The NeverTrump third party delusion
Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:04 pm
The NeverTrump third party delusion
https://theweek.com/articles/966393/nev ... y-delusion
With the obvious exceptions of libertarians, who I am convinced do not breed in the wild, there is probably no political tendency more overrepresented in media relative to its actual share of the population than so-called "NeverTrump" Republicans. Every national newspaper in the country has at least one of these people on the opinion page; they are ubiquitous on cable television, and in the last four years they have created successors � Thhe Bulwark, The Dispatch � tto the established conservative publications at which they were all previously employed. (It turns out that all you actually need is some wealthy backers and a handful of willing hacks to do journalism � the "whole audieence in Middle America whose worldview we represent" thing was always an unnecessary middle step.)
I have a sentimental weakness for third parties. In a merrier world, perhaps one in which we had a parliamentary system, four members of the Integrity Party could join the Austin and Brooklyn-based representatives of the DSA Furry Sex Work Caucus in Joe Biden's grand Democratic coalition before it is overturned by an alliance between the GOP and the Party of Q and a loose confederation of crypto-currency and tabletop RPG-based minor parties from the Bay Area.
In the meantime, though, one suspects that NeverTrumpers will be happy doing what some of them have been up to since the Tea Party era: writing opinion pieces about how vulgar everyone else who agrees with them is.
https://theweek.com/articles/966393/nev ... y-delusion
With the obvious exceptions of libertarians, who I am convinced do not breed in the wild, there is probably no political tendency more overrepresented in media relative to its actual share of the population than so-called "NeverTrump" Republicans. Every national newspaper in the country has at least one of these people on the opinion page; they are ubiquitous on cable television, and in the last four years they have created successors � Thhe Bulwark, The Dispatch � tto the established conservative publications at which they were all previously employed. (It turns out that all you actually need is some wealthy backers and a handful of willing hacks to do journalism � the "whole audieence in Middle America whose worldview we represent" thing was always an unnecessary middle step.)
I have a sentimental weakness for third parties. In a merrier world, perhaps one in which we had a parliamentary system, four members of the Integrity Party could join the Austin and Brooklyn-based representatives of the DSA Furry Sex Work Caucus in Joe Biden's grand Democratic coalition before it is overturned by an alliance between the GOP and the Party of Q and a loose confederation of crypto-currency and tabletop RPG-based minor parties from the Bay Area.
In the meantime, though, one suspects that NeverTrumpers will be happy doing what some of them have been up to since the Tea Party era: writing opinion pieces about how vulgar everyone else who agrees with them is.