The folks at The Bulwark think 'the three horsemen' could be 'force multipliers' in prying Trump out of office

Just to make it clear upfront: Bill Kristol didn’t write the piece; it was Jonathan Last who came up with the metaphor of — get this — Bill Weld, Joe Walsh, and Mark Sanford being the “three horsemen coming for Trump.”

For what it’s worth, on Monday night, President Trump dismissed the three as “a total joke.” He doesn’t sound concerned to us, but maybe he’s just good at hiding his fear.

Pres defends GOP cancelling presidential primaries in some states. Says they don't want to waste their money. Says the the three candidates challenging him so far "are a joke, a total joke. They’re a laughingstock.” He didn't cite them by name. pic.twitter.com/RtOwskYju3

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) September 9, 2019

In any case, here’s Bill Kristol pointing to Last’s piece in The Bulwark.

"The three horsemen could act as force multipliers for one another…And as their cumulative vote share increases, it gives permission to other early-state Republicans to vote against Trump."https://t.co/69y9OfCmO2

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 10, 2019

And here’s the thinking of where each horseman of the apocalypse stands in providing leverage against Trump:

Which is where Mark Sanford comes in. He’s the obvious—and predictable—reaction to Trump’s transformation of the party’s fiscal orthodoxies.

The same can be said—along different vectors—about Weld and Walsh.

Weld represents the kind of moderate, establishment Republicanism that has been on the outs in the party since John Anderson in 1980. The Rockefeller wing of the party was never very big. Outside of the Northeast it’s miniscule. But it exists. And most conservative presidents have tried to stroke it (as needed) rather than crap all over it.

As for Walsh, he’s the representative of Trump’s unfulfilled populist promises: There is no wall. What we’re getting is 174 miles of fence and it’s going to be paid for by abusing the Constitution to take money that was supposed to keep schools for the children of U.S. soldiers safe from terrorist attacks.