Let the Republican blame game begin

It’s the kind of question politicians usually ask when a disastrous election is over: Who’s to blame? In Donald Trump’s case, the time to start answering is now.

Trump’s graphic boasts about groping women, caught on a 2005 videotape, set off Republican desertions in bulk. A debate performance Sunday night featuring a threat to prosecute Hillary Clinton and a scornful repudiation of his own running mate can’t have given party leaders much comfort.

Trump’s nomination amounted to a repudiation of those leaders by angry Republican primary voters. But there were enablers who made his nomination more certain and lent credibility to a candidate with few qualifications, principles or commitment to the party.

Based on conversations with a half-dozen important Republican figures who think Trump will drag down their party in November, these are some prime culprits.

▪ Reince Priebus: The Republican Party chairman calculated last spring that his legacy depended on joining the Trump team and helping shape his candidacy. He thwarted attempts to open the Cleveland convention in July to anti-Trump forces and warned holdouts like Ohio Gov. John Kasich that he was endangering any future in the party.

▪ Freedom Caucus: This is the group of radically conservative members of the House of Representatives who shun compromise and brought down former Speaker John Boehner. Its mission statement declares support for “open, accountable and limited government,” but its members have embraced Trump despite his stated opposition to reining in entitlement programs and his support for a massive deportation force.

▪ The religious right: For 40 years, this political movement has stressed the centrality of morality and character in public life. Now it is going through contortions to defend support of Trump.

▪ Chris Christie: It’s never a surprise when an ex-politician, out of office for many years, is dying to regain influence; think of former speaker Newt Gingrich and ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. But Christie is the current governor of New Jersey and was just a few months ago a respected figure in the Republican Party.

▪ Supply-siders: Economists Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore and Larry Kudlow ignored everything except the candidate’s pledge to slash taxes, mainly for the well-off, sacrificing their longstanding support for free trade and immigration.

The party’s top leaders in Washington, D.C. – Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. – often criticized Trump while supporting him. That doesn’t make them stand-up guys, but their positions make their slipperiness understandable.

Without the Trump enablers, the result may have been the same. But battle lines would have been drawn, earlier and more sharply.

And there were stand-up Republicans, notably most of the Bush family, Mitt Romney and especially elected officials who chose dignity over careerism, such as Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Ben Sasse, R-Neb., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kasich. They won’t have to wonder what to tell their descendants about where they stood in 2016.

This story was originally published October 13, 2016 at 5:01 AM with the headline "Let the Republican blame game begin."