A 2024 ticket of former Vice President Mike Pence and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney might just be the thing that saves the Republican Party and our republic. Since Donald Trump’s descent on the golden escalator in 2015, there have been far too many missed offramps for Republican officials who did not want Trump to be the GOP presidential candidate in 2016. Next year might just be the last one of those offramps. A Pence-Cheney ticket would restore trust in America’s democratic institutions and begin the strengthening of the political party structure within the GOP.
Debating whether Trump’s popularity is waning within the party’s voter base is futile. Trump’s approval is not decreasing in any meaningful way and, for the purposes of this argument, it doesn’t really matter. This is about party elites finally taking back control of their party from their radical constituents. Will they do it? Probably not because they’re too afraid, but here’s an assertion for how and why they should.
The Republican Party elites and party bosses missed their window to take Trump out in 2016. It’s not that they didn’t know what would happen. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted on May 3, 2016: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.” Graham had the foresight to know what would happen if the Republican base voter took control of the party.
