Country Over Party

Defending American interests against our enemies is good, even when Donald Trump is the one doing it.

I’m very happy to be making my debut in the pages of The Vital Center, an excellent magazine focused on reclaiming the classical liberal tradition and bringing different voices together to have the debates necessary for American flourishing. In this essay, I fire a broadside against a large group of Never Trump conservatives who have allowed their hatred of Donald Trump to overtake their love for our country, selling out their purported principles along the way. The most telling example of this has come with the Iran War, something many of these figures supported and promoted for decades before it was finally undertaken by the man they despise more than anything else. As such, they have entirely reversed themselves and are now rooting against American success. For a group that has long claimed to put ‘Country Over Party’ to vote for Democrats and “save” the Republic, they sure seem to have lost that ethos when the shoe is on the other foot.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing this one and calling out a segment of the political class that I find about as distasteful and cynical as anyone. I hope you enjoy reading it just as much. Below is an excerpt, but the whole essay can be read here.

This is the biggest problem: not that these Never Trump figures are opposing the war against Iran, but that they are doing so in complete repudiation of their supposed principles and prior public positions, simply because they detest the man in the Oval Office.

Many of these figures, best represented by Bill Kristol, have supported the idea of forcibly changing the regime in Tehran for nigh-on 20 years. They have argued against diplomatic negotiation and for military action to end the Iranian nuclear program. They clearly recognized and publicly expostulated the case for why the Islamic Republic posed a significant threat to American interests and security. They wrote policy papers, penned essays, led organizations, and promoted political candidates in favor of this message. And now that their decades-long quest is finally coming to fruition, they have done a complete about-face.

Instead of supporting a righteous war against a serious, longstanding threat to American security—one that was actively in the process of pursuing nuclear weapons and a conventional ballistic missile deterrent to protect that program—many Never Trumpers have turned wholesale against it. They no longer seem to recognize the danger posed by Tehran, even though it has palpably increased over the past decade, one in which they launched the October 7 war against Israel and tried to assassinate opponents on US soil, notably the current President of the United States. They no longer seem to see the utility of using America’s incredible military power to achieve national objectives. They no longer seem concerned that they are consciously parroting the talking points of the enemies of America. The worst part is that every last bit of this is due to the man who was duly reelected as president less than two years ago.

The Country over Party set is not making reasoned critiques of the specific tactics or stratagems of the administration but rooting wholesale against American victory, simply because it might hurt Donald Trump’s approval ratings. They uncritically repeat the press releases of the Iranian regime, taking their word as bond; at the same time, they strenuously question and distrust the facts proffered by our military and civilian leadership. American strategy is poorly reasoned, and our tactics are either inadequate or over-the-top, depending on which is more beneficial to the narrative at any point in time. For example, the US has been criticized for not having secured the Strait of Hormuz immediately, while also being attacked for sinking an Iranian warship on its way back to that combat zone—an action without which we would be unable to secure said waterway.

These statements are meant only to craft a narrative of failure, regardless of the actual results and even if their arguments are self-contradictory. As long as they work in the moment, that is all that matters. It is cynical posturing that has one guiding principle only: antipathy for Donald Trump. Anything can and will be used in service of that principle. And anyone can and will be aligned with—from the progressive Squad and Tucker Carlson to the Iranian regime itself—to do so. But there is simply no need to do this. If Donald Trump decided to say that puppies and babies are cute, it is not incumbent on an opponent of his to argue that they’re hideous. That is especially true if that same person had been praising that adorableness for decades prior. That is the position that the Never Trump opponents of this war find themselves in. It is a test of their actual principles, and they are failing miserably. In short, their hatred for our president has overwhelmed their love for our country.