The Trump Mantle: To win his base, you must acknowledge his strength

There are many Republicans who want to move on from Trump, and many who want him to run again in 2024. Even critics like Senator Mitt Romney believe Trump will receive the nomination if he runs again.

Perhaps he has enough pettiness for Democrats in his heart to endure their barrage of vitriol and take his family back through the firing squad. Perhaps he will feel a deep sense of patriotism that will compel him to do it. But if we believe Trump is still the best man for the job, four years into the future, I think we’re in trouble.

I don’t say that out of a lack of love for the former president. I say that because it speaks to the standard of our bench. If no one else can take his mantle, we don’t have much of a future.

Trump was, by no means, a perfect candidate nor an infallible president. The people who voted for him acknowledged this repeatedly, but he received enough of their love because he was (or at least gave the impression) that he was willing to fight for his base. That’s why they were willing to passionately fight for him, even at the risk of being disrespected, censored, harassed, or even physically harmed.

Candidates spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out how to accomplish the sort of adoration Trump received, or even just a portion of it. The truth is politics isn’t that hard. You simply have to listen to the people you want to govern. Yes, it takes time to make connections and build name ID. Yes, you need money, and it takes time to raise it unless you’re extremely wealthy or have benefactors. But you have to win on ideas, and nobody likes ideas more than their own.

Trump started with a major issue: immigration. It catapulted him to the front. Seasoned campaigners couldn’t quite read the room, but Trump went to great lengths to try to represent the people. He met with minority groups, community leaders, evangelical pastors, and so on. He didn’t try to tame the base, like many highbrow Republicans who resent the grassroots. Trump studied them and made promises he intended to keep. No, he never became a deep thinker or conservative ideologue, but he partnered with conservative think tanks to act as an interpreter of sorts. He established trust by making gestures like producing lists for Supreme Court nominees. His ideology could be boiled down to two key points: “America is and should remain the best” and “don’t let our country be ripped off.” Trump didn’t have to be conservative, as long as he promised to conserve the conservatives. To his voters, he was a flawed yet acceptable conduit for them.

Perhaps Republicans like John Kasich couldn’t understand it. He fancies himself the adult in the room. During the first Republican presidential debate, he shruggingly threw his hands in the air and announced he had been to a gay wedding, as if all of our problems could be solved by joining hands and singing kumbaya. Mind you, this was at a time when a Democrat clerk was jailed for not issuing a wedding license to a gay couple. So, how can Trump, who hugged LBGT flags and appointed an openly gay man like Richard Grenell to his cabinet, still hold the hearts of the evangelical right? Because they believed he’d fight to preserve their freedoms. Men like Kasich would risk the passage of the Equality Act—an attack on the freedom of religion, association, and rights of women—than vote for someone who talks tough and tweets mean. Are Jeff Flake and others satisfied with Biden killing good-paying energy jobs with the stroke of a pen? That was an inevitability and an acceptable sacrifice to end Trump.

Never Trumpers like Kasich put men like Biden in office, and Biden nominated men like Dr. Rachel Levine to be the assistant health secretary. Levine served as the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health during the pandemic. The fact Levine moved his own mother from a nursing home while infected patients moved in, should have been enough to throw out his nomination. However, Paul’s exchange with Levine over children and puberty blockers, became the hot story and one that should alarm every parent in America. When faced with the question of whether Levine believed children should be able to bypass parental consent for puberty blockers and so on, Levine opted not to answer until he was appointed to the position.

What fight is bigger than whether a parent gets a say in the crucial development of their child? I don’t know what the vote total will come down to. The left-wing media is doing their best to paint Senator Paul as a transphobe rather than Levine as a radical, but Republicans must have the courage to stand against the outrage machine and vote “no” on any radical nominee and any dangerous legislation.

Does our current Republican bench have the courage to stand up for Republicans? Censorship, cultural wars of gender and race, and media bias were concerns before Trump got elected. Do upcoming Republicans have the conviction to take on these issues now that they’re worse? And as important as these issues are, there’s still immigration, the economy, energy, and a host of other issues to deal with.

I fully respect that we’re a big tent with different ideas, and we have more agreements than grievances. But if Republicans aren’t willing to fight the big battles, they’re worthless representation.

I don’t want a Trump-replica. Frankly, I don’t think he can be replicated. But his success can be duplicated. Republicans who are so eagerly waiting to be rid of him should acknowledge his strengths and refine them. No, you don’t have to figuratively punch the media in the face. You can elegantly cut them down in a more Reaganesque kind of way, but you’ve got to push back.

Whoever is the future nominee won’t receive “at least he’s not Trump” commentary. The media will find reasons to say they’re worse, especially if they’re more effective.

Perhaps Trump will be the nominee in 2024. If so, he should refine his strengths and tamper his weaknesses. But he’s not the only viable candidate on the board, and he shouldn’t be. The Republican Party must have a future beyond Trump.

We’re not returning to business as usual, and we can’t. If you begin a major boss battle with a low-level player, you’re in for one spectacular failure after another. Democrats have advanced too far in their radical agenda, to place the fate of America in the hands of Republicans who care more about decorum than victory and prioritize donor dollars over the liberties of our children.

Trump made mistakes; some were small, some were painful. But those pretending it was all a bad dream need to wake up and rejoin reality. There is a lot of good to unpack from the Trump Administration, but as he says at the close of nearly every speech, the best is yet to come.

I pray to God this is true.