The Republican Party is like Paris in June of 1940. It is occupied and it will likely stay that way for years. Anti-Trump forces in the GOP, who make up at best a third of the base, have no chance whatsoever right now of taking over the Republican operation. So they’re thinking of forming a third party.

Their only shot would be if Trump shoots himself in the foot again, always a possibility. But the former president has been mostly message disciplined since the Biden inauguration. His forced absence from major social media, a blessing in disguise for him, is the driver of that phenomenon.

A third party from the anti-Trump Right would shave about 25 percent off of Republican national numbers. Now, given about 10 percent of Republicans already don’t like Trump and voted against him last November, the added damage is probably less than 20 percent. Even that would kill any Republican presidential chance and hurt the party down ticket. Hence why the Democrats want to give these fools as much publicity as possible. It really has little to do with any opportunity to change the party or a viable third party. Things could be different in a year or two. But right now, this is talked about only to hurt Trump.

FNC: “The media has found a new anti-Republican narrative to obsess over despite the fact that Democrats now control the White House and both chambers of Congress. On Tuesday, The New York Times was the first to report about a new alliance of over 100 NeverTrump Republicans who are threatening to launch a third party if the GOP does not dissolve itself from the influence of former President Trump. The effort, which has been dubbed ‘A Call for American Renewal,’ is being led by Miles Taylor, a former low-level DHS official during the Trump administration who was best known as the ‘Anonymous’ op-ed writer who claimed to secretly be part of the ‘resistance.’ However, when the New York Times published his pieces, many in the media assumed the writer was someone of actual importance, some even believed that it was then-Vice President Mike Pence.

“The not-so-notable list of signatories includes former GOP lawmakers Barbara Comstock and Charlie Dent, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway, former RNC chair-turned-MSNBC contributor Michael Steele, failed presidential candidate Evan McMullin, and former Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci. In a surprising move, CNN invited Taylor on ‘New Day’ on Wednesday after he previously admitted that he lied to the network when he denied to Anderson Cooper last year that he was the ‘Anonymous’ op-ed writer. Taylor, who was briefly a CNN contributor before the network was humiliated by the known liar it hired, declared to anchors John Berman and Brianna Keilar that the GOP ‘civil war’ is ‘just beginning.’

Taylor made the rounds. “Miles, I welcome everybody to the effort to call out Donald Trump’s enablers,” MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said. “I think he stopped being the story after the election and it really revealed a Republican Party rotten to its core.”

“We don’t have our choice of better advocates among Republicans. This is inherent to the current problem. And as bad as their records are, we need center-right voices who are willing to flatly articulate the principle that accepting democratic electoral outcomes is a precondition for a functioning liberal democracy,” Greg  Sargeant of the Washington Post opined. When you’re getting advice and praise from MSNBC and the WaPo and you’re a Republican, maybe it’s time to expand your social circle.