Will “Principles First” launch a Conservative Party?
Reagan Republicans have reached the Rubicon
Starting onFebruary 21, the Principles First organization will hold a three day summit at the JW Mariott Hotel in Washington DC. Founded by attorney Heath Mayo in 2019, Principles First is a nationwide group dedicated to preserving and furthering the cause of the conservative movement as it was understood, for example, by Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and indeed, the large majority of Republicans prior to the takeover of the helm of the party by Donald Trump.
As their strategy for countering the growth of populism, nativism, Putinism, and other alt-Right trends within the GOP, Mayo and the Principles First leadership opted to work within the party, lending their support to those Republican politicians who remained true to the conservative cause. This strategy clearly has not worked, as the Trumpist contagion is far more pervasive, toxic, and radical today within the GOP than it was six years ago.
That said, the Principles First group itself has grown considerably over the same span, as demonstrated by the upcoming summit speakers list which includes such important former and current public officials as Chris Christie, Lisa Murkowski, John Bolton, Asa Hutchinson, Alberto Gonzales, and Adam Kinzinger, as well as an entire pantheon of famed anti-Trump conservative writers including Noah Rothman, David French, Mona Charen, Amanda Carpenter, Bill Kristol, Charlie Sykes, and Steve Hayes, to name just a few. Over a thousand people have reportedly registered for the conference, and it may be sold out.
There is no doubt that Principles First has now grown to the point where it can hold a great event. The question is what is it going to do?
When Trump began his last presidency, Mike Pence was Vice President, Paul Ryan was Speaker of the House, John McCain was in the Senate, highly respected former Marine Corps General James Mattis was Secretary of Defense, and the large majority of Republican officeholders were solidly in favor of Constitutional government, rule of law, free enterprise, and the defense of the free world.
By 2019 Ryan, McCain, and Mattis were gone, but with such standards in recent memory, it was still reasonable for Principles First to hope they could marshal conservatives to hold the line against a populist demagogue in the White House.
This is no longer the case. Pence saved the Republic by rejecting Trump’s order to overthrow the 2020 election. His replacement, J.D. Vance, says he would have followed Trump’s orders. The new administration’s replacement for Mattis is a former Fox News host. The Republican Senate is set to confirm bizarre cabinet nominees like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. for high national office, and no serious complaint has been raised by Republicans against Trump for pardoning thousands of people who committed violent crimes on his behalf. Trump can set aside the Constitution, refuse to implement laws or funded programs, occupy Gaza, sacrifice Ukraine, launch a trade war against Canada, seize Greenland, or do whatever else it takes to wreck the Western alliance, and there is nary a peep out of the GOP.
At the national level, there is no GOP. There is only a rubber stamp for Donald Trump, and Trump is no conservative.
If there is to be a conservative political party, someone must start one. The only group in sight with the required reach and heft is Principles First.
Mayo and the Principles First leadership team rejected pleas that they sponsor a third party candidate against Trump in 2020 and 2024 largely because of the quixotic nature of such enterprises. There may also have been a feeling that having an alternative conservative candidate on the November ballot could only help the Democrats, who were thought to be even worse than Trump. The current situation, however, argues otherwise.
If Principles First were to constitute itself as the organizing committee for a founding convention of the Conservative Party, to be held this summer of fall, it could undoubtedly get 50,000 people to the event. It would then be in a position to run Conservative Party candidates in every congressional district and for every open Senate seat in 2026. It would do so, however, only in those districts where the GOP candidate had abandoned conservative principles or basic sanity to serve as a Trump puppet. Those who were true to conservative principles, on the other hand, would also get the Conservative Party endorsement.
This would do much to correct the current situation. Currently GOP Senators are falling in line to confirm radical left wingers like Kremlin apologist Tulsi Gabbard and anti-vaccine kook RFK Jr (who also has advocated jailing “climate change deniers”) because they are being threatened with a well-funded primary opponent if they do not vote for such characters.
But Senators who comply with such dictates have no business holding public office. Consequently, they need to be put between two fires. If they vote for manifestly anti qualified cabinet choices, to cut arms shipments to facilitate Putin’s conquest of Ukraine, to support violent crime or crypto-crime on Trump’s behalf, to establish a US Sovereign Wealth fund, for a trade war with our allies, etc. etc., they will face a three-way race in November and thus near-certain political destruction. Or they can risk a primary to take a stand for America, and get added support from the Conservative Party in the fall.
If, under such circumstances, Republicans choose the principled course, they will do well in 2026. If they don’t, they will deserve their fate. The Conservative Party should not flinch at the possibility of such an outcome. Divided government is good for liberty. If the Democrats take Congress in 2026, it will at least be a welcome check on Trump’s excesses. But then, in 2028, with the Trumpist gang in ruins, conservatives would once again be able to take the helm, either through the GOP, the Conservative Party, or both.
So it’s your call, Principles First. Your hour has struck. It is indeed true, as Thomas Edison said, that the problem with Opportunity is that when she knocks, she comes dressed up looking like Hard Work.
But no one ever built a statue to a critic.
Dr. Robert Zubrin @robert_zubrin is an aerospace engineer and author. His most recent book. The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red Planet was published by Diversion Books in 2024.
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I have always maintained that any real potential for curbing the grotesque excesses of Trumpism would have to come from inside the Republican Party.
However, they threw away their best chance so far with they caved to McConnell and failed to convict Trump following January 6th. They have failed again in confirming his collection of sycophants, election deniers, cranks, liars, Russo-philes, misogynists, barn burners, and drunks, giving him virtually carte blanche to do whatever he wants to until and unless some outside force (the only one left is the courts) is able to curb the most egregious aspects of Trumpmuskovia.
I applaud Principles First, even if I didn’t agree with either Reagan or Buckley in some aspects of their beliefs. We do need at least two strong parties, assuming (and its a big assumption) that both could curb their own inclinations to demand party loyalty above all else - exactly why the Founders feared what they called ‘factionalism’.
Trumpism is, however, deep seated, and human nature makes clear that overcoming such a prolonged depth of belief, even in the face of obviously contradictory facts, is probably among the most difficult goals to achieve. And any movement from within Trumpism which contradicts it will face a firestorm of criticism, threats, legal sanctions (whether earned or not) and quite possibly violence (all of those most violent of Trump supporters having been released by his lawless hands).
The other possibility, of course, is for ‘the enemies within’ to wait until Trump and Musk in their hubris do something or some things so foolish that it makes a substantial proportion of their supporters realize their own oxen are being gored to the same extent that they so delightedly think the ‘socialists’ and ‘communists’ and ‘libs’ oxen are. Then pounce.
Whatever happens, we are in for a rough ride of a kind not previously experienced by American in our short history. Still, it is written in the DNA of any Republic that it will be continually tested in one form or another. Hopefully this is just one more of many so far, but not the one that breaks the camel’s back.
Good luck. I'm no conservative, but I miss you monsters for what you were.