I Wasn’t Never Trump—but I Say Not Again

I left the country for nearly a month this summer and came back to find that Democrats were rising in generic polls and President Biden’s approval rating had ticked up. That shouldn’t be possible given the state of dysfunction in which we now live. If the Republicans can’t make big gains in the midterms and recapture the White House in 2024 with the hapless Mr. Biden at the helm, the GOP needs a revolution, starting at the top.

I’m about to turn 50 and can’t recall ever feeling so pessimistic about our leaders and the direction of the country. The stock market had its worst first half of a year in my lifetime, and I don’t have the stomach lately to check and see what’s left of my investment portfolio. Inflation is higher than it has been since I was in elementary school, and mortgage rates are around 6%.

Under Mr. Biden’s watch, disorder reigns. America has lost control of its southern border, drug overdoses have reached an all-time high, and violent crime has increased thanks to soft-on-crime policies and a lack of support for the police. His party’s commitment to teachers unions and pandemic school closures have led to declining test scores and an epidemic of chronic absenteeism. Abroad, the U.S. has bumbled into disaster after disaster. We gifted the Taliban billions in weaponry during a chaotic withdrawal in Afghanistan, which—along with other administration ineptitudes—emboldened

Vladimir Putin

to launch an invasion of Ukraine.

Yet our president blames his failures on “ultra-MAGA” Trump voters, whom he often likens to domestic terrorists. Consumers of conservative media gorge on clips and coverage of Mr. Biden’s every gaffe and wonder how anyone can support him. People still do in large part because the mainstream media keeps the spotlight off the president and on, you guessed it, Mr. Trump. Independents and moderate Democrats should be flocking to the GOP, given Mr. Biden’s commitment to radical and haphazard progressive policy. But many voters don’t want anything to do with a party that’s clueless enough to keep Mr. Trump as the headliner of its show.

The former president’s most ardent fans fail to grasp the depths of his unpopularity. Some seem to live in a fantasy land, still believing he won 2020 in a landslide. Many Republicans who should know better continue to indulge these delusions to the detriment of their party and the country.

Only 27% of Americans want Mr. Trump to run again, and there are better options for 2024. While the former president is fixated on himself, the governor of Florida, my adopted home state, is more focused on policy. A recent Economist/YouGov poll showed that while Mr. Trump’s favorability is 17 points underwater, Gov.

Ron DeSantis

is plus two—despite ferociously negative and misleading press.

And yet we’ve seen no indication that Mr. DeSantis or any other leading Republican with a serious chance of beating Mr. Trump is willing to engage in the brass-knuckle brawl necessary to dethrone him. (Rep.

Liz Cheney

has a 17% approval rating among Republicans, so she can make lots of noise but won’t get anywhere.) And so, anti-Trump and anti-Never-Trump Republicans like me are stranded in the political wilderness.

This problem extends beyond potential 2024 contenders. Though they have to know Mr. Trump is a liability for the party, many influential conservatives seem afraid to criticize the former president and risk offending his base. This allows Democrats and the media to suggest that the choice for Republicans is between Mr. Trump or someone who can never get the party’s support, such as Sen.

Mitt Romney

or Ms. Cheney. Only 57% of Republicans want Mr. Trump to run again, but that could be enough with a crowded field. On Super Tuesday in 2016 he won 34% of the vote, compared with 29% for

Ted Cruz

and 22% for

Marco Rubio.

If Republicans want to escape the nightmarish conditions Mr. Biden has inflicted on the country, they can’t allow Mr. Trump to continue to lead the party. Mr. DeSantis and other conservative leaders don’t have to denounce the former president. But they must distance themselves from him and talk Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters off the ledge, making the case that competency and substance are more important than bluster and bravado.

The best-case scenario for the left is for Republicans to succumb to their fears and stick with an unpopular, polarizing candidate who would re-enter the White House at 78 if elected. The Democrats made a similar mistake in 2016, making the unpopular and polarizing

Hillary Clinton

their candidate, essentially because it was “her turn” and they didn’t want to offend her supporters. We all saw how that turned out.

Mr. Seminara is a former diplomat and author of “Footsteps of Federer: A Fan’s Pilgrimage Across 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts.”