Pure ignorance. Pure evil. And it MUST lose.
When Mr. Trump tells four freshman members of Congress- three of whom are native-born Americans, and the fourth of whom has lived here for twenty years- to "go back" to the countries they came from and fix the problems there instead of meddling in ours, he doesn't just make himself look foolish. He doesn't just illustrate yet again what has been obvious from the moment he announced his candidacy, and even before- that he generally has absolutely no idea what he's talking about, and is so intent on being heard that he simply doesn't care about the damage he does.
Tragically, at this point, not a single prominent Republican has called the president to task for his ugly and ignorant remarks. But as usual, despite his mistake being pointed out, Mr. Trump has doubled down on it. Such is his habit in such matters- and it changes the nature of the issue from mere ignorance to knowing deceit.
He gives voice and example to the ugly, ignorant mean-spiritedness that is the very core of his appeal, the very foundation of his brand, the stupidity, and prejudice which characterize morally sick and un-American "deplorables" Hillary Clinton so accurately pointed out during the 2016 campaign define the tone of our nation's government these days and who constitute the heart and core of the Trump movement.
This is the ideology which, at the present moment, defines and motivates those who are running our country. And it simply cannot stand.
He illustrates the reason why at all costs- even turning the country over to the nutty radicals who increasingly define the Democratic party and form the only real alternative to Trump and his Know-Nothing posse- Donald Trump must be defeated in 2020.
Never in the history of our nation has an ideology so radically in opposition to everything America has ever stood for been in power. Like the Civil War, the 2020 campaign will be a defining moment for the American idea. As John Stuart Mill said of that conflict, Donald Trump's re-election would be a triumph of evil, and nothing less; a defining moment for America which would expose the very American idea as a cruel and hypocritical lie.
No, I can't say that it's a struggle between good and evil. I wish I could. The hysterical, over-the-top rhetoric and the casual disdain for economic reality which defines the only real alternative to Trumpism in these sad and sorry days is itself stupid and evil, even if more nobly motivated. And not the least of the damage Mr. Trump's inept and crude bigotry does to America is that it casts people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib as the good guys. It gives them credibility they simply don't deserve. It creates sympathy for ideas which- however nobility motivated- are simply without practical merit.
And so very, very many good and decent men and women who are simply better than that are defending him, siding with him, making themselves his accomplices in the distortion and prostitution of the very conservative ideals they hold dear.
And perhaps that's the worst of what Donald Trump has done. He has corrupted the very people from which the salvation of the American idea needs to come if it is going to come at all.
The man and the movement he heads is political cancer. It must be cut out- if necessary, even at the cost of allowing the crazies of the Left into power for four years and letting them prove the foolishness and bankruptcy of their agenda as completely as Mr. Trump is doing for his.
The sad and sorry fact of the matter is that at the moment there simply are no "good guys-" or at least enough of them, with any prospect of success or of attaining power, to save us from the folly of the extremes which define our two political parties and our very political discourse right now.
And the only way that salvation can come to America and the idea on which it's based is for Donald Trump and the evil movement which he leads to go down and go down hard.
Donald Trump simply must lose, and lose badly, in 2020 if, as a practical matter, the ideals on which our nation was based are even going to have a voice again. That's a fact that is so obvious and so patent that I find it nothing less than incredible that so many good and decent people simply can't seem to grasp it.
ADDENDUM: Some Republicans have now responded conscionably. Rep. Pete Olsen of Texas, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich have all spoken up to preserve the honor of the Republican party. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas did, too- sort of, before kind of ruining it by trying to balance his criticism with a little demagoguing of is own.
And Sen. Lindsey Graham, once one of the most honorable men in Washington, continued to disgrace himself by sucking up to race-baiting president he was once willing to call exactly what he was. Sen. Graham may be the poster child for what this president has caused so many Republicans in Washington and throughout the nation to do to their own honor- and, one cannot help but believe, at some level their own self-respect.
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