Our Candidate Must Be Strong and Smart – Trump Included

I did an article a couple of weeks ago arguing that we don’t need Donald Trump engaged in name calling with his potential GOP opposition. Oh boy, did I get a bunch of email, and I learned something about myself from it. From 20 percent of the respondents, I learned that I’m an ungrateful never-Trumper who is everything that is wrong with the Republican party – even though I voted for the man twice and will gladly do so again.

I know that my emails are not a scientific poll – which makes them no more accurate than actual scientific polls. But 80 percent of my email was from people who are sick of Trump’s shenanigans and swear they’ll never vote for him again. Which gives me a question for the 20 percent. Do they care about that 80 percent opinion, or is winning the next election secondary to appealing to Trump’s vanity?

I’m all for a robust primary. A good fight inside the party will make the party stronger. Separating the wheat from the chaff – the fighters from the poseurs and all. The contest inside the party will help to clarify our ideology, rally the base, and form policy consensus. It will necessarily get nasty, and some feelings will get hurt. But, advancing freedom and prosperity has to be our primary focus – not forming personality cults around individual candidates. If conservatives are fundamentally on the same side, they need to act like it. Candidates are not mortal enemies. They represent opposing ideas to achieve the same end. Candidates need to be smart, do what’s best for the country, and base the contest on guiding principles – not school yard taunts.

Unfortunately, what Donald Trump is doing is something very different. He’s not arguing policy, ideology, or even accomplishments. He’s attacking his likely opponents’ character (calling them ungrateful), and engaging in childish name calling (i.e., Governor DeSanctimonious). I understand what he’s doing. He’s branding his opponents early so that they end up with a negative public persona that they can’t escape. It’s a marketing tactic and Trump was a genius at applying it in 2016. If he wants to engage in that tactic against the left, go for it. But using it inside his own party is unwise for both principled and pragmatic reasons.

From a principled perspective, there is always room for improvement – even if you’re Donald J. Trump. Striving to up one’s game is the surest way to be the strongest possible competitor in the upcoming contest. Even the best quarterbacks still have coaches. But sycophants reinforcing the Donald’s already healthy self-esteem is not incentivizing improvement. They are instead jeopardizing the election by advising him that the status quo is good enough.

Next, Trump should remember that Florida supported him twice – in both 2016 and 2020. Is criticizing their choice for governor showing any gratitude to the people that voted for him? He owes the voters of Florida a debt of gratitude – he should show it.

Finally, personal attacks will undermine his ability to govern should he be elected President again. He can’t claim to have won the contest of ideas if he only fought in the contest of name calling. He needs to tell voters what he stands for, so that when he wins his policies win also.

The name calling tactic is not just perceived as childish (by the 80 percent), it is also dangerous – especially when using it against someone who is one of the current rock stars of the conservative movement. Which brings me to the pragmatic argument.

Ron DeSantis won 4.6 million votes to beat Charlie Crist by nearly 20 percent in the midterm election – a victory margin unheard of in Florida. DeSantis even won the Democrat stronghold of Miami-Dade County. Yet Donald Trump is insulting the intelligence of those millions of voters. By insulting their choice for governor, he is insulting them – within days of them making their electoral choice.

The Donald should be asking himself a few questions. Can he become President again without Florida’s 30 electoral votes? Is it smart electoral politics to test that question? How many of Ron DeSantis’ nearly 5 million supporters can he offend and still win Florida? Keep in mind that out of 16 million people, George W. Bush won Florida by only 537 votes – and he didn’t insult anybody. Without Florida, Bush would have lost. How many insulted Floridians will it take to cost Trump Florida – and perhaps the election? Is it smart pragmatic politics to make his next chance at the presidency a popularity contest between himself and Ron DeSantis – in Florida?

I understand that a great many people are grateful to Donald Trump for his accomplishments. So am I. But his supporters need to get a grip. Blind loyalty isn’t going to win the next election. The Republican establishment is dying and MAGA is ascendant. But who will be the next leader of MAGA is still TBD.

As we prepare to select who that next leader will be, we need to learn a lesson from the midterm red tsunami that didn’t happen. Even with everything working in the favor of conservatives, the opposition is not going to roll over and surrender. There aren’t going to be anymore landslide elections – at least not for a while. The country is too polarized and evenly divided. Elections are going to be hard fought and decided in the margins. Fractions of percentage points will determine whether American exceptionalism or socialism is advanced.

Nobody is going to give Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis a term as President for not being Joe Biden. 2024 is going to be an even bigger fight than 2022. We need our candidates to be strong and smart – Trump included.

Author Bio: John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He has written for American Thinker, American Free News Network, and The Blue State Conservative. He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.