If they ran, there was a very real possibility they’d get an embarrassingly small percentage of the vote (think Pat Buchanan as the Reform Party nominee in 2000). Alternatively, they could do better, be blamed for electing Clinton and then…
#Trump
Yascha Mounk: Trumpism: A New Era in World Politics? – Project Syndicate
In my view, the choices facing us in the next decades may be far starker than the optimists admit. There are three reasons why attempts to shore up living standards are unlikely to stem the populist threat: the right policies…
James Kirchick: How Jared Kushner, the Scion of One Tri-State Crime Family, Married Into Another – Tablet Magazine
Whatever Kushner needs to do to comfort himself over his enabling this pox on the American body politic—whose political ascent is the single worst thing to happen to the United States since Sept. 11—he will do. He’s been training for…
Mark Joseph Stern: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Just Risked Her Legacy to Insult Trump – Slate
There is really very little to debate about the ethics of Ginsburg’s comments. They were plainly a violation, the kind of partisan partiality that judicial ethics codes strive to prevent. But Ginsburg, who is a quietly canny judicial and political…
Sam Tanenhaus: How Trump Can Save the G.O.P. – The New York Times
The challenge for Mr. Trump will be convincing voters that he really does mean to improve conditions for working-class and middle-class Americans and not just play to their grievances. If he does, and brings the party along with him, he…
Nicholas Gallagher: Immigration and the Political Explosion of 2016 – The American Interest
Just as how at the turn of the 20th century, people failed to see how factory work would thoroughly replace family farming as the source of American income and identity, so too today we struggle to foresee what will come after “Allentown.” As…
Josh Marshall: Understanding the Trump/Star of David Blow Up – TPM
Racism and authoritarianism are core Trump values that predate and are separate from this campaign. The other thing that’s very apparent about Trump is that he’s shockingly, almost totally ignorant of the details of almost every public policy issue –…
Noah Rothman: Trump, Saddam, and Dovish Logic – Commentary
Prior to his ouster, the United States was compelled to engage in military action against Hussein as a result of his provocations in 1991, 1993, 1996, and 1998. Those military actions were precipitated by little things like the invasion and annexation…
Jay Cost: Who Speaks for the Party? – The Weekly Standard
What happens in an election where one side is led by a nominee who cannot make an argument on behalf of his party? The answer is: Nobody really knows. Until now, the major parties have nominated candidates who could communicate…
James Fallows: A Note About Trumpism, From the Real America – The Atlantic
Every single person we’ve met here — Anglo and Latino, African and Burmese and other, old and young, native-born and immigrant, male and female, well-educated and barely literate, working three jobs and retired and still in school—of all these people,…