Watching people associated with a spent force scream into the darkness is a sad spectacle. Of course, we are witnessing that in the Democrats’ fallen world, though it is exactly what you would expect from a party still reeling from losing an election that both sides rightly portrayed as the most important in a lifetime. But what about those who abandoned (some would say betrayed) their party and made bed with the opposition (some would say enemy)? Knowing when to quit is a mark of maturity in politics, as in life. Still, there remain plenty of Trump-hating former conservatives and mainstream Republicans suffering so mightily from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) that they openly supported Kamala Harris for president. And they’re bringing the gang back together this weekend to console each other now that their world has crashed and burned.
The Principles First Summit (PFS), a name implying moral superiority, will be held in Washington starting Friday. It will feature a roster of speakers heavily populated by one-time conservatives who have raised tens of millions of dollars over three election cycles to take down Donald Trump. The timing of PFS was deliberately chosen to coincide with CPAC, the much-anticipated annual event that serves as a gathering for conservatives/Republicans, with President Trump scheduled to speak there on Saturday. Perhaps the organizers of PFS, including founder Heath Mayo, were convinced their girl Kamala would be victorious and that they would gather to celebrate as pro-Trumpers simultaneously drowned their sorrows. But now that the opposite has come to pass in emphatic fashion, the rhetoric at this scheduled celebration of self-proclaimed virtue will probably more closely resemble a funeral dirge.
It’s one thing to dislike or even express disdain for a politician in your party. It’s quite another to fall into the welcoming arms of those on the other side and then consummate your betrayal by openly supporting a candidate who stands for everything you have fought against for your entire public career. You have then become a useful idiot. Imagine being a conservative who hates Donald Trump so severely that you would openly advocate for a left-wing radical who would alter the face of our republic. We all know Kamala Harris would have done just that.
Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Where’s Liz?
At the center of the rogue’s gallery of Trump haters sits Liz Cheney, who went even further than her Trump-deranged, pro-Harris fellow travelers by campaigning side-by-side with Joe Biden’s vice president. But as Trump cuts through the disgraced DC Swamp like a hot knife through butter with broad public approval, Ms. Cheney has been reduced to sitting in the peanut gallery, likely waiting for the president to blunder so she can engage in I-told-you-so. But she is evidently so embarrassed by the election outcome – and her role in the campaign – that even as the poster child for TDS, she is not scheduled to appear on the rostrum for the PFS gathering of losers.
The list of scheduled speakers reads like a who’s-who of Trump-hating ex-Republicans and conservatives: There is Bill Kristol, the founder of the defunct neoconservative journal The Weekly Standard, who on Thursday penned a column concerning the administration’s negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, in which he said: “[M]y hope [is] that this American mission abroad fails.” Yes, he actually wrote that.
Also on the list is Trump’s former security advisor and war hawk, John Bolton; then George Conway, who saw fit to constantly embarrass his now ex-wife, Kellyanne Conway, with unhinged rants about Trump when she worked for the 45th president. Adam Kinsinger, the former GOP congressman who worked hand-in-hand with Nancy Pelosi on the January 6 congressional committee, will be there, and so will Michael Steele, former head of the Republican National Committee and now a commentator on fast-fading MSNBC. Then there’s an array of speakers from two platforms created specifically to house disaffected anti-Trump Republicans, The Bulwark and The Dispatch, including Mona Charen, Steve Hayes, and Jonah Goldberg.
Trump Shuns Strong Women?
Also scheduled to speak at PFS is Mark Cuban, one of the few mega-billionaires who has refused to come alongside President Trump. You will recall that during the presidential campaign, Cuban famously declared of Trump that “you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever,” a statement that was thrown back in his face when Trump selected the likes of Susie Wiles, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kristi Noem for critical positions in his administration. Then there is former New Jersey governor and presidential candidate Chris Christie, who has gone back and forth over the years in supporting and opposing Trump. Noting Christie’s appearance, the New Jersey-based Shore News Network described the gathering in stark terms: “The summit can be called the GOP’s ‘Biggest Loser’ event of the year, featuring the who’s who of the far-left wing of the Republican Party and progressive mainstreamers. The featured speakers roster is a d-list of anti-Trump current and former politicians and bureaucrats.”
In announcing her appearance at PFS, longtime Republican Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, wrote: “We’re in a new era now, and it’s obvious people are scared. Billionaires and politicians are self-censoring. Lots of people are choosing to pre-surrender to Trump rather than speak out … Dark times like these are when we need each other most.”
It is hard to imagine a group with less power and influence in the political realm than the featured speakers at PFS. Most of these people have renounced their long-standing affiliations and ideology because of their deranged hatred of a man who stands for almost all of the same policies and principles to which they were long known to subscribe. And their newfound allies on the left no longer have any use for them. They are losers of the worst kind, those who betrayed their own beliefs, failed, and are left to wander in the wilderness.
