#NeverTrump and humility

With the possible exceptions of Senators Mike Lee and (less reassuringly) Ben Sasse, the Republican candidate who was drafted would very likely be within the bounds of conventional, elite Republicanism. If you could get the Republican senators, governors, and former cabinet members into a room without cameras, my strong suspicion is that 90 percent of them would agree on a federal agenda of entitlement cuts, high-earner tax cuts, and a comprehensive reform that includes such incredibly unpopular elements as increasing future low-skill immigration. The Republican Party leadership is cursed with a consensus among themselves that is not shared by either Republican voters or the general public.

Whether they were a governor, or a senator – whether they were white, black, Hispanic, or Asian — whether they were male or female — any candidate that emerged from a contested convention brokered among the party’s elites would almost certainly be part of the elite Republican consensus. Many of the most determined NeverTrumpers in political journalism are among the harshest critics of the arrogant, and entitled Republican establishment, but a NeverTrump convention coup would most likely have produced a candidacy that would be based on the smug, business class Republicanism that was explicitly rejected by two-thirds of the party electorate.