Chris Christie told the truth to Republicans who wouldn't listen. What's next? | Stile

Chris Christie’s second, voice-in-the-wilderness bid for the presidency was based on the belief that a silent majority of Republicans, grousing in private inside their country clubs, their corporate suites and their suburban backyards, would rise up in rebellion against the shameless con man Donald Trump.

“I wanted to be the voice that was telling you, ‘This is unacceptable. We deserve better,'" the former New Jersey governor said as he ended his campaign with a closing town hall in Windham, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

Christie was indeed that voice — a very loud and colorful one and an important one for Republicans and the rest of the nation to hear.

And they booed him.

“It is not easy to stand up and fight the loudest voice in the room," he told his supporters. “It isn't easy to look at someone who we know is unfit and unable to represent what the heart of this country really is.”

A crusade from a more civil era of Republican politics

Christie saw his campaign as a kind of crusade, a hope to restore sanity and respect for constitutional order for the next four years and into a shaky future.

In several ways, Christie was a candidate stuck in the past. A young suburban Republican who built his first political operation as a University of Delaware student in the age of Reagan, Christie was very much the establishment Republican, the early protégé of former Gov. Thomas H. Kean and, later, a beneficiary of the dynastic power of the Bush family.

But, as Christie learned when they booed him on the debate stages and rejected him at the polls, the party of his heroes no longer exists. Those kinds of Republicans are not welcome at the MAGA table, where red meat and Kool-Aid cult water are served daily. The GOP's Big Tent of inclusion collapsed long ago. It is now a party fueled by anger, fear and isolationism and stands as a safe harbor for xenophobes and white nationalists.

Christie also tried to summon the truth-teller magic of his heady first term as New Jersey's governor, when the Koch brothers fawned over him and desperate Iowa money men jetted to Jersey to plead with him to run for president in 2012. But that was before Bridgegate collapsed on his brand. The truth teller never recovered. It’s been a hard sell ever since.

Trump was still his ultimate foil

And Christie also had to reckon with his past enabling of his onetime “friend,” Trump, who brought him into his inner circle after Christie became the first big-name Republican to endorse him and lend the insurgent candidacy a veneer of legitimacy.

Yet many tuned out as the co-creator of Frankenstein's monster hit the campaign trail warning that the front-runner for the 2024 nomination is a danger to American democracy.

Christie acknowledged that the past of self-expediency haunted his every move in 2024.

“For all the people who have been in this race, who have put their own personal ambition ahead of what’s right, they will ultimately have to answer the same questions that I had to answer after my decision in 2016,” he said. “Those questions don’t ever leave.”

But what doomed Christie the most was the logic of his central campaign strategy. Deeply unpopular with the Republican base, Christie relentlessly attacked Trump, who remains widely popular among the GOP's rank and file.

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Christie’s critiques of Trump were spot-on and needed to be heard every day in every living room.

Among those critiques was this one from Christie's final New Hampshire town hall:

“I want you to imagine for a second that Jefferson and Hamilton and Washington and Franklin were sitting here tonight. Do you think they could imagine that the country they risked their lives to create would actually be having a conversation about whether a convicted criminal should be president of the United States?” he asked incredulously.

Christie’s forceful, Jersey patois was supposed to connect with the rest of the nation, and for his loyal New Hampshire supporters gathered Wednesday, it was music to their ears.

But, sadly, Christie was preaching to a small choir in a declining congregation. He can summon the hallowed names from American history all he wants, but this is a party that now gives Trump a pass despite his open admiration of authoritarians like Vladimir Putin and his recycling of Nazi-era tropes.

The GOP base is mesmerized by either the siren song of Trump or the more velvety, cautious tones of a needle-threading Nikki Haley, who is holding herself out as a Trump alternative yet refuses to criticize him while keeping the door open to joining his ticket as a running mate.

Christie’s sore-loser analysis of Haley, caught on a hot mic before his town hall — “she’s going to get smoked” — is not only embarrassing for a disciplined political performer like Christie, but deeply ironic.

Yes, Haley spent $68 million on the race, more than five times what Christie spent, according to his unscripted analysis. But the former ambassador to the United Nations is now in second place. Christie, on the other hand, is now looking for another platform where he can spread his anti-Trump message. Haley is trying to navigate the base without alienating it — something Christie tried without success in 2016.

Book: Chris Christie's next book, 'What Would Reagan Do?,' coming out in February

What's next for Christie?

So where does Christie go from here?

He vowed Wednesday that he’s not going away and will continue warning the nation of the dangers of a Trump restoration.

He could very well end up as a paid panelist on CNN or even MSNBC, as a campaign analyst who is the rare high-profile centrist. His farewell speech, in some ways, sounded like an audition — the sensible-sounding Republican with the “better angels of our nature” pitch.

“You cannot love America if you don't love every American, love the Americans who look different than you, love the Americans who speak different than you," Christie said at one point. (I have a hard time seeing him landing a Fox News gig with that line.)

Could he run for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey, where Republicans are struggling to find a nominee for this year’s race? It’s doubtful. Christie remains unpopular in his home state, and he memorably told CNN in 2014 that he would rather drown himself in the Potomac River than negotiate an amendment with other senators. Caucusing and compromising with the likes of Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama while waiting in the seniority line for a prized committee assignment is not something that’s likely high on Christie's career list.

A third-party candidacy for president? That sounds good on paper, but he would run the risk of siphoning swing voters from President Joe Biden, which would help Trump win. He would be Trump’s enabler, something that he vowed not to do again.

He’ll probably edit the final proofs of his upcoming book, “What Would Reagan Do?" — a remembrance of another dominant figure from a Republican Party that no longer exists.

Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Chris Christie tried to tell GOP truth on Trump. They wouldn't listen