The ever shrinking niche market for the Never Trumpers

Clarice Feldman:
It is a mystery to me why so many politicians and pundits are suddenly committing career and party suicide. I suppose it’s because there has been a failure to recognize that they’ve been living in and promoting a fantasy world. In the meantime, the president has called their bluff, exposed the cant, and forced them into chaos and ruinous policies.
The failure of the Weekly Standard and the decline of the National Review have exposed the not-conservative Trump haters as unpragmatic, unrealistic snobs. They are now shaking the begging cup to keep from having to earn an honest living. In the face of the president’s rising popularity among voters and the economic and diplomatic successes of this administration, they continue to believe that on the right there are readers and donors who will keep them at it.
As Karl Notturno at the Daily Caller opines:
Never-Trumpism is easy. Read a few conservative philosophers. Hold to a few core principles, no matter what. And express outrage at most of what Trump says. Adoration from the media and liberal friends will follow.
But Never-Trumpism is also unthinking. It fails to account for the real world. That’s why so many Never-Trumpers ended up being so wrong about the 2016 election. And that’s why they continue to stumble about in the dark and continue to make absolute fools of themselves, egged on by liberal pundits who revel that they can say, “I must be open-minded; I have conservative friends.”
Never-Trumpers, with their unchanging views, can’t understand why the world does not agree with them and thus conclude that the world has gone mad. And this leads them to indulge in the feel-good drug of believing that they are the last intelligent and sane people in the country. Although they aren’t exactly clear on who died and left them in charge of the conservative intellectual tradition, they are adamant that they are the rightful heir.
The Weekly Standard eventually failed due to irrelevance. The Bulwark, established immediately to replace the aforementioned, will likely continue this tradition of irrelevance, only occasionally rising into the spotlight when some liberal television show needs a token conservative who has been beaten into submission.
It’s sad to see these minds, which have so much potential, wasting away in a fantasy land. Stuck on the drug of arrogant, uncritical pseudo-intellectualism.
Fat chance. The man they detest is carrying out policies they so often claimed to support, and the voters -- most of whom they look down on -- approve.
...
There is much more.

I am sorry to see so many of the people who opposed the nomination of President Trump, still in opposition to a guy who has exceeded my expectations in implementing a conservative agenda.  Trump, when he is unscripted, can mesmerize his supporters and occasionally say things he later has to explain.  Such was evidently the case with his speech at CPAC.  When scripted as he was for the State of the Union he can be persuasive to independents too.

I think some of the Never Trumpers are talented writers.  But their talents are most appreciated when they are countering the arguments of the left.  Jonah Goldberg showed that talent when he decimated the Green New Deal and its war on cow farts.

When Trump makes what appears to be a mistake, it is best to reason with him on the downside of his decisions such as the one to leave Syria.  Since then, he has moved toward a recognition of the dangers posed by the decision and has modified it.

I don't see a big market for conservative writers attacking the President.  The Democrats have a lock on the criticism of the President and most conservatives want to see the evils of liberalism opposed.  Criticism of the President by conservatives should focus on the downside for him and conservatives because of certain decisions.

Streif provides an example of how doing it wrong backfires:

Why Would The Bulwark Send A Liberal Infanticide Fan To Cover CPAC In Order To Conserve Conservatism?

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