There is nothing more caloric to swallow than your pride. So when National Review Editor Rich Lowry, who engineered the infamous Against Trump issue of the one-time conservative flagship late in 2015, finally admitted recently that he was wrong about Trump, it may have represented a watershed moment for the NeverTrump “movement.”
Then again, maybe not. Lowry is the first high-profile NeverTrumper to admit his mistake - almost one year into Trump’s presidency. Many of the NeverTrump morally superior pompous asses like Bill Kristol, George Will, and Bret Stephens are unlikely to ever give an inch - or God forbid admit they were mistaken about Trump - as they twist themselves into knots trying to discredit or minimize the impressive accomplishments of the 45th President.
Mental and Moral Acrobatics
How do these NeverTrump conservatives reconcile the fact that all of Trump’s achievements - from tax reform to Neil Gorsuch to massive deregulation - are the exact things they have loudly supported for years? Well, they say the more important thing is that Trump is still a despicable person - or as George Will put it, a vulgarian. That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.
To our friends on the other side of the aisle, take heart. We know from these NeverTrumpers that self-absorbed virtue-signaling is not limited to leftists,
This crowd would likely be paying a much higher price for their abandonment if Trump had lost. But since he won, there is a tendency to forgive and forget. After all, to err is human and to forgive divine.
The Damage Avoided…Just
But we should never allow ourselves to forget that these people did not just support another Republican for the presidential nomination - a perfectly legitimate pursuit. They went on to loudly oppose Trump in the general election as well, giving aid and comfort to Hillary Clinton and the left. Yes, these traitorous “conservatives” actually preferred the candidate who would have sealed Barack Obama’s fundamental transformation of America.
In any case, watch Mr. Lowry come clean and oh-so-begrudgingly admit that yes, Trump has done a good job:
While Mr. Lowry is simply admitting what is obviously true, his mea culpa can best be encapsulated in one simple phrase: better late than never.
