The 2016 presidential cycle has not been kind to movement conservatives. Despite having a bounty of options for a potential Republican nominee, the strongest candidates fell out of the race early.

Governors with clear track records of conservative reform, such as Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, never even got close to an electoral contest. Rick Perry’s attempt at a comeback suffered a similar fate, in part due to uncertainty over a politicized indictment later dismissed by an appeals court. Jeb Bush had a huge war chest but quickly lost the first battles and withdrew.

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The race came down to Donald Trump’s populist campaign and two first-term Senators, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, neither of whom could slow down the Trump juggernaut despite attempts late in the cycle to generate some sort of unity behind them.

The rational conclusion from this experience should be recognition among movement conservatives that Republican voters do not place nearly as much value on ideology or policy as once assumed. The collection of conservatives who make up the #NeverTrump movement has instead argued that general-election voters faced with a choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton would yearn for a third option that represents traditional conservative values.

A serious candidate in that mold, they insist, would attract enough voters to disrupt the election and deny either Trump or Clinton an Electoral College win, if not win the White House outright.

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Theoretically speaking, it’s possible, although one would have to do it without Texas, whose ballot access closed two weeks ago. But what national figure would agree to take on such a campaign, someone whose personality and familiarity could command millions to think outside the two-party box and strike a blow for serious conservatives?

David French! … David French?





At a time when conservatism faces a crisis of engagement, the French proposal cements the conclusion that the movement has completely lost touch with voters – and, quite possibly, reality.

In the wake of this reveal, plenty of people poked fun at French, as well as at Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol for anointing French as the latest #NeverTrump savior. That’s unfair to both men. French is hardly an unknown in conservative circles, both as a writer at National Review and as someone involved in Republican campaigns. Both men have served the movement with distinction and honor, and French has also done the same in the U.S. military. Most people may not know that.

And … that’s precisely the problem. At a time when intellectual movement conservatism faces a crisis of engagement, the French proposal all but cements the conclusion that the movement has completely lost touch with voters – and, quite possibly, reality.

French is a well-known writer and activist within the intellectual core of the conservative movement, but nearly unknown outside of those circles. Those circles had no impact in the primary cycle of the Republican Party, where their influence would presumably reach its apex. Offering French as a man whose force of influence could offer a major recalculation of the general election might seem to some within those circles as an act of conscience and principle.

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To the rest of America, though, it reeks of denial, and also desperation. Mitt Romney, a former candidate with considerable personal resources and residual voter loyalty from four years ago, favors the idea of an independent conservative candidate … but refuses to accept that mantle himself. The #NeverTrump activists have approached others publicly, such as Senator Ben Sasse and retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, only to be rebuffed.





It reduces conservatism to a stunt, a gimmick, and one that could do more damage than all of the good Kristol and French authentically hope to accomplish.

Gone is the pretense of finding proven political leadership or the resources needed for a serious independent bid. In its place is the urge to find anyone willing to run, even if it’s impossible to have any impact at all. It reduces conservatism to a stunt, a gimmick, and one that could do more damage than all of the good Kristol and French authentically hope to accomplish.

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