It’s impossible to watch the MSM right now without considerable grudging admiration. The Democratic narrative prevails everywhere, and the personal failings and obsessions of one Mr. Trump are now to be transferred to the Grand Old Party as a whole.

Lots of people, not without reason, are abandoning the Republican party simply because they so fecklessly allowed that guy to be nominated. As John Fund pointed out, Trump wasn’t really vetted by his primary opponents, by the RNC, or by his own people — just to know what he’d be up against (a huge number of repulsive revelations and accusations). Everyone knows the Democrats wanted Trump nominated, and so they would hold what they discovered until well into the general-election campaign, until it was too late to replace Trump with someone comparatively non-sociopathological and competent on the issues.

Meanwhile, the Democrats knew all about the very substantial baggage of their candidate, and they’ve been masterful in both deflecting attention from it and using it.

One example among so many: The secret teaching of the Goldman Sachs speeches could have been exploited by Bernie effectively had it come to light in the spring. And the MSM is admitting as much. But now! It turns out that what’s been revealed actually helps Clinton. The fact that she’s more fiscally conservative and fairly deferential to the leaders on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley in private than she is in public is now being touted even by libertarians and certainly by moderate Republicans as good reason to think she’s a safe choice.

Meanwhile, as I’ve read more than once, Paul Ryan fiddles while the Republican party burns. Well, he’s not really fiddling, of course. He’s trying. But his obvious error is in thinking that anyone much cares about his articulation of characteristically Republican policies right now. The Wall Street Journal on its editorial page is making the same error. That paper’s Saturday editorial was even contradicted by its lead article in its review section, which said something like our real problem is anemic increases in productivity over the past couple of decades and no one really knows what to do it about it. It might be the case that the post–World War II economic miracle is over and we’ve entered the more ordinary and typical economic reality of modest growth, no matter who’s running the government. I’m not saying that conclusion is right, but I am more confident that nobody much cares about the pro-growth etc. Republican agenda during this election season.

So the more powerful reason to vote Republican down ballot amounts to gridlock to check the new President Clinton. Still, not the most inspirational way of maxing out on voter turnout.

Assuming, as I think even Speaker Ryan does, that the result in three weeks is going to be really, really bad for the Republicans, I explained at Law and Liberty how the Republicans might seize the opportunity to get more realistic about constitutionalism.