The un-cola

The GOP is not stuck with Trump. GOP voters have options.

Most of his opponents are trying to avoid confrontation. They are the "Un-Cola."

Chris Christie is the exception.

People who remember the 1960s know about 7UP, the "uncola". Their idea was to position the big two brands, Coke and Pepsi,  as "The Establishment," and 7UP as the primary alternative. It wasn't a frontal assault on the beverage leaders. 7UP didn't say cola tasted bad, or even that 7UP tasted better. Instead, 7Up was new and cool, an alternative.

7UP rose in American consciousness to be the third place brand but it did not displace colas. Coke, then and still, is number one, the real thing. 

There is an "un-cola, 7UP" quality to the campaigns of people hoping to replace Trump. They are un-Trump, jostling Trump with an implied criticism, but not confronting him.  Ron DeSantis is positioning himself as a stronger-flavored Trump. Trump opposes abortion but DeSantis opposes it at six weeks. Trump attacks woke progressives, but DeSantis makes acknowledging diversity, equity, and inclusion illegal in Florida public education. He is a younger, nastier Trump, but not anti-Trump.

Mike Pence does not criticize Trump. Pence implies he is the cleaned-up Trump. Pence is Trump in policy, but without the bitter aftertaste of lawbreaking, womanizing, and sedition. 

Nikki Haley is a fresh alternative to Trump, not his critic. In her New Hampshire Town Hall events I heard not one word of criticism of Trump. She said nothing about the 2020 election or January 6. She said she was honored to have been made Ambassador to the UN by him, but said nothing about the resignations by Trump's cabinet members in disgust and opposition to him. She is female. She has a sunny disposition. She smiles. America isn't enduring carnage, not in South Carolina at least, where Boeing and BMW are opening factories and hiring people. She is available if, for any reason, one is looking around for a candidate.

Vivek Ramaswamy is another un-cola candidate. He defends Trump and says the investigations and prosecutions of him for crimes are unjust. He says that he would immediately pardon the January 6 rioters. He denounces ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governmental) investing. He opposes affirmative action. He denounces "climatism," "Covidism," and "genderism" and calls them false secular religions. He has bold ideas and a positive outlook, if anyone wants that.

Chris Christie is the exception. Christie is a brawler who openly says that the way to be the GOP nominee is to confrontT rump. “You have to be fearless, because he will come back — and right at you. And that means you need to think about who’s got the skill to do that, and who’s got the guts to do that, because it’s not going to end nicely.”

Christie goes beyond saying Trump can not win. He says Trump should not win. "The only person he cares about is him[self.]"  That crosses the Rubicon in the GOP primary: Trump should not be re-elected. Christie describes un-cola candidates: 

They’re going to wriggle right up next to him and say "I’m almost like him, but I’m not quite as bad.” Let me tell you something, everybody. That’s going to lose.

Chris Christie embarrassed himself in 2016 when he became a sycophant of Trump, who then humiliated him by having him prepare Trump's transition plan and then flagrantly discarded Christie's work. Christie, of all the candidates, likes a direct face- to-face fight. I watched him tell New Hampshire audiences that for them to understand him they needed to remember that he was Sicilian, the home of the mafia. We are direct, he told them. We don't hedge and pussy-foot. We confront. 

 “You have to be fearless, because he will come back — and right at you. And that means you need to think about who’s got the skill to do that, and who’s got the guts to do that, because it’s not going to end nicely.”

 Liz Cheney may have laid the groundwork, but the GOP was nowhere near ready to hear it. GOP voters may never be ready. But the prosecutions may erode Trump credibility and Fox has become wary of looking uncritical of Trump. Still, Trump will not fall of his own weight, leaving a space open for a non-confrontational alternative.  A Republican candidate will need to take him down. Possibly Chris Christie. He may want revenge.

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