The headline blares as if it is delivering a blistering announcement of import -- Over 100 Republicans, including former officials, threaten to split from G.O.P. The truth, of course, is a far different animal than the eager insistence of the banner. Less an act of click-bait traffic-hoovering, this is a tactic of the contemporary media; provide the tantalizing headline that will be shared energetically across social media and gin up a narrative. It is up to the rubes to later read through and find out the content is far less than promised.
What the Times is offering up here is not a massive rift taking place within a congressional caucus, or even a division seen in either of the chambers. This is a desperate attempt to give energy to a dying entity on the political landscape; the Never-Trump die-hard never-weres. There is a gradual reveal that what we are being served here is the whiny cabal of petulant contrarians who have proven themselves impotent over the years. We are not about to hear the roar of people with real juice in the capital, it is the sound of straws slurping from empty juice boxes.
"More than 100 Republicans, including some former elected officials, are preparing to release a letter this week threatening to form a third party if the Republican Party does not make certain changes, according to an organizer of the effort."
That veil of uncertainty is seen throughout the piece. Who is this organizer? That is not revealed. Who is this group of prominent names? They will not say. What are these changes being demanded? That is an unaddressed detail, despite those described as being certain. But take the word of the Times -- these anonymous figures with a cipher of a leader wanting unstated demands are certainly a serious group worth listening to today!
This sit-com of a premise then begins to turn seriously hilarious. The main source for the Times here is its former insider and now active punchline, Miles Taylor. Miles, if you do not recall, in 2018 was their heavily touted anonymous source of a scathing op-ed, one who they described as being “a senior official in the Trump administration.” He was revealed later that same month, as merely the COS of Kirstjen Nielsen, not an actual operative roaming the White House daily.
But sure, an assistant who is a crank, working miles away on the opposite side of the Potomac, is an administration official.
The Times entertains the whims here of their disgraced source, who delivers all the more reasons to laugh at this perceived threat to the GOP infrastructure. The list of people signing the statement includes former officials at both the state and national level who once were governors, members of Congress, ambassadors, cabinet secretaries, state legislators and Republican Party chairmen, Mr. Taylor said. Mr. Taylor declined to name the signers.
Well, that is sure to send a tremor through the ranks of the party. A crowd of former politicians who either do not have any pull any longer or who were already staging themselves as opposition figures is hardly delivering a tremor throughout the beltway. And once we learn who is likely behind all of this the laughter intensifies.
Last week there was a report out of Utah -- you know, that enclave where The Lincoln Project also had been ensconced at one time -- that this group’s formation took place in February. Prepare to become wildly unimpressed.
"120 well-known conservatives gathered via Zoom. The meeting was unadvertised and invite-only, They were greeted by Mindy Finn, the political and technology expert who became Evan McMullin’s 2016 running mate during his independent presidential campaign. McMullin was there, too — he organized the event alongside Miles Taylor. They called the gathering “The New Conservatives Summit."
Seriously. This crowd of TDS cranks, composed of those who have already established themselves as both GOP opponents and uninfluential voices, are supposed to be the force behind a tectonic shift in the GOP? The fact that they lay claim to being “the people who got Joe Biden elected” (Taylor’s words) is the biggest laugh of all. McMullen, it apparently needs to be restated for these oblivious tools, has already run against Donald Trump, and the man won. Evan’s reputation today is in tatters as a result, but these vaunted minds are hitching to his caboose, left well outside the stockyards.
Just to further reiterate how little influence these “True Cons” wield in the political arena, we only need to look at the results from the 2020 election. When they were supposedly changing minds within the party and convincing many to switch over to Biden, Donald Trump received millions of more votes than in 2016, and his percentage of support with Republican voters INCREASED as well. His 88 percent of GOP support swelled to 94 percent in the last election.
But sure, now this group of no-name former politicians with a list of non-existent demands and a vacant track record will be the force of change all of a sudden. The only thing possibly more embarrassing than this group thinking they have some kind of marked influence on the national party apparatus is The New York Times pushing this out as a legitimate movement.