Here's a campaign slogan for true conservatives. And just for kicks, it's a thumb in the eye to former critics, too:
"How do you like me now?"
Asa Hutchinson ought to use it. For once upon a time he was considered too far off the reservation. But in this day of Trump populism, his kind of conservatism is getting praise among even Washington Post columnists. ("A hard-right conservative, he nevertheless has objected to targeting transgender youth, he has rejected the 'big lie,' and he supported the mammoth bipartisan infrastructure bill."--Jennifer Rubin)
Once upon a not-so-long-ago time, they couldn't throw in any compliments with a start like, "A hard-right conservative . . ."
Conservatism, even the hard-right kind, might be in for a renaissance. Which is why Republican candidates are testing the waters for a presidential run these days, whether or not a certain former president down in Florida has made up his mind about the race.
Asa Hutchinson--governor of Arkansas, former House manager during the impeachment of Bill Clinton, former administrator of the DEA, and one of the most bona fided of bona fide conservatives--spoke at a Wall Street Journal confab the other day. We got a copy of the video. Not that it was hard. The Journal put it on its website.
Asa Hutchinson said there was a linkage between the ideas that Donald Trump fought for, those things conservatives care about, and the former president personally. "And de-linking those takes time."
He's right. How much time is anybody's guess. Former presidents are like that. It's why Bill Clinton is still a rock star at the Democratic National Convention every four years.
"I hope we can stay away from divisiveness that hurts America," Asa Hutchinson continued, "and I hope we can stay away from the culture of personality, if you will, or chaos, that really destroys the confidence that Americans want to have in their leaders and their elected representatives."
That was a shot at Donald Trump's personality. But you haven't heard anything yet.
The emcee asked Gov. Hutchinson where he'd like to see the Republican Party go:
"I supported Trump for president whenever he first ran. And whenever you look, though, at what happened, not just on Jan. 6, but what happened before that, leading up to the election, where you really are seeing a national leader that was unraveling the fabric of our democracy. And trying to do that.
"And so I called that as I saw it, and said that President Biden won. The election is not something that President Trump should have challenged in the way that he did for sure. And so you look to the future though, and first of all, we need to go in a different direction than that.
"Because again, for the reasons I said, we've got to build confidence, we've got to build less division, and we've got to show that we're the party of the future and not the last election. And that is critical for us."
Again, he's right.
The problem is that the rock star in Florida--or the man considered a rock star by so many in the Republican base--can help a lot in the 2022 elections and in 2024, whether he runs or not. The secret sauce might be made with Trump's conservative ideas--and he had them--with another politician's personality. Perhaps a much more thoughtful, maybe even pensive, personality. Call it a conservative personality. Combined with legislative, executive and legal experience. With a little dash of a politician's smile.
We wonder if Asa Hutchinson has anybody in mind?