Editorial: How do you to salvage a spiraling political party? One statesman's thoughts

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Oct 10, 2024

Published in Op Eds

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Republicans who understand the unacceptable dangers of a second Donald Trump presidency face an unenviable choice this year. Do they vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, endorsing policies they deeply oppose in order to stop what they understand is the more fundamental threat that Trump poses to the nation? Or do they opt for a third-party vote, keeping their policy priorities untainted, but indirectly aiding Trump in the process?

Frustrated Democrats who can’t understand why “never Trump” Republicans would hesitate to back Harris should try a thought exercise: If the dangerous demagogue was on the other foot, would they vote for, say, a Mitt Romney in order to stop a Democratic version of Trump?

Not that easy, is it?

“I hate this choice,” former Sen. John Danforth, the Missouri Republican, told us during a virtual chat last week. “I have never voted, ever, for Donald Trump and I will never vote for Donald Trump.”

But backing Harris, he told us, is a nonstarter for him on policy grounds — especially since he’s hoping to help salvage the GOP from within and needs to maintain his Republican standing to do so.

Danforth offered his thoughts on this year’s presidential race while stumping the state in support of third-party U.S. Senate candidate Jared Young, who seeks to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Josh Hawley on Nov. 5. We will get into Young’s candidacy, along with that of Democratic nominee Lucas Kunce, when we endorse for the Senate race in the coming weeks.

But for now, it’s worth pausing to consider the words of a veteran public servant who was a prominent national Republican figure back when the GOP still stood for things like fiscal responsibility, free trade, constitutional fidelity and strong global leadership.

“Ronald Reagan would be turning over in his grave if he thought the Republican Party stood for 10% across-the-board tariffs, or pulling the plug on Ukraine,” said Danforth, referencing two of Trump’s more reckless goals. He also noted that under Trump’s administration, the deficit rose by almost 40%.

“I think it’s important to have a responsible conservative party, which we do not have today,” Danforth said. “It’s been thrown overboard by MAGA.”

Then there is the potentially apocalyptic issue of returning America’s nuclear arsenal to the control of a man who has demonstrated a seemingly worsening lack of mental and emotional stability lately.

“I’m not a doctor, but it seems to me he has a screw loose,” said Danforth, echoing a common observation these days. “Having Donald Trump with his finger on the button I think is really dangerous.”

Underlying all of this is what Trump has done — and threatens to continue doing — to America’s democratic institutions.

“Our constitutional order was attacked on Jan. 6,” 2021, said Danforth. Trump’s inherent divisiveness, he argued, is at odds with the GOP’s own philosophical history. “We’re the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party that holds the nation together.”

Aren’t these fundamental fitness issues all arguments for supporting Harris regardless of policy differences, as other prominent Republican figures like Liz Cheney and Jeff Flake have recently done?

“I think that a lot of people will end up voting for Harris as the lesser of two evils,” Danforth said. He acknowledged the case for it: “I disagree with her (on policy), but there’s something worse than bad policy, and that is somebody who attacks the constitutional order, somebody who attacks the legitimacy of elections.”

Still, he said, “I’m not going that far (to endorse Harris), because I’m trying to keep my Republican cred.” The goal, he said, is to help nudge his party back from the MAGA brink: “I think my highest and best use is to try to restore the Republican Party as a centrist party, and it’s harder to do that if I come out … endorsing a Democrat.”

Rational people, of any party, can disagree on which approach is the right one to restore a constructive and responsible GOP. What’s clear is the need for that restoration — and the fact that there’s nothing rational about its current standard bearer.

To Republican voters who are inclined to dismiss that assessment from us, we get it. But this particular assessment comes from one of your party’s few remaining statesmen in Missouri. It deserves consideration.

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