For just about a decade, Donald Trump has either been president or a candidate for president. Over that time, his list of actions and utterances that would have disqualified any other politician in any other American political era has grown absurdly long, yet there’s always a measure of collective surprise when he crosses a new line.

And when he does, the journalistic parlor game is to search for a “reasonable Republican” who has finally heard enough and is jumping off the Trump train. It seems one of the favored “reasonable Republicans” of the moment is our very own Gov. Chris Sununu.

Over the weekend, Sununu was asked by ABC News’ Martha Raddatz about Trump’s support for using the military against “the enemy from within” – the “radical left lunatics.” New Hampshire’s “reasonable Republican” dismissed the whole thing as “hyperbole,” arguing that Trump “didn’t go after his political enemies” last time and so surely wouldn’t do that during a second term. 

In other words, Sununu is betting that “reelection-minded Trump” and “nothing-to-lose Trump” will be exactly the same guy. 

Then, on Wednesday, the governor was on CNN, this time so America could find out how a “reasonable Republican” feels about Trump’s one-time chief of staff Gen. John Kelly saying the former president fits the definition of “fascist.” And, according to a report in the Atlantic, the fact that Trump heaped praise on Adolf Hitler’s generals.

Perhaps, wondered CNN host Kate Bolduan and her audience, maybe that would change how Sununu feels about Trump – and maybe even change his vote? “No,” the “reasonable Republican” said in response to those very questions, explaining with a smile that stuff like fascism and being a Hitler stan is “kind of baked into the vote” with “a guy like that.”

Huh.

I get that our departing governor is likely trying out for a cable news pundit role and that the challenge of supporting Trump while not quite championing him is kind of like Republican pundit boot camp, but he’s not walking the tightrope quite as deftly as he thinks he is. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who has expressed even a little bit of admiration for Hitler or his generals, but I feel confident that I wouldn’t react with the old grin-and-shrug. The word “indefensible” comes to mind, just for starters before the rage fully sets in, but Sununu went with a full dismissal because, he said, it’s “baked into the vote”? I feel like maybe that’s the kind of thing that should get you fired from your cable news pundit job and blacklisted from “reasonable Republican” circles, right? Or maybe I’m just being naive?

More than 74 million people voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and Chris Sununu is just one of them. And I don’t think anything New Hampshire’s governor says about the 2024 election is going to swing the outcome even a little bit. I don’t know how many Americans are truly undecided in this very close race, but I suspect the answer is not many. It really could go either way, and turnout will be driven primarily by which collective emotion is stronger: the desire to see Trump in office again or the need to make damn sure that doesn’t happen. I believe there are a lot of Democrats who are truly passionate about Kamala Harris’ candidacy, but I don’t think that group is nearly as large as those who just can’t bear the idea of “Trump, the Sequel.” 

So the real problem with Sununu’s media junket isn’t really election related. It’s even bigger than that, as big as this election is. What does it say about the state of our politics when a popular governor – who carried 57 percent of the vote in a purple state last time around – can so casually abandon not just political principles but human ones? What matters in an election, “reasonable” supporters like Sununu tell us, is not high character – or even the illusion of high character – but the party letter next to the name and the economic policy boxes that are checked off. 

The argument, or hope, seems to be that the dictatorial fantasies and tendencies of Donald Trump will be naturally restrained – by American history, popular opinion, favorable economic conditions, or the imagined influence of “reasonable Republicans.” 

What could possibly go wrong? That’s Sununu’s dangerous bet, and he’s all in.