There is a shift occuring

Are 'Never Trump' Republicans just Democrats now?

I feel seen

I wanted to draw your attention to a fascinating story in the The New Republic from Ben Jacobs. He does an extremely deep dive into how many former Republicans fled the party when Donald Trump was elected to form what is commonly known as ‘Never Trumpers’ but today in many respects are mainstream Democrats. I have been seeing this for some time.

Courtesy of The New Republic

Where many relatively centrists were able to find a home in the old Republican Party that tent has been shuttered and they now find themselves comfortably in a modern Biden led Democratic Party. This shift is real and it is significant.

Jacobs opens with a vignette about how the media all rushed to rust belt diners after the 2016 election to find these Trump supporters and never spent any time talking to an equal number of voters who walked away. This second paragraph lays it out.

“In hindsight, that phenomenon may be eclipsed by another one: Republicans deserting their party precisely because of Trump, forming a demographic now familiarly known as “Never Trump Republicans.” Whether it was his xenophobic remarks about immigrants, his crude personal behavior, or his general disdain for the norms of American politics, many white, college-educated voters—long a bedrock of the GOP—cast their ballot either for Hillary Clinton or for a third-party candidate to avoid supporting Trump. The shock of his election kept this initially from being a broad focus in popular culture, but in special election after special election in the coming year, culminating in the 2018 midterms, it was clear there was a lasting revulsion from these Republicans toward the Trump-era GOP. This was reinforced in 2020, when these voters appear to have turned even more heavily against Trump, helping Joe Biden run the table in the most competitive swing states.”

I think there is a case to be made and I am certainly an example. I was always a fairly soft Republican. What we used to call back in the day ‘fiscally conservative but socially liberal’ Republican. I wasn’t alone. There were many of us who felt strongly about spending priorities for the government, strong defense, and robust international affairs while not giving a damn who people loved or what choices a woman made with her body. For much of my life there was room in the GOP tent for me.

Then Trump came down the golden escalator and pulled the nationalists and racists out of the shadows to become his base. His hatred for large swaths of our country and those who would come here made me sick. It only culminated with saying he “liked people that weren’t captured” referring to John McCain. That should have been the end of him but instead he was embraced.

I walked away.

The numbers are telling the story

They don’t have to be a big swing for it to be significant. Keep in mind that all the Lincoln Project was ever targeting was to convince 4-6% of the Republicans that had voted for Trump in 2016 that he was not the right choice in 2020. That margin was all that was needed to send him home and through the hard work of a lot of candidates, groups, and Joe Biden that’s what happened.

Now those who walked away are finding themselves more comfortably in a Democratic Party that stands in direct contrast to a Republican Party that is even deeper into the racism, lies, and demagoguery of Trumpism. There is no room in today’s GOP for moderates and the longer those former loyal party members are kept out of their old home…the more comfortable they will find themselves in the new one.

“I think Donald Trump was the gateway drug that has drawn a lot of otherwise pretty standard Republicans to the Democratic Party over the last eight or nine years,” Zac McCrary, a veteran Democratic pollster, told The New Republic. “And a Never Trump Republican in 2016, two or three cycles later, turns into a pretty conventional Democrat up and down the ballot.”

I often joke that somewhere along the line I became a flaming liberal but I’m not actually sure I wasn’t all along but convinced myself I could stay in the party I had been loyal to since joining the Army under Ronald Reagan. When your eyes are opened to the decades of lies that led to the rise of Donald Trump there really is no going back.

I highly recommend this rather long read to hear the various perspectives that Jacobs found in his research and guide your thinking as we enter another election cycle. I believe this new coalition is the future and we can defeat this anti-American movement that the GOP has become.

Read it all here:

Are “Never Trump” Republicans Actually Just Democrats Now?

Some are already hardcore progressives. And pollsters, politicians, and analysts from both parties say it may just be a matter of time before the rest switch parties, too.

In case you missed it

The new episode of ‘On Democracy’ is out now on the MeidasTouch network with NPR media critic Eric Deggans. It’s a fascinating conversation about how the media should handle Donald Trump, how things have only gotten worse since he wrote his book ‘Race-Baiter’ a decade ago, and why DEI is imperative in journalism among many other topics. I hope you’ll check it out.

Where to find me these days

I am still hanging in there on X/Twitter at @FPWellman as that’s where the battle often is joined with those on the other side of this mission. I am very happy on Threads though with a growing and engaged audience and conversation. You can find me there at @FPWellmanOfficial as well as on Instagram as @FPWellmanOfficial as well. You can find the entire year of On Democracy episodes on our YouTube channel @OnDemocracyPodcast and all of my hot takes and shorts on @MeidasTouch.

Thank you for being part of this community. I will be growing this platform and I appreciate you being on it with me.