Conservative Columnist Laments Closeness Of Election: Trumpism Is Hardly Repudiated

Conservative columnist Max Boot lamented the nail-biting closeness of the 2020 election in his latest op-ed for The Washington Post, writing “this wasn’t the blue wave election that I wanted or the nation needed.”

“It should not have been this close,” said Boot, recalling President Donald Trump’s catalog of failings, from his lies, divisive rhetoric and impeachment to his catastrophic handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the cratering of the economy.

“That Trump did so well in the election after doing so badly as president is mind-boggling and disturbing,” wrote the never-Trump pundit who quit the GOP in 2016. “So too is the fact that Republicans seem to have paid little price for allowing him to ride roughshod over the Constitution, lock kids in cages and spread the poison of nativism and racism,” he added.

Boot said the election’s message was “simple if disheartening: Demagoguery and dishonesty work.”

“That does not augur well for our future, even if the likely defeat of Trump himself is an enormous achievement,” he concluded. “I recently wrote: “We’re better than this. Aren’t we?” We may not be.”

Read Boot’s full editorial here.