I agree with Jim that Donald Trump has utterly squandered the political moment. Instead of relentlessly attacking Clinton’s known lies and evasions, he’s out there defending a blatantly anti-Semitic tweet and doubling down on his defense of Saddam Hussein’s alleged terror-fighting prowess. It is indeed insane.
But it’s worse than insane — it’s corrupting. More dispiriting than watching Trump act like Trump is watching his loyal supporters sacrifice their integrity in the name of defending the vile, the reprehensible, and the ignorant. So we’re treated to people tweeting and arguing with a straight face that the Star of David on an image that originated with white supremacists is no more ominous than a sheriff’s star or a Frozen coloring book. I’m sorry, if you’re making those arguments, you’ve beclowned yourself.
Similarly, you’re beclowning yourself if you argue that Saddam effectively fought terrorists. He was a state sponsor of terror — funding the suicide bombing campaign in Israel, harboring known terrorist fugitives, and even plotting to assassinate a former U.S. president. People can in good faith argue whether it was right to invade Iraq — and there is certainly a strong case that before the Surge Iraq was a magnet for jihadists — but there is no good-faith defense of Saddam’s record as a terrorist fighter. And the fact that Trump continues to make that argument only serves to illustrate his aggressive disregard for the truth. His defenders are partners in his ignorance and deception.
A Trump/Clinton matchup will feature a hypocrisy Olympics — with Clinton’s defenders reacting with shock at every Trump lie and outrage while simultaneously arguing that her own deceptions don’t disqualify her from the presidency. Remember the days when perjury was a real crime unless a person was lying about sex? Well now it’s terrible to lie to the public unless a person is lying about mishandling classified information. It’s terrible to trade cash for influence unless that cash is going into a family foundation.
The battle for the Oval Office will hinge in part on a contest as to which party can more thoroughly mobilize its base to defend the indefensible. Given the numbers of Republicans who still cling to the notion that a politician should have a basic level of decency and honor — contrasted with the total absence of a meaningful Dump Hillary effort on the Democratic side — I’d bet real money that the liberal credibility clown car ends up larger than the GOP’s. But nothing is certain, and if the GOP primary is any indication then Republicans may end up retreating from the moral high ground with greater haste (and under less threat) than their ancient English forefathers:
