It’s time for political courage

2026 proved to be a perfect storm for Democrats. The explanation, especially in states that haven’t seen Democratic victories of this magnitude since the Dixiecrats were waving Confederate flags, is myriad and legion. We have seen analyses of every possible issue, from the war in Iran to inflation, the cost of gas, militant immigration enforcement, tariffs, corruption, and so on.But for how complicated this all seems, there is a convenient and accurate label we can put on the entire expanse of Republican self-immolation: President Donald Trump.There is no case to be made whatsoever that any of these things happened to Trump. In the last two years, a political party with the smallest possible majorities in Congress surrendered its wisdom, will, and common sense to the demands of the White House. The Republican Party chose to surrender any ounce of political courage it had left. Criticisms are flying every which way, with everyone seeking to place blame that’s conveniently aligned with their priors. But the inability to blame the man who orchestrated the Republican Party’s defeat is depressing.The clearest example of this sad state of affairs is Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). If anyone has a platform to exercise political courage and repudiate the excesses of the Trump administration, it’s the man whose state is one of the few to come out of the election still pretty rock-solid red. And that’s no easy feat, considering Florida was a swing state not that long ago, while Texas was part of the supposedly impregnable red wall.DeSantis could easily lead the charge in repudiating populism and restoring conservatism in the GOP. As an outgoing and popular governor, Trump and company can’t touch him, however they might try, for daring to actually call Trump out for, more or less, destroying the Republican Party.Instead, DeSantis went online and trash-talked Mitt Romney of all people. If we want to talk about people being squishy, maybe we need to start by asking why a president who is leading the country right now and whose leadership of the GOP has damaged it severely right now remains beyond direct reproach, instead of taking low-risk potshots at a man who was lost on the national ballot when this year’s first-time voters were 4 years old.I would have hoped, and I would have presumed, that DeSantis learned lessons from his disastrous 2024 campaign, where he started with incredible support at the onset of the primary campaign season, only to let that support atrophy continuously and consistently toward a failed campaign that accumulated only nine delegates.DESANTIS SEIZES ON FLORIDA VICTORIES TO MAKE CASE FOR GOP COMEBACKBut if he thinks the path toward conservative renewal for the Republican Party is to continue tiptoeing around Trump and what he did to it, while attacking political figures of yesteryear to throw red meat to the same impulses that gave us Trump in the first place, then either DeSantis is incapable of learning important political lessons, or he’s such a cynical person that he thinks his path toward the presidency in 2028 still lies in inheriting Trumpism, even though Trumpism just shredded the fortunes of the Republican Party.What the Republican Party needs right now, what the country needs, is political courage. And regardless of all possible and even fair criticism, Romney demonstrated political courage. Maybe he’s the last person who should be getting criticized. Those who had platforms and influence and positions of power who refused, time and time again, to demonstrate political courage and stand up to Trump before this calamity arose, like DeSantis, should be demonstrating reflection and humility instead of lashing out once again at those who not only had a sense of what was coming, but actually tried to do something about it.Justin Stapley (@JustinWStapley) is a graduate student at Utah Valley University, where he studies constitutional governance, civics, and law. He is also the state director of the Utah Reagan Caucus and writes the Self-Evident Newsletter.