Country Club Republicans

Election 2024

Dear Friends,

Blessed relief. No more ads, mailbox stuffed with mailers, ears being assaulted by prophets of doom. Another election season has finally passed, and the Republican Party had itself a very good night. I was very satisfied with the results I desired on the Federal level—a sizable Senate majority—and only partially satisfied on the state level.

At the top of the ticket Donald J. Trump won the Electoral College and is returning to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. As someone who had no dog in that fight, I am liberated to do a couple of things: first, I get to laugh at whomever loses. Whichever way it went, I get to say, you lost to THAT guy? Or, you lost to THAT lady? These were in my view objectively the worst two presidential candidates in American history, so both parties were equally set up for humiliation. It is sad that both couldn’t experience it. And that’s the other thing I get to say, and it might strike you as strange: I am genuinely rejoicing that Kamala Harris will never be the President of the United States; but I am not genuinely rejoicing that Donald Trump will be again. “Pricing in the Pain” means living with such tensions in God’s providential economy.

There will be headaches, and not just from the post-election champagne hangover.

Let’s not overcomplicate things in analyzing what the American electorate just did. Because it is relatively simple. The American people are tired of being told that their lives are great and that inflation is over and the economy is booming when the reality doesn’t match the hype. They are tired of being told that if they care about having borders they are racists. They are tired of being commanded to celebrate mentally unwell men who put on dresses and pretend to be women, and being sneered at as bigots if they think that maybe cutting of the breasts of teenage girls is barbaric. They are sick and tired of identity politics, critical theory, intersectionality, diversity, equity, and “inclusion.” They are tired of smug, superior, progressive moral scolds. Yes, Kamala Harris lost last night, but what really lost is progressivism.

As usual, David Bahnsen has a keen eye and nails it:

Of course, it didn’t have to be this way. If the Democrats had run a serious campaign on bread-and-butter issues like rule of law and the economy, they would have won easily. But they chose to run on their boutique ideology. Actually, that wasn’t a terrible bet; it might have even worked in this closely divided country had they nominated a person who could speak a coherent sentence. But that proved a double whammy: a radical agenda touted by one of the most unintelligent politicians in living memory was a bridge too far.

MAGA world is understandably ecstatic. Pro-lifers and evangelicals in my social media feeds are positively glowing with truly religious fervor. They are thanking and praising God for—literally, I presume—“delivering” our nation, or “saving” our country. Owen Strachan called it an “act of mercy” that is “nearly unprecedented in Western history.” Hmm. Someone needs cutting off from the punch bowl, but he’s a Baptist so maybe that really is his sober take.

Not to be a curmudgeon, but might I humbly suggest that what happened was that the American people elected a person to run the executive branch of a constitutional republic for the next four years? Life will go on, and Washington will very soon get back to the usual business of bickering, posturing and preening for cable TV cameras, contentious White House briefings with press secretary Charlie Kirk, passing bills no one has read, and not caring a whit about our looming fiscal doomsday. Along the way a few significant things will happen—maybe a Supreme Court appointment or two, RFK, Jr. might live his dream heading up the FDA and get rid of all this fluoride in our water supply, a big and painful tax increase by way of tariffs, that sort of thing. And four years from now we will do it all again. Nothing got “saved” or “delivered.” It got passed on to the next person.

You know what? I will be a curmudgeon and point out some dark linings in all these puffy, silvery clouds. I get paid to rain on parades. It is abundantly clear that the Republican Party loves two things:

They love Donald Trump.

And they love abortion.

How does one explain all these “red” states voting for Donald Trump, sometimes overwhelmingly, also passing constitutional amendments protecting the right to abortion? Missouri, Arizona, Montana? A whole lot of people voted for Trump and abortion.

And here is what this means, evangelical pro-lifer: you’ve gone all-in with this guy. I’ve read your endless appeals: we’ll have a seat at the table with Trump. I’m sorry to tell you, but I think your “seat” is going to be one of those Graco-brand plastic high chairs. The Republican Party has no real need of you. How important is the pro-life movement to the electoral fortunes of the party when, in Montana, Trump got 59% of the vote and abortion got 57%? You jumped on this train, not realizing that it might just lead to your irrelevance. It does not help that you have indicated to the Party that you will gladly define deviancy down so long as a person doesn’t have a “D” next to his or her name. You barely uttered a peep when the party removed its pro-life language from the platform. You got even more enthusiastic for Trump as the year went on. Here’s the thing: cheap dates do not generally get to start demanding the finer stuff. Pastor Ben Marsh articulated this point very well:

This, my friends, is the new reality. Enjoy your post-election party. And your seat at the table.

---

There is one exception to the abortion catastrophe: Florida. What made Florida different from Missouri or Arizona or Montana? Well, Florida has a governor who is proven to be an exceptional leader. When Florida resident Donald Trump tucked tail and ran away from talking about their outrageous pro-abortion ballot measure, Governor Ron DeSantis stood up on his bully pulpit and tirelessly rallied Floridians to destroy that amendment. And they did. I didn’t hear Montana Governor Greg Gianforte say a single word about our ballot amendment.

Principled leadership. It’s a marvel on the rare occasions you find it.

Y’all didn’t want the Florida fellow.

When I was growing up we called Republicans who were soft on social issues “country club Republicans.” Well, I think you’re all country club Republicans now, whether you like it or not. Somehow I don’t think you’re going to get very far trying to convince a party that now panders to the likes of Elon Musk and RFK, Jr. and Joe Rogan to suddenly start caring about unborn babies again.

It’s all quite fitting, come to think of it. The man who literally owns a country club now is the party. Be careful what you wish for.

---

Thanks for reading The Quarter Inch. Get some sunshine and fresh air, detox from election fever, and have a great political advertisement-free rest of your week!