Trump-a-dump

Or is it dump-a-Trump?

That's what the Republican establishment and a number of prominent voices in the conservative media are up to. There is even talk of a brokered convention. It almost sounds as though the Party powers are trying to think of a way to deny Trump the nomination even if he wins it. In support of the trend, liberal loser Mitt Romney took to the TV to sternly admonish his fellow citizens about the perils of voting for such an arrogant, boorish, mendacious, misogynistic, racist, ignorant excuse for a human being. It was clear by the end that Donald Trump is a no good very bad man. The problem is that millions of people are voting for him. The implication of Romney's remarks was that those millions are stupid. That's how you win people over to your cause: call them stupid.



In sum, the "establishment" can't figure out what's going on out there. I've seen self-described conservative Christians on Facebook swearing that they'll never vote for Trump. This is apparently a badge of honor, though many voted for that promoter of the homosexual agenda, Romney, last time around, and for that embryo destructive research promoter McCain the time before that. A few said they'd vote for the down-with-gay-marriage Kasich. One reason it's a badge of honor not to vote for Trump is that he's brought the level of discourse to a new low. If so, the other candidates have not been loath to descend to it, especially Rubio. At one point last night, it seemed that he and Trump were talking at the same time for about five minutes. That's when I turned off the circus and tried to be grateful that my salvation doesn't hang on the machinations of politicians. Ambition is a soul-killer.

A number of those Christian facebookers were literally live-blogging the debate, as though something important were at stake. They probably think that it's the soul of the Republican Party and the fate of the nation. I've seen several opinionators on TV express shock that so many evangelical Christians - usually a reliably conservative voting bloc - are in Trump's camp. What in the hell's going on? Well, maybe a lot of Christians aren't as Christian or conservative as has been presumed. Maybe the soul of the Republican Party is really, at heart, liberal. Maybe Democrats and Republicans are two heads of the same beast. One head says "Go fast," the other says "Not that fast." But both move in the same direction, toward the apotheosis of the morally chaotic but oddly appealing utopianism of the multi-cultural diversity regime. Trump exists only because his millions of stupid followers perceive this, that, whatever direction we are headed, they don't like it and no one else seems prepared to do anything about it. If their understanding of where Trump will lead us is rather inchoate, and even incoherent, that is for the reason that they don't care anymore. The current leadership is feckless, eaten up with liberalism, while with Trump they might at least get a wall on the border, fewer Muslims on the home turf, and the fun of a trade war with China.

Trump exists, in short, because he represents the loss of hope that any sort of cultural restoration is possible.

Driving home from work last Super-Tuesday, I heard some reporters on the radio speculating about the likely outcome of that night's shenanigans, but humbly concluding that "the beauty of it all is that the voters get the final say." Yes, the beauty of democracy, the worst system in the world, I hear tell, except for all the others. Well, if you like it so much, you're now getting it - "good and hard," as my friend Zippy likes to say. (He also calls democracy "the snot running down the nose of an AIDS patient"). There's an awful lot of complaining going on out there, but we're Americans. We love democracy. It's our patriotic duty to love it. It's the voice of the people, and the people are having their say. Be happy.

Oh, and don't forget to pray for the people.

[Of interest: At NR, Maggie Gallagher kind of makes my point]