Editor’s Note: Following the New York Post’s endorsement of Donald J. Trump for president, National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke was given an exclusive look at a forthcoming endorsement.
Carol’s boyfriend is a mercurial figure — a potentially nice guy, but unreliable, dangerous, and married to someone else. Exactly who he is can be hard to make out amid his capriciousness, his lying, and his occasional descents into violence.
Carol’s family is staging an intervention on Tuesday. What to do?
Here’s how we see it.
Should Carol convince her boyfriend to leave his wife and kick his drug habit, we expect him to pivot — not only moving in with her, but making her happy, too. Carol’s post-pivot boyfriend needs to be more honorable, more loyal, more honest, and less the father in another family.
Yet there is clearly some spark between Carol and her boyfriend. Since they met in Aruba last fall, he has made Carol feel alive. He has excited her. He has made her feel sexy and wanted again — especially after her last boyfriend cheated on her with that rich, elite girl.
Most people don’t know Carol’s boyfriend like we do.
Most people don’t know Carol’s boyfriend like we do. They don’t see how tender he is in private. They don’t hear him promising how magical his life with Carol will be in the future. They don’t understand that he has given Carol hope again, with his talk of champagne, diamonds, and a wedding in the Alps. They haven’t heard him explain to Carol how rich they will be once his wife and children are out of the picture.
Carol’s boyfriend is plain-talking fellow with outer-borough, common-sense sensibilities. He’s a do-er, unafraid to book a motel room for an hour at the drop of a lunchbreak. And he’s proven how the total absence of a moral compass can rip through marital red tape and get things done.
#share#Sure, Carol’s boyfriend hasn’t actually left his wife or made any move toward doing so.
Sure, he steals money from Carol’s wallet to buy drugs and occasionally uses her car to make his deliveries.
Sure, he punched Carol’s brother and encouraged the other guys in the bar to pile in.
Sure, he’s emotionally abusive and quick to anger.
Sure, he has never actually followed through on a single one of his promises. There has been no trip to Paris.
#related#But he can change. What else to expect from someone who reflects the baser passions? It’ll be different when Carol fixes him. It’ll be different when he leaves his wife. It’ll be different when he kicks the habit. It’ll be different when he gets back on his feet again. The therapy will change him. And Carol can learn to stop provoking him.
For those reasons, the New York Post today endorses Carol’s boyfriend for another year of excitement and whimsy.