As mentioned in an earlier post, conservative thought leader David Frum opens his current Atlantic article, The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy, (how the norms that have protected our republic were shattered by the rise of Donald Trump) with a 1993 Wall Street Journal editorial, reprinted by the paper in 2007.
The portion Frum quotes - In our time, the United States suffers every day of the week because
there are now so many marginalized people among us who don't understand
the rules, who don't think that rules of personal or civil conduct apply
to them, who have no notion of self-control. - underscores the cost of a base that's gone beyond setting our nation's established norms of civility on their ear to tossing them out in total.
As the article points out, now the very same newspaper that decried the decline of civility is positioning itself to openly nodding in Donald Trump's general direction, giving its seal of approval to a bombastic, vulgar on so many levels, unfiltered demagogue.
The GOP base - maybe even more - longs for authenticity in place of false faces, for the genuine article instead of pipe dream promises, for real rather than silken-tongued insincerity. And Donald delivers on that wish list - big time!
Yes, everyone at every level knows that Trump is oversized in his ignorance, unabashedly coarse, grandiose in his boasts, gleefully cruel. They know that his default response to criticism is to "attack, vilify, and suppress." He flagrantly disrespects women, denigrates ethnic & religious groups, talks about playing fast & loose with the nation's financial obligations & even alliances. He trashed John McCain as being a loser unfairly elevated to hero! Yet, as of Memorial Day, polls showed that Donald John Trump with support from 85% of the GOP.
Gay Pendleton, Doris Pendleton & Mom are spinning in their graves. Thank goodness Nancy isn't here to see this.
What alarms Frum is how his own family & friends, respected colleagues & cohorts are slowly entering the Trump orbit. At least for now, he's resisting. For now.
For now, he believes that his party has brought catastrophe "upon themselves, in violation of their own stated principles and best judgment."
He muses that how a good con plays upon a victim's foibles. What weaknesses laid the GOP so vulnerable to such bald-faced flimflammery? If there, are they unique to Republicans, to conservatives, or are Dems & progressives, culture in general, just as susceptible?
How did we get here? Which "guardrails" protecting our country have been shattered?
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