The intellectuals of the right have a problem with Trump. The National Review editorial board published a rare condemnation of a Republican candidate and its best writers from Jonah Goldberg to Kevin Williamson have enumerated countless rational arguments about his unsuitability. George Will and Thomas Sowell, writers previously praised from the right for their profound points against the progressive dogma of the left are now demonized by Trump supporters as arrogant intellectual elitists.
Mitch Daniels, Republican Governor of Indiana, wrote in Keeping the Republic that his problems as governor often came from the right. He called them RIMOs, Republicans in Mouth Only. They opposed many of his policies because they never went far enough, as if the Democratic opposition did not exist and as if the element of compromise had no further political function. The would always reject a play to move the ball down the field ten yards to remain in control of the ball in favor of a constant Hail Mary play.
Paul Ryan and the Republican establishment are getting the same treatment. The Tea Party became malignant; quickly subverting principles of smaller constitutional government to populist demonization of their allies. They were seduced by the narcissism of minor differences. They went from proposing totally unqualified candidates like Christine ” I am not a witch” O’Donnell, to actually taking control of Congress, but then they turned more fire on their own than on the enemy. Led by Ted Cruz they demonized their own party leaders and were given the jacked up microphone of right wing talk radio. Mitt Romney’s loss returned them to the theory that moderates could not win. They did not consider other explanations like the possibility that Romney ran a poor campaign or that perhaps the RIMO’s abandoned Romney the way the Republican establishment is abandoning Trump.
They rejected qualified and experienced candidates like Scott Walker, John Kasich, or Marco Rubio for a candidate with no experience or depth of knowledge about the critical issues or any understanding of our system, armed with nothing but his wealth and his ego. Facing defeat,they are already making excuses.
Trump remains unqualified: He shows no understanding or alignment with free market or conservative principles. He supports Kelo. His economic policies shift weekly, but his trade positions remain consistently wrong.
The first rule of a business growth strategy is to keep the customers you already have. Trump has spent more time attacking his own party members than his onerous opposition, and then his supporters are already blaming them for his defeat.
Trump will have no one to blame for his defeat but himself. His ego and check book will only take him so far. He has shunned any intellectual consistency, any need or effort to understand the issues, any understanding of the political process, and any need or desire for coalitions with his own party and certainly any semblance of humility. He is a classic populist demagogue; relying far more on demons than solutions.
Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal notes in today’s Wall Street Journal Sean Hannity’s Veneration of Ignorance:
Mr. Hannity’s excuses are even more disgraceful, combining oily self-absolution with venomous obloquy for the very conservatives who have spent the year warning that a Trump candidacy is an epic GOP disaster that all-but guarantees Hillary Clinton’s election. The habit of shifting blame and refusing to take responsibility is supposed to be the curse of the underclass and its political hucksters, but Mr. Hannity is giving Al Sharpton a run for his money.
Mr. Hannity’s other goal is to preserve the fiction—first cultivated by Ted Cruz and later adopted by the Trumpians—that a wan GOP “establishment” and its “Acela corridor” voters sat on their hands while Mr. Obama traduced the Constitution and sold us out to the enemy. “They did nothing, nothing!” the anchor fumed Thursday on his show. “All these phony votes to repeal and replace ObamaCare, show votes so they go back and keep their power and get re-elected.”
Maybe Mr. Hannity thinks that Messrs. Ryan and McConnell should have jumped the White House fence and stuck a pitchfork in the president. Or that they should have amended the Constitution to repeal Article One, Section Seven—the one that gives the president his veto. Otherwise, it’s hard to understand the constant lament about a do-nothing Congress except by wondering whether Mr. Hannity is stupid or dishonest.
There was a time when the conservative movement was led by the likes of Bill Buckley and Irving Kristol and Bob Bartley, men of ideas who invested the Republican Party with intellectual seriousness. Today’s GOP is on the road to self-immolation, thanks in part to the veneration of ignorance typified by Ms. Miller and Mr. Hannity. As conservatives go through their pre- and post-mortems, they should think about the damage that such veneration can do.
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