The Work of a Magazine

I’ve been traveling and working, and am a little late to the symposium party. I’d like to say a few words.

My main word is that I am deeply appreciative of our symposium, “Conservatives against Trump.” I think our contributors say important and timely things. And they say them in a diversity of voices (conservative voices, to be sure).

Some of the contributors are dear friends of mine. Some of them I know only slightly and admire highly. Some of them are new to me. I thought I’d single out just a few lines.

The first comes from Mark Helprin, who says, “Following Obama’s, a Trump presidency would be yet more adventure tourism for a formerly serious republic.”

And here is Thomas Sowell: “A shoot-from-the-hip, bombastic showoff is the last thing we need or can afford.”

I found myself moved by the contribution of Russell Moore. He addresses a critical moral dimension:

Trump says that he is pro-life now, despite having supported partial-birth abortion in the past. The problem is not whether he can check a box. Pro-life voters expect leaders to have a coherent vision of human dignity and to be able to defend against assaults on human life in the future — some of which may be unimaginable today and will present themselves only as new technologies develop.

Trump’s supposed pro-life conversion is rooted in Nietzschean, social-Darwinist terms. He knew a child who was to be aborted who grew up to be a “superstar.” Beyond that, Trump’s vitriolic — and often racist and sexist — language about immigrants, women, the disabled, and others ought to concern anyone who believes that all persons, not just the “winners” of the moment, are created in God’s image.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This sort of talk may be so much “cuckery” to the white-nationalist Right that is asserting itself — especially via social media — but it is natural to the humane conservatism exemplified by Bill Buckley, Ronald Reagan, Malcolm Muggeridge, and countless others.

Have you seen the video of Trump physically mocking a physically handicapped reporter? This is something that would not be tolerated in a nine-year-old on a playground. Is it acceptable in a 70-year-old who wants to be president? That’s for voters to decide.

Russell Moore further says,

Trump can win only in the sort of celebrity-focused mobocracy that Neil Postman warned us about years ago, in which sound moral judgments are displaced by a narcissistic pursuit of power combined with promises of “winning” for the masses.

That’s one of the words that WFB used about Trump: “narcissist.”

Anyway, I am grateful for our symposium. I wish Donald Trump well (as I wish all people well). I think he has a number of admirable qualities (along with others). I think that he is part of the American parade. I also think that his unfitness for the presidency is honkingly obvious.

At any rate, God save us all.

(Disclosure.)