Source: The New Republic
by Alex Shepard
“Seven years ago, during the last competitive Republican primary, nearly every candidate not named Donald Trump followed the same basic strategy: Do not attack Donald Trump. This was a foolish strategy: Generally speaking, it is a good idea to try to convince people that the person who is leading the pack is unworthy of front-runner status because you need to persuade those voters to switch allegiance. But in fairness, the presidential aspirants who ended up as 2016’s sacrificial lambs were at least were in uncharted territory. … We now know definitively that this is not a good strategy for running against Donald Trump. … it’s clear that [Mike] Pence’s emphasis on Reagan cosplay should be viewed as a plan to float above the fray. Against Trump, this doesn’t work. But Pence is hardly alone.” (05/17/23)