Futile Dreams of Primarying Trump out of Office

American Thinker ^ | 02/25/2019 | Taylor Lewis

[SeekAndFind]

A recent column by Matt Lewis in the Daily Beast takes (almost) seriously the chances of a successful primary challenge to President Trump. Lewis, the author of a book on the dumbing down of the Republican Party during 2016, is no fan of the President. He’s an admitted Never Trumper, who, like his fellow partisans of the Never-Trump stripe, still envisions himself as part of Nock’s “remnant,” holding true to Republican Party platform of 1983.

“Once considered a preposterous idea (‘It’s Trump’s party!’ ‘The takeover is complete!!’), it looks like Donald Trump will face a primary challenge,” Lewis begins his exposition. Just as wishful thinking usually has some element of truth to it, the dreamy Lewis is right about one thing: Trump does have a primary challenge. Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld has launched a Republican challenge to the President. Political talk shows may be taking Weld’s bid semi-seriously, but let’s just put it to bed right now: a former blue-state governor who endorsed both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is campaigning for publicity, not caucus wins.

Weld is not the hero Lewis is looking for. And he knows that. He’s not looking for a “savior to rise from these streets” but rather a constellation of factors that would somehow tilt the field just enough to provide an opening for a Reaganite insurgent to seriously challenge Trump.

But first, what evidence does Lewis cite to back up his claim that an intraparty Trump challenge is no longer “preposterous”? In all-too-typical Washington fashion, Lewis calls on a potpourri of failed prognosticators. Alumni of the defunct Weekly Standard like Bill Kristol and Jonathan Last believe a GOP challenge is already baked into the primary crust.

[trebb]

Won’t primary him of the GOP ticket and none of their primary folks will be able to supplant him in the general....”Bitter sweet drams baby....why must they dream....”

[CommerceComet]

I'm not worried at all about Trump being undone by a primary challenge - there is no one popular enough and only a few foolish enough (Kasich, possibly Romney but I think he dreams of chaos and the party asking him to be the rescuing white knight.)

I'd be far more concerned about a well-funded third-party right-of-center candidate who couldn't win but who could draw away enough votes to deny Trump the win.