Conservatism Inc. Is Breaking Up With Trump. Again.

Plus, Mona Charen and Sarah Longwell on the Midterm's Biggest Loser.

Nov 10, 2022

CHARLIE SYKES: Normies > Crazies
JVL: The Empire Strikes Back 🔐
BGTH: What’s the deal with Seinfeld?

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ANSLEY SKIPPER: Conservatism Inc. Is Breaking Up With Trump. Again.

Following a disappointing election night, conservative elites have decided to try to break up with Donald Trump. Which is great. Except that they’ve been here before. After Helsinki, after Charlottesville, and after January 6th. None of these other breakups have lasted. There’s no reason to believe that this time will be different.

At least four pieces on National Review’s homepage explicitly pinned Republicans’ underperformance on the Former Guy. They even published an editorial on the subject, writing that “Rarely has an election had simpler and more obvious lessons” than this year’s main takeaway that the GOP needs to move on from Trump.

Conservatism Inc. even had an answer for how the party should move on: Saint Ron DeSantis.

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TIM MILLER: If Mitch McConnell Is Still in the Minority It’s His Own Damn Fault.

In explaining the disastrous Republican midterm result, an old saw is all the rage among the McConnell-Murdoch corporate GOP types: Orange Man Bad.
And yeah, that is correct! He is bad! Welcome to the party! We’ve been drinking champagne and banging the drum for a while now, but I gotta tell you it’s getting kinda late.
In The Triad, JVL pointed out that the GOP had a chance to snuff out this timeline all the way back in 2016. But I wanted to narrow in on a couple recent opportunities when McConnell and Murdoch—two people with a reputation for being heartless killer masterminds—had chances to do something about their “Trump Problem” before the hour got so dark.

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Watch out: Trump is embarrassed, cornered and facing defeat. When GOP leaders try to shun him, he will turn the base against them, regardless of how bad it is for the party. Tim O’Brien joins Charlie Sykes on today’s podcast.

Sarah Longwell joins the group to evaluate the momentous midterms.

Eric and Eliot welcome Council on Foreign Relations Fellow Ray Takeyh to discuss the ongoing popular uprising in Iran.

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JOE PERTICONE: Two January 6th Participants Elected to Congress.

Editor’s note: It’s Joe’s first week at The Bulwark and he’s a rockstar. You’re gonna love him. Make sure you follow him on Twitter.

The extent to which sitting members of Congress were involved in the Trump rally-turned-insurrection of January 6th remain murky—notwithstanding Sen. Josh Hawley’s fist seen round the world or the reports that several GOP representatives sought last-minute pardons from President Donald Trump. But as a result of Tuesday’s elections, there will soon be two new members of Congress who participated in the events of Jan. 6th as attendees.
Some fourteen Jan. 6th attendees were on the ballot on Tuesday for statewide and federal offices. While many of them ran in unwinnable, heavily Democratic districts, some looked like they might have been able to pull off a win. Ohio candidate J.R. Majewski was one of these—until his campaign imploded after reports that he misrepresented his military service.
In the end, two Jan. 6th participants won their congressional races on Tuesday—guaranteeing they will now be allowed into the U.S. Capitol that was attacked on that day.

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