An honorable Republican
I’ve only voted for a Republican once (John Anderson, in a presidential primary in North Carolina), but if I lived in Vermont, I might vote for Republican governor Phil Scott:
“Many point to his steady hand during crises, including last summer’s historic flooding and the pandemic, when he appeared in daily, low-key televised briefings to reassure Vermonters and encourage them to take social distancing and mask wearing seriously. Vermont, a sparsely populated state, had the nation’s lowest incidence of COVID and lowest death rate.
“Perhaps even more attractive in a state where Democrats and independents outnumber Republicans four to one is Scott’s willingness to buck Republican orthodoxy. He repudiated President Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric and actions, and publicly acknowledged he voted for Joe Biden, which made Scott even more popular in a state that rejected Trump more decisively than any other.
“His decision in 2018 to work with Vermont’s Democrat-dominated Legislature to pass the state’s first significant gun control measures brought new admirers even as it lost him much of the Republican base.”
This is what a real conservative looks like. They don’t mint them like this anymore.
Honest conservative in the GOP
“Many point to his steady hand during crises, including last summer’s historic flooding and the pandemic, when he appeared in daily, low-key televised briefings to reassure Vermonters and encourage them to take social distancing and mask wearing seriously. Vermont, a sparsely populated state, had the nation’s lowest incidence of COVID and lowest death rate.
“Perhaps even more attractive in a state where Democrats and independents outnumber Republicans four to one is Scott’s willingness to buck Republican orthodoxy. He repudiated President Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric and actions, and publicly acknowledged he voted for Joe Biden, which made Scott even more popular in a state that rejected Trump more decisively than any other.
“His decision in 2018 to work with Vermont’s Democrat-dominated Legislature to pass the state’s first significant gun control measures brought new admirers even as it lost him much of the Republican base.”
This is what a real conservative looks like. They don’t mint them like this anymore.
Honest conservative in the GOP
How Vermont’s Phil Scott became the most popular governor in America
Boston Globe – Dec 29
A Republican in the bluest state in the union, Scott has led Vermont through COVID and historic floods with understated competence, repudiating Donald Trump and the national GOP brand, making him more popular with Democrats than Republicans in the Green Mountain State
(This leaves me a bit bummed out, as I thought he was a Dem, alas.)
Y’know, there are fresh efforts to recruit Mitt Romney (with Joe Manchin as VP) for a third-party run in 2024. As yet, they are not on board – except maybe Joe Manchin is. This is a path that leads to a spoiled election inevitably. But that’s the backup GOP strategy anyway. So who knows?
@Fred,
If it spoils Trump’s run, I’m all for it.
Be careful what you wish for. A Romney run will draw centrist Dems away from voting for Biden & further piss off progressives. And lead to the election being settled in the House of Reps. Unless you are supremely confident that the Dems will take back the House…
@Fred,
I guess you didn’t read my comment. Or if you did, you didn’t understand it.
If you’re still confused, look up the word “spoils” in a dictionary.
As in, ‘To victor belongs the spoils!’ maybe.
Is there a forgone conclusion there?
Seems kind of opaque to me.
@Fred,
In my comment above “spoils” functions as a verb, not a noun.
So you are figuring that Trump supporters will rally to a Romney/Manchin ticket. I think that’s most unlikely.
@Fred,
“So you are figuring that Trump supporters will rally to a Romney/Manchin ticket.”
Never said that.
What you can hope for is that swing state Dems & independents will turn out in robust numbers to produce winning margins for Biden & Harris in their states, and also to elect Dems to the House & Senate.
We do not want third-party shenanigans on Election Day 2024.
“If it spoils Trump’s run, I’m all for it.”
Shall we wait to find out, after Election Day?
Back in the day when Dems nominated Southerners as their Presidential candidates, because Southerners didn’t much care for Dem Yankees, that worked reasonably well. Got LBJ, Bill Clinton & Jimmy Carter elected. Didn’t work so well for Al Gore though.
You might say that Ross Perot helped elect Bill Clinton, but that seems doubtful. Maybe FL voters trying to vote for Al Gore on an extra complicated ballot were confused enuf to vote for spoiler Ralph Nader. Just as Great Lakes voters were confused by trying to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein instead of Hillary Clinton.
Did Ross Perot cost Geo Bush Sr his re-election?
Re-thinking this, it seems clearly he did.
“In the 1992 Election, Clinton won 43% of the popular vote, Geo Bush Sr won 37.5%, and Ross Perot won 18.9%.”
If Ross Perot hadn’t been in the race, Bush Sr would have had a large popular vote majority & very likely an electoral vote majority also.
Aside from his problems recalling what tube socks cost at the cash register.
Just to review…
(Wikipedia) In the United States, a contingent election is used to elect the president or vice president if no candidate receives a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed. A presidential contingent election is decided by a special vote of the United States House of Representatives, while a vice-presidential contingent election is decided by a vote of the United States Senate. During a contingent election in the House, each state delegation votes en bloc (has one vote) to choose the president instead of representatives voting individually. Senators, by contrast, cast votes individually for vice president.
The contingent election process is specified in Article Two, Section 1, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution. The procedure was modified by the 12th Amendment in 1804, under which the House chooses one of the three candidates who received the most electoral votes, while the Senate chooses one of the two candidates who received the most electoral votes. …
Contingent elections have occurred three times in American history: in 1801, 1825, and 1837. …
In the 1992 Election, Clinton won 43% of the popular vote, Geo Bush Sr won 37.5%, and Ross Perot won 18.9%. BUT the electoral vote was lopsided for Clinton, 370-168-0. And the ‘difficult’ presidential elections of the new century led to popular vote wins and electoral vote loses all too often.
The gruesome reality of US presidential politics may be that because the right wing of the GOP is far larger & way more ‘boisterous’ than the left wing of the Dem party, that the only safe move for the Dems is to put their faith in Dem moderates, moderate independents, and disgruntled moderate GOP voters to get Biden & Harris re-elected.
Which brings up another problem. Are Biden & Harris moderate enuf to satisfy the wishes of ‘moderate’ voters? We here probably know that they are too moderate to satisfy the wishes of Progressives, and way too moderate to satisfy MAGA GOP voters. This can be debated ad infinitum.
Dobbs
aside from the fact that Romney and Manchin are two of the most disgusting people in congress,
I agree that “No Labels” is simply a way for Republicans to draw votes away from Democrats..by relying heavily on the people to vote for ..or against… whatever the PR people have dreamt up for them this time.
Y’know, they are what they are. They are both currently more-or-less out of the picture politically, since both are leaving office, stating that they will not run for re-election in 2024. Romney was a popular, moderate guv’nah in MA & will be remembered as such.
A couple of other honorable GOP people, arguably. Or not.
Haley, DeSantis pledge to pardon Trump if he’s convicted
Washington Post (via Boston Globe) – earlier today
“I would pardon Trump if he is found guilty,” Haley told a crowd in Plymouth, N.H., last week. “It’s like Ford did to Nixon,” DeSantis said in Iowa on Friday. …
(I’m probably not alone in recalling that it seemed likely that appointed-VP Ford who succeeded RMN got his job – maybe – by assuring his boss that he had ‘nothing to worry about’ in that regard.)
Looks like Haley & DeSantis are making blatant appeals to Trump supporters for some gracious consideration, pledging to go easy on the their hero the Once & Former President.
Dobbs
I don’t know about “honorable” Republican, but a man can be honest and still be a fool and hold economic ideas that are both wrong (not the way the economy works, unless made to work that way by “the deciders”” and terribly unjust and harmful to ordinary people.
As for Haley and DeSantis,,, well dishonest and fascist come to mind.
and the Republicans in Congress voting unanimously for the party interest over the interests of the country suggests to me that there is no one who calls himself a Republican today who can be trusted.