Experience tells us that America will not operate as a stable and productive liberal democracy in the absence of a reasonable and constructive center-right political party. Unfortunately, that is not on offer right now. The real question with the current GOP is whether it wants to completely destroy American liberal democracy as we have known it, or whether it is willing to live with the constraints of the McConnell Project (free, but gerrymandered elections, with a reactionary Supreme Court severely limiting the power of any Democratic administration).
Donald Trump is the spokesman for the “burn it down” crowd. There is a narrow path for a McConnell Project candidate to defeat him in the 2024 primaries. It includes criticism of Trump’s outrageous, but largely performative, behavior in office and support for NATO and Ukraine. Fox News and the WSJ are clearly open to this kind of campaign. Is there a viable GOP candidate with the intestinal fortitude to try it?
The leadership of the GOP pretty clearly believes that party unity is the road to power, that picking a presidential candidate other than Trump will split off the extremists and thereby make party unity impossible, and that winning power is more important than saving liberal democracy. In the face of that sentiment, do you really think DeSantis, Cotton, Cruz, Hawley, or any of the other wannabes would have the nerve to take on the man on golf cart?
Me, neither. We’ll see.