Never Trumper Charlie Sykes was a Wisconsin wingnut, supporting Scott Walker and Paul Ryan. Back in 2017, he said he was a man without a country and I think that’s probably true.
In 2016 Sykes emerged as one of Donald Trump’s most prominent critics, a stance that outraged listeners, strained longstanding friendships and left him questioning much of what he once held true.
What it means to be a conservative. The role of race in politics. The wisdom of voters.
More troubling, Sykes believes he and others in the shoutrageous world of talk radio contributed mightily to the rise of Trump, to the contagion of fake news that abetted his presidential candidacy and to invigorating the racist, sexist and xenophobic elements drawn to his caustic campaign.
“Reaping the whirlwind,” Sykes calls it, and though his heresy has opened new avenues, including a commentary role on left-leaning MSNBC, many erstwhile foes question both his motivations and avowedly sudden self-awareness — the leitmotif for a book due out in October.
They liken him to a pyromaniac grieving over the ashes he created, or, as former Wisconsin Democratic Chairman Mike Tate put it, “a guy who slowly fed poison to his dog for 10 years then, when the dog dies of poisoning, throws up his hands and says, ‘My God, how did that happen?’”
For Sykes, it presents something of an existential crisis. Reviled by old allies on the right — “Judas goat!” “Benedict Arnold!” — and distrusted by many on the left, he quit his radio show and finds himself a bit at sea.
“Kind of the man without a country at the moment,” Sykes said.
I don’t know how much has changed since 2017 and I think we’re going to see how deep the the introspection of these guys goes if Trump loses. I don’t think we’ll be surprised if a lot of them revert to form.
But Sykes’ indictment of the Republican party during the Trump years is as good as anything I’ve seen. And it brings up something I think could affect this dynamic going forward. How likely is it that these people who blew up their careers and made enemies of their tribe will be willing to forgive those who acted like pusillanimous hacks and now want to everyone to forget about it? Even if you assume these Never Trumpers are simply opportunists, it’s very likely they have an ax to grind that may motivate them to keep their ire focused on the Republicans. It’s personal with them.
Anyway, here’s Sykes making the case against the Trump collaborators:
Before the election, they could have broken decisively with him over his support for a ban on Muslims, his comments on prisoners of war, his denigration of Gold Star families, the “Access Hollywood” video, allegations of sexual assault, and his other multiple frauds.
During his presidency, they went along with Trump even as he savaged fiscal conservatism, free trade, the global world order, our allies, common decency, truth and the rule of law.
While some of them became fanatical fan-boys a la Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, most of them behaved differently. They knew exactly who Trump was from the beginning, and they didn’t like it much. Many of them were willing to share their concerns privately.
But in public, they were pusillanimous. When they weren’t applauding, they turned a blind eye, and another, and another.
Frightened by the prospect of a presidential tweet, they ignored his crude xenophobia, his exploitation of racial divisions, his personal corruption, and his fascination with authoritarian thugs.
They could have said “stop” at any point. They could have raised their voices and used their votes to rebuff him. But they didn’t.
They told themselves that judges or tax cuts made it all worthwhile. They told themselves that this is what the GOP base wanted.
So they didn’t push back as a torrent of falsehoods flowed from the White House, or even when he targeted their own Senate colleagues with insults.
They watched impotently as Trump attacked and betrayed our allies and threatened to withdraw from NATO. They could have bailed when he downplayed the Russian attack on our elections, or when he sided with Vladimir Putin rather than our own intelligence agencies in Helsinki.
GOP senators had a chance to take an off-ramp when Trump fired the FBI director, or referred to immigrants from “shithole countries,” or when he praised the racist protesters in Charlottesville as including “very fine people.”
In October 2017, Jeff Flake tried to prick their consciences. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, the Arizonan made a plea for a return to decency.
“We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals,” he said. “We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country. The personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for truth and decency.”
Rather than join in an awakening, not a single one of his colleagues joined Flake. Instead, they watched his Putinesque political defenestration and cowered in fear that they would share his fate.
Last fall, Trump critic Sasse, who many conservatives considered a bright light of the Senate, made his peace with Trump in exchange for the president’s support for his re-election.
“For Sasse,” wrote The Washington Post’s James Hohmann, “the past several months have represented something akin to surrender in the war for the soul of modern conservatism.”
If only Sasse’s surrender were an outlier. For Republicans, that has been the story of the last four years.
They continued to support Trump even when they saw families being separated at the border and kids in cages. They remained loyal when he helped the Saudis cover up the murder of a Washington Post journalist, and when it was revealed that he had called American soldiers “suckers and losers.”
They could have spoken out when he spread baseless conspiracy theories, or when he obstructed justice by dangling or giving pardons.
They could have declared their independence when Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned, warning about threats to “an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values and we are strengthened in this effort by solidarity of our alliances,” or when Trump openly tried to extort the Ukrainian president to help him dig up dirt on Joe Biden.
They had a chance to take an off-ramp during impeachment, but with the exception of Mitt Romney (who is not up for re-election this year), they all voted not to even hear witnesses at his trial.
Time and again, they swallowed their principles along with their pride, pretending that a few Democratic legislators on the fringes were a bigger threat than the man leading the nation.
When Trump bypassed the Senate to name acting Cabinet members, clearly violating the law, they shrugged. When he gutted the ranks of inspectors general in a clear attempt to stifle genuine accountability of the executive branch, they barely protested.
Every time they allowed Trump to cross a line, it became harder to hold the next one. After a while, they stopped even pretending. By this year, it had become obvious they had no intention of providing a meaningful check on Trump.
Instead, many of them actively Trumpified themselves. In primaries, they vied with one another to prove their fealty to the Orange God King.
Few of them, however, matched the fawning servility of Lindsey Graham, who as a candidate for president called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic bigot” and many other accurate descriptors, then reinvented himself into a full-blown MAGA Man, complete with tights and cape. Now, he finds himself facing the possibility of a humiliating electoral defeat.
It’s now far too late for Graham to pivot again. One spine is all he had to sacrifice for his country.
The bluntness of Sasse’s criticism last week made headlines.
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“The way he kisses dictators’ butts. I mean, the way he ignores the Uighurs, our literal concentration camps in Xinjiang. Right now, he hasn’t lifted a finger on behalf of the Hong-Kongers,” Sasse said on the call.
“The United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership, the way he treats women, spends like a drunken sailor,” he said.
“The ways I criticize President Obama for that kind of spending; I’ve criticized President Trump for as well. He mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He’s flirted with white supremacists.”
I’d say the torrent of truth is welcome, but this is all the equivalent of changing the recipe for a disgusting cake 10 seconds before it’s due to go in the oven.
The batter can’t be saved. It’s going in the oven one way or another. It smells awful. It’s going to taste terrible. Republicans are going to have to eat what they have made — and then prepare for the gastrointestinal reckoning.