Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Jan. 21. (Isaac Brekken/Associated Press)
JUST
WHEN you thought the presidential campaign couldn’t get any more
bizarre — just when you thought American politics might finally have
exhausted the possibilities for cynicism and irresponsibility — certain
Republican Party insiders have begun developing strange new respect for
the candidate whose meteoric rise only yesterday made him the bane of
“the establishment”: Donald Trump.
For all his quirks, the
rationalization goes, the billionaire businessman is a man you can do
business with. “Regardless of what your concern is with Trump,” Rep.
Peter King (R-N.Y.) mused, in a typical expression of this new theory,
“he’s pragmatic enough to get something done.” And so, if you can’t lick
him, join him: At least he wouldn’t be inflexible ideologically and
off-putting personally, like the only GOP candidate with an apparent
chance to stop him — Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). To be sure, we do not envy Republicans the Hobson’s choice they seem to face between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz. No doubt the latter could do lasting damage to the party brand, as the establishment fears. But Mr. Trump wouldn’t? “Concerns” about him do not stem from conventional political controversy — say, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s handling of “Bridgegate.” Rather, the erstwhile casino magnate owes his rise in U.S. politics to a demagogic assault on ethnic and religious minorities, of the sort that, like previous such demagoguery in our history, has won him support — but also disqualifies him to lead a decent republic.
It was not very long ago that Mr. Trump was childishly mocking the physical disability of a New York Times reporter
who had had the temerity to contradict him (accurately) about
Mr. Trump’s false claim that “thousands” of Muslims had celebrated the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — a base insult of the reporter
Mr. Trump compounded by falsely denying he had intended it. Yet former senator Bob Dole, the grand old man of the Grand Old Party, told the New York Times that Mr. Trump has “got the right personality” for the presidency.
Say
what? Not only is Mr. Trump manifestly temperamentally unfit, but also
he has not remotely fulfilled the first duty of an aspirant to the White
House, which is to offer a plausible, specific set of policy proposals.
Rather, he has issued platitudes — “make America great again” — and
threats — “bomb the sh-- out of them” — that please crowds but offer no
sense of what he might do with power, except, possibly, abuse it. In
this very limited respect, Mr. Cruz, though every bit as noxiously
divisive as Mr. Trump, is marginally preferable; at least he’s willing
to offer specifics, such as opposition to ethanol subsidies. Some in the GOP establishment now spin Mr. Trump’s policy emptiness as a feature, not a bug. When they describe him as someone who will “cut deals,” or turn to D.C. elder statesmen for advice, they sound like people who imagine themselves filling the void in Mr. Trump’s head with the agendas of their own lobbying clients.
In other words, the insiders’ upbeat new take on Mr. Trump is a bet on his corruptibility — and a confession of their own.
