A knife to a gun fight
by Tom Sullivan
Our Republican brethren must now pause to consider that, as Scot Lehigh writes in the Boston Globe, Donald Trump is "well on his way to a hostile takeover of their party."
On the upside, with Trump on track to turn the United States of America into a pariah state the world will shun, maybe we won't have to spend all the tax dollars needed to build a YOOOOGE wall to keep scary brown people out. (TAX BREAK!) Of course, Trump will want to build it anyway. Because China. Because Trump's Great Wall will be the best. You won't believe how great it will be.
On the downside, Republicans are now faced with owning everything Trump says. Rachel Maddow asked Saturday night how Republicans running down-ticket everywhere else in the country can possibly run on that. Possibly they won't. Possibly they can get some friendly advice from Democrats who lost by running away from their party's leader and Obamacare.
The problem is that over decades Republicans have made it an article of faith not to admit to any mistakes. Dubya couldn't name one. Or make apologies. It's not as if Republicans suddenly are going to go all weepy TV preacher, apologize to their angry, Trumpish base for stringing them along, and ask their forgiveness. They'd be thrown to the lions. The Donald sees no reason to ask God for forgiveness. He has nothing to apologize for. Only the weak apologize. And the strong devour the weak. Law of the jungle and all that. Can you smell the freedom?
Now close your eyes and picture the reaction on the faces of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson. Even better, picture the bronzed face and hair of Donald J. Trump on the walls of every federal office worldwide, or on a marble statue on the Mall (a big, beautiful statue), or on the $100 bill.
(Has anyone else wondered whether Trump is the the secret creation of Trey Parker and Matt Stone?)
At Political Animal, D.R. Tucker is mighty anxious about the coming Trump era:
Trump is, for all intents and purposes, already the GOP nominee, a prospect that should unnerve any American who believes in common decency. His conquest of South Carolina was nothing less than a signal from America’s emergency broadcast system: this is only a test of whether rational America will allow fear and fury to flourish over the course of the next four years.
The thought of this man—this embodiment of every dark, demonic force in American history—becoming the 45th President of the United States chills the blood. What does it say about our educational system that this man was not laughed right out of the political system the moment he announced his candidacy?
He talks about what Mexico allegedly sends to the United States. Imagine what a President Trump would send to the rest of the world: a message that racism, sexism, xenophobia and narcissism are virtues, not vices. A message that reason is for the weak. A message that America has fallen into a deep moral abyss.
That said, Democratic primary voters had best be sure their presidential candidate is not going to get caught this fall bringing a knife to a gunfight.