Jonah Goldberg of National Review got it right. “Never Trump” may have been appropriate for some on the right who
supposed Mr. Trump was a member of a different tribe. But now, “Never Trump is
over. Never Trump was about the GOP primary and the general election, not the
presidency. The Left wants to claim it must be a permanent movement, denying
the legitimacy of Trump’s election forever, or we were never serious. Well,
that’s not what we — or at least I — signed up for.”
Among the new “never-Trumpers” are college crybabies,
including some permanently weepy professors; distressed progressives convinced
that Bernie Sanders rather than Mrs. Clinton, a deeply flawed candidate, should
have been nominated as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate; closet progressives
in the media, the butt-ends of Mr. Trump’s seemingly interminable less than
flattering remarks made on the campaign stump; standard Democratic demagogues
such as Nancy Pelosi and retiring U.S.
Senator Harry Reid; and Connecticut U.S. Senators Dick Blumenthal and Chris
Murphy, both early Clinton supporters.
Mr. Blumenthal, whose run in politics stretches back
decades, is a very early Clintonista. He shared a university with Bill and
Hillary Clinton and early warmed to the couple at Yale. Since then, Mr. Blumenthal
has been through thick and thin with the pair, supporting them at every crook
and corner, either through flashy public statements or telling silences. Mr.
Murphy, who lacks Mr. Blumenthal’s long record in politics, is somewhat new to
party sycophancy, but he appears to be coming along as expected.
Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks so far, most dispassionate
observers might agree, are not so bad for an amateur politician. The
“Never-Trumpers” were rather hoping the President–Elect might have chosen David
Duke to head the Department of Housing and Human Development (HUD), but no such
luck. Mr. Trump settled instead upon Dr. Ben Carson, a onetime political rival,
for the position. Mr. Carson is, like the current President, African American
and not a likely target for the usual “racist” slings and arrows deployed by
the usual progressive snipers. The new prospective HUD head, most
“never-Trumpers” might agree, is not a racist. On the other hand, what does he
know about housing, eh?
“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi," according to a story in Politico, has called Mr.
Carson “disturbingly unfit.” Following Mr. Trump’s victory over Mrs. Clinton in
November, the pugilistic Harry Reid issued the following fatwah: “The election of Donald Trump
has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America. White nationalists,
Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent,
law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans,
Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans.
Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of
fear does not feel like America.”
The “white
nationalists” apparently outnumber the “innocent, law-abiding Americans” by a significant
ratio. Non-false news data indicates that Mr. Trump is the most popular Republican candidate in history, having
brought in over 62.4 million votes during the recently concluded election. He
almost effortlessly won victories in at least 83 percent of the counties in the
United States. President Barack Obama won only 22 percent of the counties in the United
States and Mrs. Clinton won about 15 percent – which is why Mr. Trump, and not
Mrs. Clinton will be sworn in as President this coming January.
Supposing
the Electoral College to be eliminated, the above data suggests that Mrs.
Clinton, who won the popular vote, would have been elected President by capturing
only 15 percent of all the counties in the United States – which, come to think
of it, is why we rely on an Electoral College mechanism in choosing Presidents.
Adopting Mr. Reid’s view, we must suppose that “innocent, law-abiding Americans”
crying “tears of fear” reside in about five major cities in the United States,
many of which unhappily are plagued by non-law-abiding Americans. The crime
statistics in Chicago alone should cause Mr. Reid to revisit his defective
theory.
Mr. Reid’s
view of the world almost certainly will survive his nearly three decade term in
Congress, which soon will come to a close. A theory need not be true to be politically
useful, and these rhetorical battering rams, many Democrats suppose, will be
useful to them in recovering the White House and both Houses of the U.S.
Congress. Democratic losses were incurred during the eight years of Mr. Obama’s
administration, yet Mr. Obama has retained his popularity among Mr. Reid’s innocent,
law-abiding, fearful and tearful Americans. So far, no thoughtful Democrat has
advanced a theory that might explain how the popularity of Mr. Obama could have
resulted in such massive Democratic Party losses.
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