Patterico's Pontifications

10/30/2020

Donald Trump Turned Me Into a Mugwump

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:24 am



That is the title of a post I have up at The Dispatch today. I think the post is a little more effective if I don’t tell you what it’s about, so I’ll just give you the opening paragraphs:

Nobody could believe this disreputable nincompoop had actually won the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States.

Seemingly everyone had assailed the candidate as dishonest and shady throughout the campaign, and as a result the intelligentsia agreed that he had no chance. All the newspapers, including the conservative ones, held the candidate in contempt—and they all backed up their denunciations with copious evidence and reasoned argument. The candidate was well-known, but had conducted his business affairs in a notoriously corrupt manner. His chances were so slim that the New York Times actually ran a headline that stated his nomination was “out of the question.”

But the candidate showed no contrition and angrily denounced his critics as insincere. He insisted that he had never done anything wrong. The tide began to turn.

Still, the news that this man would be the Republican nominee came as a shock to a group of steadfast Republican men playing pool at a writer’s house in Hartford, Connecticut.

The writer is someone you have heard of, and is someone worth reading. That’s all I can say. Go read it!

UPDATE: I think this is as good a place as any to say this. In the recent past, I have expressed a desire for the GOP to get walloped this year — not just tossed out of the Oval Office, but taught a lesson in the Senate for refusing to oust this corrupt man. But after I wrote my recent post gaming out what the next four years will be like, I have changed my mind, somewhat. I still think the GOP will lose the Senate, but I no longer want them to. Yes, the party needs to learn the lesson that Trumpism is a losing proposition. But it’s not like that lesson is going to resurrect the Shangri-La that classical liberals wish the party to be . . . and in the meantime, Joe Biden is going to want to do counterproductive things that need to be opposed.

So, while the emotional side of me still wants to see the political demise of those disreputable louts in the Senate who violated their oaths and voted to protect the criminal, the rational side of me isn’t so sure that would be a good thing. And I have to go with the rational side.

But if a Lindsey Graham should lose (possible!), or the GOP should lose the Senate (likely!), I won’t be shedding any tears. I’ll be here to say: next time don’t choose a Donald Trump, and if one gets in anyway, you should tell the truth about him.


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