GOP candidate Mike Rogers' biggest problem in US Senate race: He's not mean | Opinion

In the bungle of — thus far — 12 Republican candidates running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, former U. S. Rep. Mike Rogers is possibly the best known. Rogers has racked up, so far, the most endorsements, and brought in the most money, including donations from members of the DeVos family. He has been a consistent conservative, as conservatives are today defined, opposing abortion rights and gun control. He has tough-guy credentials as a U.S. Army veteran and a former FBI agent. So, what might be his biggest political problem?

Is he mean enough for today’s Republican Party? 

Is Mike Rogers really blood-thirsty, ugly-mean enough? Is he brimming with the vengeful lust required to suit a party that includes a former U.S. Senate candidate — Lauren Witzke of Delaware (she lost in 2020) — who has said she wants former President Donald Trump not just to go "full dictator," but seemingly would like him to execute a bunch of folks? Or to suit Trump himself, who spent nearly half his New Hampshire primary victory speech trash-talking his opponent, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley? The crowd loved it, cheering all the while. Being gracious and magnanimous in victory is just so plain Abraham Lincolnesque these days. How boring.

This is a serious problem not just for Rogers, but for the others running for the GOP nomination for the Michigan Senate seat. Former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer has a potentially fatal problem for GOP voters: He voted to impeach Trump (some Democrats believe that's why he's the strongest Republican candidate; unfortunately, not a lot of Republicans agree).

This is the challenge for Republican candidates, who must tiptoe a fine line between idolatry towards Trump, and appeasing those who can’t stand Trump.

Trumpists want only Trump acolytes. Anything less will lose their votes. Anti-Trumpists/anti-autocrats will turn on anyone seen as vacillating towards Trump. Whoever the Republicans run in November will have to struggle with this, because neither group alone offers sufficient votes to win an election. The early voting splits in Iowa and New Hampshire show that: Trump got better than 50% of Republican votes, but that will not be enough to win in November.

Which brings us back to Rogers, who big-name Republicans think is the most electable candidate. But do big-name Republicans not realize how ugly-mean their party has become?

The elephant in the room

When Rogers jumped into the Senate race, he had not endorsed Trump for president. He did so a few weeks ago.

Let’s face it, we are all of us hypocrites at some time, failing to meet our ideals. Rogers is no different, nor is any politician who wants to accomplish goals, instead of shouting populist bromides. Politics, at some point, forces everyone involved to make a sickening compromise to accomplish a greater object. 

And when a party is overrun with extremists, it is difficult to remain vague, just to satisfy the stone-hearted. Was that the reason Rogers finally endorsed Trump by name instead of uttering the safe line that he would "support the party’s nominee?"

More from John Lindstrom:This is who Michigan's next senator should be

Rogers' supporters can likely guess that Rogers will take a deep breath when voting for Trump — let's be honest, many of them will do the same — but Rogers' support of Trump has cost him the support of at least a few individuals this reporter has heard from.

This is the conundrum, and Rogers is already wrestling with it.

Back to our story ...

This reporter has known Rogers since he entered the Michigan State Senate in the mid-1990s. This reporter has seen Rogers when he was so pompous he annoyed the snot out of fellow Republicans, and when he refused to bend to any logical contradiction to his rock-solid conservative views (of course, all pols — right or left — are equally inflexible on some issues, at times). I’ve seen him be gracious, cordial, collegial — even to Democrats.

This reporter has seen Rogers mad, and on rare occasions, rude. But mean? Others may have firsthand experience that contradicts mine. But for my part, I can’t say I ever saw him mean.

So, can he survive in today’s Republican Party?  

Rogers will tell funny stories about himself knocking on doors during the campaign, or from his time in the FBI. But, are Republicans permitted a healthy, personal sense of humor these days?

When he first ran for the Michigan Senate he was touched, following a lightly attended Memorial Day commemoration at the Michigan Capitol, when a young girl told her World War II veteran grandad how proud she was of him. So, he organized a moving Memorial Day commemoration for the Michigan Senate, still held every year. Hey, this reporter’s Dad and uncles were all World War II vets, and one uncle didn’t come home. Those Senate ceremonies were moving to me.

But Trump, the probable Republican 2024 presidential nominee, wouldn’t attend a ceremony overseas honoring World War I dead during his tenure as president. His staffers reported later that Trump had described the French cemetery where the ceremony was held, and which included American dead, as "filled with losers."

Rogers is the third generation in his family to serve in the military. Rogers’ son is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, the fourth generation to serve. Does such service mean anything in Trump’s Republican Party?

Grand Old Party? More like Mean Old Party

And, yes, Rogers has been collegial and gracious towards Democrats.

Cripes, when he ran for the U.S. House in 2000 against Democrat Dianne Byrum, you wanted to scream at their debates: “Why aren’t you guys fighting? You’re boring us to death!” When Rogers thought he'd narrowly lost that race, he got a little weepy thanking all who worked on his campaign. And when a recount showed he had won, Byrum said she hoped he could bring some common sense to Congress. What do Trump Republicans say to such graciousness? 

Oh, before he decided to run for the U.S. Senate, he toyed with running for president. And while all the other candidates were moaning about the southern border and inflation, Rogers was talking about ... children’s literacy rates. Which is a damn important issue, but for this carnivorous GOP? Seriously? It seems today's Republicans focus on banning books, not getting kids to read them.

Rogers has also talked about getting off the “sugar high” of politics, instead of spewing vile on his opponents, Democrats and just plain people who favor other viewpoints.

Folks, Rogers is on record on CNN — you can find it on YouTube — saying Trump screwed up handling Russian President Vladimir Putin. If you haven’t seen the clip yet, trust me, some of Rogers’ GOP opponents will make sure you do.

More from John Lindstrom:Michigan GOP chair Kristina Karamo says she knows what Engler, Snyder were up to

Rogers’ criticisms of Trump on Putin, Ukraine and other security issues are reasonable. But he criticized Trump, and according to some, the Lord has anointed Trump. (That’s not in any Biblical translation, but it’s on the internet, so it must be true.)

In today’s Republican Party, you dare not criticize Trump and survive. 

All Trump’s other opponents have eaten their pride, and are cuddling up to him. Excepting Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who haven't, yet, but did in the 2016 election ... So it goes.

But come the general election campaign, whoever the GOP nominates will need more than Trumpists to win. How many Trumpists were elected statewide in 2022? (In case you forgot: Zero.) Have they really gotten more popular since then? Ahhh, nope.

How could Rogers master this muddle? Get ultra-Trumpy-GOP-mean for the primary, and become Mr. Reasonable Conservative in the general election ... and somehow not lose voters? 

It’s not just a problem for Rogers. It’s a problem for the country, for how we govern in a two-party system, how we meet Americans' needs, ensure security for us and world, and maintain civil relations here and internationally. Rogers is just one very salient example of the problem we all face, and the question we have to answer: Must we be mean?

Free Press contributing columnist John Lindstrom has covered Michigan politics for 50 years. He retired as publisher of Gongwer, a Lansing news service, in 2019. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.