Sometimes I get impatient with the way that #NeverTrumpers get lionized as if they didn’t give their all to bring us George and Dick’s Excellent Adventure in Iraq. I can be very forgiving in my personal life, but I generally draw the line at getting hundreds of thousands of people killed for no good or honest reason.
Having said that, anyone who rejects the Republican Party and Donald Trump is valuable, and Joe Biden is wise to organize them. But how will he organize them?
The contours of a developing “Republicans for Biden” movement are indeed fluid, with longtime operatives and former party loyalists mixed on what a final product would look like and when it might come into fruition. The movement behind-the-scenes is in contrast to the very public effort to unite the left, but matches Biden’s own professed fondness for working with Republicans.
When presented with Biden’s comments, GOP sources interviewed referenced two main possibilities: an external group that would work on his behalf as a political action committee—similar to other Democratic-led outside groups—that could theoretically clear a pathway for others to join; or an internal operation within Biden’s campaign, with one or more recognizable Republican figures joining as the public face.
In this election, Biden should begin with giant ambitions. He should operate on the assumption that it will be possible to shatter the red/blue divide and win in every region of the country, including states that haven’t voted Democratic in decades. That’s going to require that millions of Republican voters cross the aisle, and anything that makes that gives them more permission to do so is a good idea.
It could very well turn out that the election more closely resembles the elections of 2000, 2004, 2012, and 2016 and is fought in a narrow band of highly contentious and traditional swing states. The effort to advertise #NeverTrumpers would be just as valuable in that scenario, and the strategy can be shifted and narrowed fairly late if internal state polling warrants it.
I’m not sure I see the value in the Republicans for Biden, other than turning a possibly convincing victory into a landslide. They might help tip Texas. But if Texas is seriously in play, then it’s all over.
A landslide is exactly what we need to have a chance at breaking the grip of insanity that’s overtaken our political culture in recent years. Landslide, yes, please!
Parallax is right. Winning 285 EVs can’t be the goal. We need to nuke the site from orbit then scatter the ashes to the four winds.
I’m 100% with you on this, Martin. Would be a dream come true if Biden could pull off a political realignment. That’s what it would be. The moment Trump is cracked, the GOP will have to reassess and recreate itself.
I vote making it a public part of the campaign. Show that his campaign is a microcosm of rational America. Including the dozen sane Republicans who reject the white nationalism infecting the Republican Party. It’ll rip apart the Republicans even further, and distract the shitgibbon. If he’s attacking them, it’s less resources to attack Biden directly.
As a reward, fine, let them save an oil well in Oklahoma. Clean energy will get it soon enough.