Progressive and moderate Democrats got together to oust Trump from the White House, and they were joined by many Independents. But there was another group that also helped -- the conservative Republican "Never Trumpers".
This was not easy for those conservative Republicans to vote against (and campaign against) their party and their ideology. Many of them have probably ruined any chance they had at becoming party leaders. But they did what they did because they love this country, and they knew that Trump was a dangerous and divisive force that was hurting the country.
I have disagreed with these conservative Republicans many times in the past, and I'm sure I'll disagree with them many times in the future. But they are not my enemy, and I appreciate their help in the 2020 election.
We might have been able to oust Trump without their help, but it would have been much closer. They helped give Biden a huge win and a mandate.
Here is part of E.J. Dionne's take on these conservative "Never Trumper's" in The Washington Post:
Let’s begin by just saying it: The country owes the Never Trump conservatives a debt.
Yes, many progressives have been uneasy with these unusual allies. They insist that Trump was not some alien imposition on conservatism but rather the product of long-standing trends in Republican politics. Trafficking in racial division and racism, nativism, extremism, conspiracy theories and voter suppression did not start with Trump.
Progressives are entirely right about this. But the Never Trumpers deserve our respect precisely because so many of them stood against these tendencies and, in more cases than not, undertook a deeper critique of their own side. . . .
For those of us arrayed from the center to the left, the awfulness of Trump is so obvious that we can underestimate how hard it is to walk away from the people who were your comrades for so long. In journals progressives don’t pay much attention to, television networks we don’t watch and Twitter feeds we don’t follow, the Never Trumpers were denounced as renegades and traitors — and also saddled with far uglier, unprintable monikers.
True, these rebels-with-a-good-cause were a minority in their camp, but they were far from alone. Exit polls are imperfect, but the Edison survey suggests that perhaps 8 million of President-elect Joe Biden’s more than 81 million votes came from self-described conservatives, and 3 million from Republicans (which doesn’t include those who left the party because of Trump).
But what happens now? Some of the anti-Trump conservatives never lost their old faith and were simply repelled by Trump’s odiousness. For them, there is no temptation to join the other side. They are unlikely to give much support to Biden and will go off in search of a more conventional Republican to champion in 2024.
For a significant part of the anti-Trump Right, however, the moral corruption of the conservative movement over the past four years is a source of genuine anguish and has prompted a crisis of belief.
As it should have. Conservatism has its attractive sides. But it is often a creed that devotes itself simply to the preservation of the power, wealth and privilege of existing elites. . . .
Of course, I’d like the anti-Trump conservatives to admit the error of their ways and fully join my side of politics. But failing that, I still appreciate what they did. And I hope at least they can now champion a brand of conservatism that is about more than making the rich richer and the powerful more powerful.
