority, made it a fantastic, jubilant night. One of my best political memories.
I have great memories of election night 1994 also. In 1995, after the successful recall of Paul Horcher (Diamond Bar) and Doris Allen (Seal Beach) and Willie Brown vacating his state assembly seat to become mayor of San Fransisco, Curt Pringle became the first Republican speaker of the California Assembly actually supported by all Republicans in decades.
But then in 1996, after I had already moved to Colorado, the GOP lost several state assembly seats, lost more in 1998 when Gray Davis won in a landslide against Republican Dan Lundgren.
These days the Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state assembly about about a 3 to 1 ratio. So, I look back at that 1994 election as really the GOP’s last stand against Democrat hegemony in California.
Curt Pringle was a friend of mine. I walked precincts for him in the 1994 cycle. When I was in Sacramento on business during his time as Speaker, he gave me and my then-boss a personal tour of the state Capitol, including going up on the dais in the Assembly chamber. It was a blast!