Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker were defiant in their surrender but far less noble in their willingness to walk away instead of standing up to fight President Donald Trump, conservative columnist Ross Douthat wrote in The New York Times.
While the two have spoken out against Trump, what good are words when it's a fight that's needed? Douthat suggests doing something other than just walk away.
"There is a small, but significant Republican opposition to Trump, but its leading figures still don't want to go to war with him directly, preferring philosophical attacks and tactical withdrawal to confrontation and probable defeat," Douthat wrote.
Flake's approval ratings in Arizona were low, having made his stand as a "Never Trump" Republican, and he might have very well been defeated in his Arizona primary.
But stay in the fight, Douthat writes.
"To the extent that there's a plausible theory behind all of these halfhearted efforts, it's that resisting Trump too vigorously only strengthens his hold on the party's base, by vindicating his claim to have all the establishment arrayed against him," Douthat writes. "But the problem with this logic is that it offers a permanent excuse for doing nothing, no matter how bad Trump's reign becomes.
"In the end, if you want Republican voters to reject Trumpism, you need to give them clear electoral opportunities to do so — even if you expect defeat, even if it's all but certain," Douthat writes.
"They should expect to lose, and badly, but they should make Trump actually defeat them, instead of just clearing the field for his second nomination," Douthat wrote.
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