In Blog No. 99, we described the contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as a “World Series of Weevils.” (For anyone late to the… Read More »Blog No. 112. Kakistocracy and Support For Hillary Clinton
The meeting last week between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan was something of a milestone in Donald Trump’s march to the nomination and perhaps the White House. While the meeting did not yield an endorsement by the Speaker, it produced a widespread expectation that one would be forthcoming in due course. Despite the media attention the meeting drew, the indication of a detente between Trump and Ryan was a relatively minor development, disappointing but not surprising. There are, of course, abundant grounds on which Ryan could withhold his support from Trump. Apart from issues of character and temperament, Trump’s expressed positions are at odds with Ryan’s on a variety of issues—immigration, free trade, banning of Muslims, entitlement reform, to name a few. But while we would have applauded a Ryan rejection of Trump and his candidacy, any hope for Ryan’s doing so was unrealistic. Such an action would have seriously jeopardized Ryan’s own position as Speaker with little or no likelihood of its having a serious impact on the Trump bandwagon.Read More »Blog No. 99. Donald Trump as Aaron Burr: Where Is Alexander Hamilton When We Need Him?
Although the result of Republican primary in New York was unsurprising, that made it no less unpalatable. Donald Trump was widely predicted to do well and he did indeed. At last count he had captured at least 89 of New York’s 95 delegates. That does not guarantee that he will command a majority of delegates before the convention but that goal is certainly in sight. The Trump ego was sufficiently assuaged that in his Tuesday evening remarks he seemed determined to focus on attempting to “sound Presidential” and hence he passed up the ritual insulting of rivals that has been his regular practice. For our part, we were quite unmoved by the newly applied patina of civility.Read More »Special Bulletin. After New York: What To Do About the Weevils?