Why has the American center right disappeared from the ballot box? | Jan-Werner Müller

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : But he's also the man who brought us Sarah Palin, a Trumpista before there was Trump.
45% : If in doubt, never-Trumpers would default into Ronald Reagan or John McCain idolatry: such apparent moral icons would seem to provide the maximum contrast with Trump; they also served as shorthand for the ideological mix that the center right think remains their unique political offering: pro-business, strong on defense, conventional family values (such that men, exhausted from competing in the market, would find a nice, but also disciplined, home in which to recover ...).
39% : As one observer put it: Trump did not hijack the Republican party - he understood it.
38% : Needless to say, Trump will claim a full mandate anyway.
35% : In the end, the self-declared center right has had no defense against Trump; it seems ultimately unwilling to abandon the double game that enabled Trumpism in the first place.
28% : Trump will claim one anyway The blame game's in full swing.
18% : Someone like Nikki Haley would in all likelihood have beaten Harris, given the discontent - justified or not - with incumbents in many countries; the fact that she ended up endorsing Trump was yet further evidence of the defeatism of traditional Republican elites.

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