# The (Potential) Rise of the Never-Trumpers **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 6, 2021, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-potential-rise-of-the-never-trumpers/937333 "2021-03-06T14:26:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-potential-rise-of-the-never-trumpers/937333/21 "2021-03-16T15:45:35Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Another tactic that has been tried. Another resounding failure. How so? Democrats control all three branches of the federal government after explicitly choosing the candidate that _didn’t_ say he wanted to take your assault rifle. I didn’t hear gun control mentioned in the presidential debates one time this cycle (I’m happy to be corrected, but that’s my memory). Biden was laser-focused on the pandemic and the economy. In fact one of the few “gaffes” I remember was Biden getting in the face of that guy in the factory about guns - and in that instance he was actually arguing that he _didn’t_ want to take his guns, IIRC. I guess I just have a different idea of winning and failure than others in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-potential-rise-of-the-never-trumpers/937333/22 "2021-03-16T19:37:18Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > My point, for what it’s worth, is that if you want to drive the wedge between the sane Republicans and the crazy ones, one way to do it is to give the sane ones a palatable alternative. Make it extremely clear that the Democratic party doesn’t want to outlaw all private firearm ownership, for example. Repeatedly hammer away that Democrats want fiscal responsibility and return to the tax rates that were successful under Clinton and Obama. I don’t think that that will work. On the one hand it will somewhat alienate the progressive wing of the Democratic party which may want stronger policies not yet embraced by the country at large. Secondly it shifts the conversation to areas that are weaknesses for the Democrats even if they are weaknesses only due to Republican misinformation. Having Biden get up and say that he is not going to take all your guns away and not going to outlaw airplanes, just makes voters think that there is a possibility that he could do that. Its akin to waving a letter you got from your shrink that certifies you as “Not Insane”. The fact that you would even have such a letter doesn’t inspire confidence. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-potential-rise-of-the-never-trumpers/937333/23 "2021-03-16T20:16:43Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I wonder if anything can be done to drive a wedge between the hardcore GOP base who are neofascist, racist and proudly ignorant, and the enablers who aren’t those things but vote GOP because they oppose abortion or support what they think the GOP stands for (less regulation, lower taxes, etc). I would assume each group makes up maybe half of the GOP voter group. My suspicion is that it’s probably not very many of the first, and a whole lot of the second. I mean, I’m thinking of some relatives of mine who aren’t evil people, go out of their way to be good, aren’t consciously or intentionally racist, and who were fervent Trumpers because they drunk the Kool-Aid and seriously thought the Democratic party wants to do all these anti-democratic socialist things. And since they’re all moderately successful small business owners (not necessarily in the 1%, but probably 2%) and have a very real fear of higher taxes and onerous regulations that would negatively affect their businesses. They’re not always real big on serious critical thinking- they’re intelligent people, but something about political stuff short circuits their brains. They’ll take something like this [“New Way Forward Act”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Way_Forward_Act) which is pretty fringey stuff even for the Democratic party, and assume that since a Democrat proposes it, then the whole party must be in lock-step behind it. I think in large part they project the sort of party discipline and unified messaging that the Republicans have onto the Democrats, when in fact the Democratic party is very disorganized and ill-disciplined by comparison. I don’t think with them, they’re so much pro-Trump, as they’re anti-Democrat and pro-GOP. It’s just that in today’s hyper-polarized climate, they kind of went all-in on Trump as he was perceived as a bulwark against the Democrats. Come 2022 and 2024, they’re going to vote for _WHOEVER_ the GOP offers up, and be banging the gong for those people too. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-potential-rise-of-the-never-trumpers/937333/24 "2021-03-16T22:16:17Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > They can stand proudly next to that other group of game-changers, The Log Cabin Republicans. I’m sure they will be just as effective. Except that [the Log Cabin Republicans actually endorsed the shit head](https://logcabin.org/pressrelease/trump-endorsement/). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-potential-rise-of-the-never-trumpers/937333.md?page=1)