Donald who?

Last week’s midterm elections are proof that Donald Trump has completed his ruination of the GOP. The Party of Lincoln has been overrun by low-quality candidates, rampant conspiracy theories, and a vile culture of intimidation. As the twice-impeached, disgraced ex-president prepares to announce his candidacy again this week, conservatives of conscience should quit the party and join a new one. A third party may not seem like the obvious solution. Indeed, American history is littered with the tombstones of party experiments that never gained popular support. But the environment has changed dramatically. For the first time in history, roughly half of Americans now say they are political independents, rather than Democrats or Republicans. Nearly two-thirds of voters report that they would vote for a third party. And a movement is underway across the nation to enact political reforms—like ranked-choice voting, open primaries, and anti-gerrymandering—that will make it easier for third-party candidates to win. It’s time to give voters somewhere else to go. If not, common-sense GOP voters risk staying in a party that is aiding and abetting the return of Donald Trump and the perpetuation of his destructive movement. —Miles Taylor, Executive Director, Renew America Foundation

• Russian missiles hit Polish village, sparking worries across NATO —Reuters

• Russia unleashes darkness on Ukraine with power grid attack —Associated Press

• Federal judge blocks Title 42 rule that allowed expulsion of migrants at U.S.-Mexico border —CNN

• Amid court challenges to its student debt forgiveness, Biden administration could extend payment pause yet again —CNBC

• Same-sex marriage: Senate vote to codify Respect for Marriage Act set for Wednesday —Axios

• Tragedy at UVA after 3 athletes killed in shooting —Axios

• Beijing signals optimism for U.S. ties after Biden-Xi meeting —The New York Times

• Trump pushes special master to deem Mar-a-Lago records his personal property —The Hill

• Federal prosecutors decline to file charges against Rudy Giuliani following FBI raid —ABC News

• Slew of fake verified tweets cause chaos and confusion on Twitter —USA Today

Is the GOP ready to say, ‘You’re fired’?

Donald Trump wants his old job back, but Republicans might not want him. As hard as it may be to believe, the party that was willing to overlook an insurrection isn’t as inclined to shake off a poor showing in a midterm election. As Trump prepares to announce another White House run in 2024, a growing group of Republican megadonors is backing a fresh crop of GOP presidential contenders, while laying the blame for the party’s lackluster performance last week squarely at the ex-president’s feet. True to form, Trump has already railed against two potential primary opponents, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, though neither has yet announced a potential presidential bid. “For a litany of reasons, I think it’s time to move on to the next generation,” says Citadel CEO and Republican donor Ken Griffin. —CNBC

• Extremism is so 2020. Charlie Baker, the moderate Republican governor of Massachusetts, says Trump’s influence hurt their party in the midterms as voters demonstrated they “aren’t interested in extremism.” In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Baker said he thinks voters want “elected officials who are going to reach out, who are going to engage with the so-called other side, and who are going to take seriously this idea that you are supposed to try to represent and hear the voices of all of the people that you serve.” —CNN

• Voters “rejected crazy.” Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, also a blue-state Republican, received a huge round of applause at an annual meeting of GOP governors today after blaming Trump for party failures in the last three elections. Christie addressed a room full of hundreds of people—Republican governors, high-level donors, and consultants—at a hotel in Orlando, less than 200 miles north from the Mar-a-Lago resort where Trump is expected to make his announcement tonight. —Axios

• Et tu, Pence? Even Mike Pence, Trump’s long-suffering but mostly silent former vice president, is ready to turn the page. Asked during an ABC News interview that aired last night whether he believes his former boss should serve again as president, Pence said: “I think that’s up to the American people. … People in this country actually get along pretty well once you get out of politics. And I think they want to see their national leaders start to reflect that same compassion and generosity of spirit. So in the days ahead, I think there will be better choices.” —CNN

MORE POST-ELECTION NEWS:

• Unfit as ever: Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, and to the Republican Party –New York Daily News

• Republicans endorse McCarthy for U.S. House speaker, a crucial test for the embattled GOP leader —CNBC

• Matt Gaetz turns on Marjorie Taylor Greene over McCarthy endorsement —Newsweek

• McConnell faces leadership challenge from Rick Scott as conservatives steam —Politico

• Michelle Goldberg: Four stark lessons from a Democratic upset —The New York Times

Miller: Election denialism was denied last week

“From Stone Mountain to Mount Rainier. From Waukesha to Washoe. From Philly to Phoenix, pro-democracy forces were undeterred and undefeated. There were seven Republican gubernatorial candidates who would not commit to certify Biden’s 2020 win. They went 0-7 in the midterm. (Or 0-8 if you toss in David Perdue’s pathetic primary performance against Brian Kemp). Eight blue or purple state GOP Secretary of State candidates would not commit to certifying the election if the Democrat won. They went 0-8 last Tuesday. (Or 0-10 if you count the Tina Peters faceplant in the Colorado GOP primary, and Saint Brad Raffensperger crushing all comers). Two swing district election deniers successfully primaried Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, Joe Kent and John Gibbs. Both got schlonged.” —Tim Miller in The xxxxxx

Tim Miller is a writer-at-large at The xxxxxx.

MORE: After beating election deniers, bipartisan group of secretaries of state talk democracy —ABC News

A dose of reality for fake electors 

As the House select committee considers its options after Donald Trump sued to block a subpoena from the panel in its investigation of the ex-president’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the Supreme Court gave the committee some good news. Yesterday, the court cleared the way for the panel to access phone records belonging to Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward. The order was unsigned, but Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito indicated they would have granted the request for relief filed by Ward and her husband, Michael. The couple was among a group of 11 Arizonans who signed a fake election certificate purporting to show that Trump won the state. The multistate attempt to put forth fake electors was central to the effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat, which eventually led to the insurrection. Stay tuned. —The Hill

MORE: Greg Sargent: The quiet vindication of Liz Cheney —The Washington Post

America remains exceptional through the good, the bad, and the ugly

By Lynn Schmidt

America is exceptional. For those who may not believe so or may have forgotten, it is the job of the rest of us to show them the way.

In a focus group of one, a member of Generation Z admitted to not considering America particularly exceptional. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering the time in which my daughter has grown up and the context of when we were having this conversation.

This conversation took place on the very same day there was an attack on the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which resulted in her husband’s hospitalization. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who hails from Pelosi’s state of California, was remarkably slow to condemn the attack.

During the same week of a school shooting in St. Louis, a 19-year-old gunman who failed an FBI background check but still obtained a gun, entered a high school with an assault rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition, killing a high school student and a beloved teacher.

During a month that a Democratic member of Congress from St. Louis signed a letter requesting that President Joe Biden negotiate with war criminal Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine and a local elementary school had been forced to close after an independent report showed excessive levels of radioactivity were discovered on the school campus.

In a year when hundreds of election deniers across the country were competing in Tuesday’s election, McCarthy said he may likely curtail aid to Ukraine if Republicans took control of the House. American women lost a right that they have had for nearly 50 years. A former president was found to have classified documents in his Florida residence. And Missouri began requiring a photo ID in order to vote.

In the middle of a decade when selfishness exploded during a global pandemic, in which vaccine misinformation and mask wars ran rampant, for the first time in American history there was no peaceful transfer of power. And a gallows was erected in front of the U.S. Capitol while rioters hunted for the vice president while chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.”

America might not have been acting exceptional lately.

But I fundamentally believe in a different kind of American exceptionalism. All of us have a responsibility to restore this core value and to highlight it for younger generations. Here’s what I reminded my daughter:

Despite being brutally attacked with a hammer, Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, was able to call 911. Law enforcement responded swiftly. Pelosi was taken to a hospital where he had emergent neurosurgery to repair a skull fracture from a hammer attack. Even though House GOP members were slow to condemn and some even made jokes about the attack, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately condemned the attack.

Interim St. Louis police Chief Michael Sack described the police officers who responded to Central Visual and Performing Arts and Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience within four minutes after receiving the call for an active shooter: “They did an outstanding job. I don’t know how they could have done better.” The officers confronted the shooter eight minutes after they arrived. And police reported “suspect down” two minutes later, saving countless lives.

Progressive Democrats withdrew their letter calling for more diplomatic efforts with Russia. Biden remains committed to the cause of defending democracy here and abroad, specifically in Ukraine. As of right now, most members of Congress still support funding Ukraine’s war effort.

Local, state, and national elected officials have committed to remediation of the radioactive waste found at Jana Elementary in Florissant, calling for a declaration of a federal emergency.

Under Operation Warp Speed, coronavirus vaccines were developed in record time, and millions of doses were dispensed less than a year after the pandemic landed on our shores. Millions of health care heroes kept our medical centers open despite the risk to their health and the health of their loved ones. Vaccines that target cancer could be available by 2030, according to the husband-and-wife team behind one of the most successful coronavirus vaccines.

Countless volunteers got out the vote on Tuesday in order to defeat election deniers. Thousands of other remarkable Americans worked as poll workers during the height of the pandemic in 2020, making that election the most secure election in our lifetime.

Because of brave law enforcers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, members of Congress and the vice president were kept safe. The electoral votes were certified, and Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.

All parents have had the experience when their usually good child makes a series of mistakes. But a string of bad behavior doesn’t change the inherent goodness of the child. This is how I approach our American experiment. America may be stumbling now, but we remain special, all because of exceptional people who live here.

Lynn Schmidt is a columnist and member of the editorial board at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and a former fellow at the Renew America Movement.

(Originally published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

MORE: Across the U.S., a return to democratic order —The Westerly Sun

As a moderate voter in Utah, I was of course deeply disappointed last week when Evan McMullin came up short in his run for U.S. Senate. Evan ran as an independent against two-term, Donald Trump-supported and -supporting Senator Mike Lee. Evan had pulled together a remarkable coalition of disenfranchised Republicans, independents, and the Utah Democratic Party. Instead of nominating their own candidate, Utah Democrats endorsed Evan's non-partisan bid.

Evan raised almost twice as much money as Lee did. Most of McMullin's contributions came from Utah voters. He took no special interest money. It was the most noble of grassroots politics. On the contrary, most of Lee's money came from out-of-state special interests like pharma and oil. But Lee was also backed by millions of dollars from dark money PACs—organizations with no interest in Utah issues. Their ads were mean, cynical, hypocritical. They accused Evan of the very worst of their own tactics.

In the end, Lee won. But he won by the narrowest margin of any of the U.S. congressional races in Utah. In supposedly dark-red Utah, Mike Lee—one of the earliest masterminds of the 2020 “Great Steal”—garnered only 55% of the general election vote. I am so proud of Evan McMullin and the way he presented himself in a campaign that dragged on for more than a year. He is exactly what I wish my elected representatives to be: smart, articulate, tough, fair, and loyal to his country, not his party.

Thank you, Evan McMullin! I hope we haven't seen the last of your grand spirit. —Lee B., Utah

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Renew America Foundation.