MY UNPOPULAR OPINION: THE GOP IS NOT A PERSONALITY CULT

David Remnick of The New Yorker just interviewed Liz Cheney -- as if she needs more publicity, or New Yorker readers still need to be persuaded that Donald Trump is bad. Remnick writes:

In a political party that has evolved into a personality cult, her apostasy resides in her refusal to worship its leader and in her defense of the Constitution.

Has the Republican Party evolved into a personality cult? Everyone will disagree with me on this, but I don't think so.

Here's data from a poll of Michigan Republicans:

Nearly two thirds of the respondents would be either enthusiastic or satisfied if Ron DeSantis were the party's nominee rather than Trump. Half would be enthusiastic or satisfied if it were Nikki Haley rather than Trump. They clearly prefer Trump by a wide margin, and we know some of them treat him worshipfully, but they'd be perfectly content with someone else.

We saw something similar last month:

More than 60 percent of Trump primary voters said there is “at least some chance” they would support a candidate other than former President Trump in the Republican presidential primary, according to a survey from Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll....

Does this mean Trump can be beaten in the primaries? No. He's going to win every contest in a landslide. But many Republican voters who think he's the best choice clearly don't think he's the only choice.

These voters want someone who can beat President Biden, and most of them really want someone who drives liberals crazy. And who drives liberals crazier than Trump? We admit it! He horrifies us!

If anyone drove liberals crazier than Trump, that person could seriously challenge Trump for the nomination. (Trump is lucky that the foreign-born Elon Musk is ineligible to be president.)

Imagine if first-term Trump had collaborated on an infrastructure bill with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, or agreed to allow DACA recipients to stay in the country permanently and pursue citizenship -- things many people thought he might do. He probably would have been abandoned by large portions of his base in 2020, like George H.W. Bush in 1992. Instead, he kept pissing off liberals, so much so that he's unbeatable in the primaries.

That's not really cult worship. It's just high job approval.