Why the Never Trump movement failed to stop Donald Trump

Let’s face it: the Never Trump movement was never meant to succeed. It was less of an organized push to stop a candidate viewed as dangerous and vulgar, and more of an emotional protest by Republicans who disagreed with someone’s rhetoric.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with opposing Donald Trump. But for a united front to work, the trick is to be united. Instead of selecting a candidate when there was enough time on the clock to establish a barricade across Trump’s path to the nomination, the movement stuck to whining on social media and not actually selecting a single candidate.

This point is highlighted by perennial loser Mitt Romney, who never passes up a chance to be an opportunistic loser. When he came out swinging at the controversial businessman for just ten more seconds in the spotlight, he did so without directing the movement. We get it, Trump is a bad man, but what’s the plan?

There wasn’t one.

As I pointed out two months ago, this was going to fail:

The scenario that many Republicans fear in Donald Trump winning the nomination is very likely. How is Senator Ted Cruz going to defeat Trump if he’s sharing the anti-Trump vote with a Florida Senator who is a lingering One Hit Wonder? How is Senator Marco Rubio going to win if he’s sharing the anti-Trump vote with a Texas Senator with limited appeal? How is Governor John Kasich going to win at all?

Everything is divided and a total mess.

And that’s exactly what happened. Nobody knew what they wanted.

As soon as Senator Ted Cruz suspended his campaign last night, the world literally ended and the sky fell. Facebook and Twitter was full of Chicken Littles screaming hyperbole from the rooftops about how the end was near. The rhetoric spoke of the end of the American Republic and how we were all doomed.

The Trump haters need to understand this is largely their fault though.

Trump wouldn’t be the nominee right now had all those desperately opposed to Trump in the Republican Party actually known what they wanted. And they didn’t. For all their memes, posts and tweets, they still don’t understand it.

Now Senator Cruz and even Governor John Kasich are out of the race, leaving only Donald Trump. He will be the Republican nominee for President of the United States. This leaves a lingering fear for many that he could be more of a dictator than previous presidents and others fear what he may become. If that’s the case, it’s clearly at odds with what the Presidency is supposed to be constitutionally. Do something about it.

Get involved in races for Congress, know your legislators, and even run for municipal offices. The presidential primary may be winding down, but the election overall is still far from over. Make a difference.

Chris Dixon

About Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning writer and managing editor for The Liberty Conservative. In addition to his political writing, he also covers baseball for Cleat Geeks and enjoys writing on a number of other topics ranging on Medium.