Huntsman calls on GOP to rally around Trump

This surprises me very much.

It shouldn't if you've been following Huntsman since 2012.

He anticipated the GOP's journey through the wildnerness and its incoherence of identities - the ones who want bluster, the ones who hate nuance, the ones who pretend to the elite's preoccupation with party unity, the "party" leadership that seeks mostly to perpetuate itself, the salt-of-the-earth types who see the GOP as a vehicle for American greatness and resent the elites, etc.

This is Huntsman signalling that the time for party unity and national unity is nigh, and it's more important than continuing any internecine civil war within the GOP

Trump's mapped out a path to the white house, he clearly has broad support among the party's members, as well as having attracted plenty of people to the party who weren't there before, and ultimately has a vision for the US that places the interests of Americans in a spot of primacy.

All of that is deeply appealing to someone like Huntsman, who is fundamentally a diplomat and governor before being a politician.

He was never comfortable with GOP party politics; he just wanted to represent American trade interests and govern Utah. He was never happy with Democrat This and Republican That - - which is why he started No Labels.

He's been preoccupied with the issue of US hegemony and worth receding for a long time (particularly because of its generational implications; for the first time in history, handing off to the youth a country that is less prosperous than before), and his basic idea is that American blue-sky optimism and grit is the only way to claw out of it, and that requires unity and vision.

Watch his speeches and dialogues on youtube; 92 Street Y, Harvard, Stanford schools of Business, etc.

Watch it, and you'll see someone who, sure

he's the 'moderate' Republican that is pro-gay rights, understands evolution and climate change, and wants low rate broad base tax structures.

Gingham shirts, quarter zip fleece, pleated khakis and loafers for days.

But much, much deeper than all of that, Huntsman is an American Statesman.

Of much greater interest to him than any kind of political maneuvering and back biting between Democrats and Republicans (or the GOP's insane 'purity' fights between people who are red meat true conservatives and those who are not), is whether or not the US will be prosperous and strong.

So, while he probably doesn't agree with Trump on everything, at least the GOP has a clear shot at re-examination and re-branding, and pursuing a bigger tent style vision for America in contest with whomever the Democrats bring, so that the US can get down to the business of choosing the next president.

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