Donald Trump’s continued political career is a waste of precious resources for the conservative movement, the Republican Party, and the American Right. Every day spent on Trump’s personal interests redirects resources away from causes that matter to ordinary Americans and the issues we believe in. Our political energy, attention, and effort are finite, and there are only so many people engaged in American politics. Money, airtime, print and web space, and even swing voters and young people are limited resources. While polarizing causes and inspirational leaders can expand these resources, the limits are real and hard.
When choosing leaders for our party and movement, we must consider not only how much additional energy they can bring to the table but also how much of what we entrust to them will be wasted. With Donald Trump, the answer is quite a lot. While he has accomplished some of the things conservative-leaning voters and activists are interested in, he has also wasted vast energy on petty personal feuds, unnecessary scandals, pointless lies, and unforced errors. Trump is uniquely divisive within the Republican Party and conservative movement, causing elections to be lost and people to turn against each other. All that anger could have been turned outward.
While it is true that every leader will inevitably waste some of the precious energy they are entrusted to deploy, Trump’s old baggage never goes away, and the voters who have tuned him out permanently never come back. It is also true that Trump has his political strengths, but not all of the distractions are his fault. Any Republican or conservative worth their salt will attract a lot of fire and have to spend a lot of time responding to made-up scandals, bogus investigations, and ludicrous controversies. However, Trump’s bad habits have contributed to the credibility and persistence of many of those distractions.
There are so many things more important than the things that Donald J. Trump wants or needs to care about and fight about, and that he will drag the rest of us into caring about and fighting about. He has been the main character in our politics for eight years, and it’s time to move on. America deserves better.
