I'm not sure I can think of a policy topic where I've agreed with George F. Will in many, many years (if ever). But I can do little but admire his systematic takedown here of, not just Trump, but the Republican politicos and pundits who so eagerly backed him, and suddenly are shocked, shocked, to find out what a piece of work he is.
'The St. Louis festival of snarls was preceded by the release of a tape that merely provided redundant evidence of what Trump is like when he is being his boisterous self. Nevertheless, the tape sent various Republicans, who until then had discovered nothing to disqualify Trump from the presidency, into paroxysms of theatrical, tactical and synthetic dismay.
Again, the tape revealed nothing about this arrested-development adolescent that today’s righteously recoiling Republicans either did not already know or had no excuse for not knowing. Before the tape reminded the pathologically forgetful of Trump’s feral appetites and deranged sense of entitlement, the staid Economist magazine, holding the subject of Trump at arm’s length like a soiled sock, reminded readers of this[1]: “When Mr. Trump divorced the first of his three wives, Ivana, he let the New York tabloids know that one reason for the separation was that her breast implants felt all wrong.”'
The evidence for the sort of guy Trump is has long been there, even in his own writing. That so many Republican leaders decided to go along with the guy was out of willful ignorance, at best.
I have no idea if Will's suggestion that Trump's crashing-and-burning (assuming that happens) might do the GOP some good is likely or just whistling in the dark. That the man who was so eager and willing to be his VP is now being touted by many in the party as their probable 2020 standard-bearer does not bode well.[2]
A short read, but worth it. Even if it's George F. Will.
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[2] As is equally-theocratic Ted Cruz, who long-time stood on principle that the guy who insulted him, his wife, and his father, shouldn't get his endorsement — until it looked like Trump was making a come-back, at which point he endorsed him, only to now blame the media for holding onto the tape as an October Surprise to fool him.
The only comfort is that people who are touted as the likely front-runner next time seem to be most likely to fade away before that next time ever comes up. Four years is a looooong time in national politics, though not quite long enough to wash off the taint of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is the GOP’s chemotherapy
Trump is a marvelously efficient acid bath, stripping away his supporters’ surfaces, exposing their skeletal essences.
Considering that George Will has spent the past 30 years helping to create this monster, he should know.
+Stan Pedzick There is certainly a steaming pile of irony there.