Iowa Republicans can Dump Trump and Save their Party and Democracy
Their party anyway...
Governor Reynolds and other Republican candidates campaigning in Pella before the 2022 midterms.
Todd Dorman with the Gazette has, for the umpteenth time, pointed out how fearful Governor Reynolds and the Iowa Republican Congressional representatives are of losing Trump voters.
We’ve all seen, over and over, what Dorman describes:
“Politicians are so gutless in the face of potentially losing Trump voters they’ll toss their principles, deny the truth and twist themselves into pathetic knots trying to argue there’s nothing to see here.”
Dorman says U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson has become Iowa’s chief Trump apologist. I’m sure she doesn’t mean it, but to me, her tweets (X’s?) read like she’s being held hostage. Which, of course, she is, but she’s a hostage of her own making.
Galen Bacharier with the Des Moines Register noted that in the day or so after the Georgia indictment, with the exception of Hinson, Iowa’s Republican leadership was largely silent. If I remember correctly, this was the first time after an indictment that they didn’t rush to Trump’s defense. But there are so many indictments I can’t keep track.
Regardless, Republican leaders are getting squishy on Trump, for good reasons. And whether they like it or not, Dorman’s critique is spot-on perfect. They need to turn the page or continue to look foolish and likely lose the next election.
Most of my Republican friends here in rural Iowa think Trump’s time is up. They are looking at other Republican candidates carefully. A staffer to one of our members of Congress told me about six months ago off the record that her boss would love to get rid of Trump but didn’t know how.
At least 37 Iowa GOP representatives have endorsed DeSantis.
Over a dozen Iowa Sheriffs and Deputies have endorsed DeSantis.
Conservative Christian Leader Bob Vander Plaats distanced himself from Trump long ago.
It’s clear that Kim Reynold’s relationship with Trump has soured after he criticized her for saying that she would remain neutral during the caucus process. Now Reynolds is backing off her commitment to remaining neutral, saying that while she will remain neutral for now, she could change her mind at a later date.
A poll released this week by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says “nearly two-out-of-three Americans said they would probably not or definitely not support former President Donald Trump in the 2024 race for the White House.”
Republicans have had numerous off-ramps from Trump before (see an earlier piece where I foreshadowed this one), but Kim Reynolds and the Iowa delegation to Congress have a chance, once again, to get rid of Trump, and, at the same time, maybe save their party and democracy. Given our first-in-the-nation caucuses, they have incredible power to influence the race.
Reynolds and other Iowa Republicans can just say that given the circumstances, Trump will not receive their endorsement, leaving their neutrality largely intact. Many Iowa Republican voters are pragmatic, and will look for new leadership among the candidates. This is their permission structure to abandon Trump.
Reynolds could release the statement on her own, or Reynolds and all of the other Republicans in elected office could share a statement, which would be more powerful. In my opinion, Reynolds, Grassley, Ernst, and Feenstra have the least to lose, and Hinson and Miller-Meeks might want to wait a day or two to gauge the reaction before committing.
A version of the statement that should be released might look something like this:
Donald Trump is the best president of my/our lifetime (s). I’m (we’re) proud to call him friend. Together, and with like-minded Republicans across the land, we have accomplished amazing things, and we hope to do more. We need to make America great again.
Yet, with the court challenges President Trump faces, right or wrong, I (we) see no path forward to victory for him this election cycle. My (our) heart (s) goes out to him and his family, and he is always in my (our) prayers. While I (we) feel he will eventually be exonerated, we need to find another champion for now. Sadly, while he will always receive our appreciation, he will not receive my (our) endorsement (s) this election cycle.
And when President Donald Trump is exonerated, and with Joe Biden defeated and another Republican in the White House, America will stand stronger than we ever have before.
God bless President Donald Trump, God bless Iowa, and God bless America.
This will leave the rest of the candidates in the caucus race better positioned to seek the nomination, with Reynolds and the others maintaining, at least for now, their neutrality toward other candidates. This might save the Republican Party, but I’m not sure it will save Democracy. In a chilling report by The New York Times, Trump’s anti-democratic allies are admittedly putting a structure in place that will consolidate power in the executive branch, creating an authoritarian regime if they succeed. Should Trump lose the nomination and another Republican win the presidency, I have no doubt this draconian takeover of independent agencies and the civil service will be embraced by any Republican who wins the office.
Trump is incidental to the plan.
And here I say God bless Todd Dorman and other truth-tellers. It’s they who will truly save democracy.
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Your column contains great insight, as always. My main conclusion is that it is impossible to both save the Republican Party and to save democracy. The Iowa Republican officials now endorsing DeSantis are so far along the road to fascism that very little separates them from Trumpism. The only hope for the future is repeated sound Democratic victories that force a wholesale Republican rehabilitation that brings the remnant of the Party to the 21st Century and reality. And unfortunately, I cannot muster enough faith in the American, and especially, Iowa voters to envision that occurrence.
I don’t understand why in view of everything any Republican can support the past President Trump. I also don’t understand what they are afraid of. Be done with him, find another candidate & get back on track. Continuing to support him makes one wonder about the intelligence of the Republican Party. And what John Edwards, Bill Clinton & even Richard Nixon did pale in comparison to Trump. If Trump were a Democrat this BS would never have been allowed to continue.