Conservative writer and radio host Erick Erickson on Thursday admitted he got it “absolutely wrong” when it came to Donald Trump.
{mosads}In a piece published in The New York Times titled “Eating Crow on Donald Trump,” Erickson said he had been writing since February that Trump would not win the election.
“The great paradox of this election for me is that I never saw Mr. Trump as a legitimate contender in the primaries because I believed the polling was wrong, but it was right all along,” he wrote.
“In the general election, I presumed he would never win because the polling was right, but it was wrong all along.”
“If I was wrong about the election, I am willing to admit I can be wrong about Donald Trump,” Erickson, who endorsed independent candidate Evan McMullin in September, added.
“I hope others will embrace some humility on that front as well. Mr. Trump will be the president.”
Erickson and others “collectively freaked out” when President Obama was elected in 2008, he wrote, but he did not ever say that Obama was not his president.
“Whether I liked him or not, he was and still is my president,” he wrote.
“In January, Donald Trump will become our president.”
Erickson said he is optimistic, as a conservative, regarding Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court. He also hopes Republicans repeal measures such as the Dodd-Frank financial oversight legislation and the Affordable Care Act.
But he noted he has growing concerns, citing unreliable data and disproven public opinion surveys.
“Because we cannot trust the data, many will begin trusting anecdotes from friends, family and tribe. Policies will be based on what people think are good ideas, not what data show,” he wrote.
“This will potentially further divide the country and further segment an already divided nation.”
He said he also worries that the election will be “misread.” Mitt Romney got 60,933,504 votes in 2012 and Trump has only yet received 59,253,172, he wrote.
Trump was helped because Democrat Hillary Clinton had a hard time mobilizing her base, Erickson said.
“For Republicans to succeed moving forward they will need to understand the true meaning of the election,” he wrote.
“Since 1994, when the Democratic Party suffered catastrophic losses in the midterm elections, conservatives have counted on the Republican Party to support their policies. In 2016, that came back to bite them. Free-market, limited-government conservatives have just helped elect a protectionist who wants to be a strongman in Washington.”
Even those who opposed Trump should “pray for him and give him a chance,” he wrote.
“But conservatives should realize they won a battle, but are losing a war for ideas. They need to begin again to reach across the aisle and go outside Washington,” he wrote.
“An honest conservatism willing to help the next president, but also hold him accountable when he advocates bad policy, will be the conservatism that helps temper tribalism and unite the country.”