Some weeks ago, a group of scholars, authors, and writers announced its support for Donald Trump as “the candidate most likely to restore the promise of America.” I’m not sure how many of the signatories — some of them longtime intellectual leaders within the conservative movement, broadly understood — are still sleeping comfortably in the beds they’ve made for themselves. There is probably some aspect of the political bargain they’ve struck, some Art of the Deal, that I don’t “get.”
Today brought the public announcement that a group of right-leaning scholars, authors, and writers has convened to express its strong opposition to the grotesque clown running as the Republican candidate for president. “Given our choices in the presidential election, we believe that Donald Trump is the candidate most dangerous to our nation’s founding ideals,” the Scholars and Writers Against Trump statement reads. “He is a unique and dire threat to the political principles, liberties, and cultural values of justice, fairness, honesty, and decency we have long defended. We urge you to vote, as we will, for someone else.”
Members of Scholars and Writers Against Trump include many names you will probably find to be familiar: Charles Murray, P.J. O’Rourke, Andy Ferguson, John Pitney, Linda Chavez, Kay Hymowitz, Christopher Buckley, Virginia Postrel, Jonathan Adler, Abe Greenwald, Max Boot, Naomi Schaefer Riley, Ilya Somin, Jonathan Tobin, and Michael Zuckert. The organizers of the group — Cherie Harder, Thomas Mallon, and Andrew Hazlett — did not attempt to divine which candidate, if any, a signatory is supporting. It was enough simply to be against Trump, who is easily the most ill-prepared, unprincipled, and unqualified presidential candidate every nominated by the GOP. I strongly believe that America is about to elect a second-term Richard Nixon — a president doomed to years of scandal and, potentially, a resignation, impeachment, or early retirement. We can either get a Republican one with groping hands or a Democratic one with grasping ones. Neither deserves or will receive my vote.