WaPo | Trump, on the evidence of past behavior, would take whatever
political shape the moment required. But the direction upon which his
spinning compass has settled is instructive. His approach has little to
do with the Republican Party’s history of religious conservatism. Nor is
it rooted primarily in tea party constitutionalism. Trump is pressing a
case against corrupt and cosmopolitan elites; against mass and illegal
immigration and the dilution of American identity; and against the
economic dislocations of free trade and business capitalism.
Insofar
as Trump leads a movement, it is headed in the direction of a more
European form of secular, nationalist, right-wing populism. Were Trump
to succeed, the GOP would be an anti-immigration party of the white
working class. Before he fails — as he certainly will — Americans may
long for the good old days of the religious right.
A number of
thoughtful conservatives are attempting to take the good parts of
Trump’s message — his unapologetic nationalism, his identification with
working-class discontents — while minimizing the parts that appeal to
the lowest human instincts. They prefer their Trumpism with a little
less Trump. But by leading off with the issue of immigration, by
proposing to narrow the protections of the 14th Amendment, by
representing undocumented Mexicans
as rapists, criminals and sources of infectious disease, by pledging to
construct a wall across a continent, by promising the roundup and
forced deportation of 11 million people, Trump has made looking on the
bright side pretty difficult. In fact, Trump’s political approach is
defined by the fomenting of conflict with foreigners: with scheming
Mexicans and predatory Chinese. Remove the appeal to base instincts and
you are left with little but opposition to entitlement reform.
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