WHEN an old order is in crisis, something distinctive happens to the men who lead it.
A strange paralysis sets in, a curious mix of denial and resignation. W. B. Yeats’ famous line about the best lacking all conviction captures part of this, but only part. What really goes missing isn’t conviction itself but the capacity to act on it — to adapt swiftly, resist effectively, or both. Instead the tendency is to freeze...-Ross Douthat, "Profiles in Paralysis," the New York Times, on the Republican Party's response to Donald Trump.
A strange paralysis sets in, a curious mix of denial and resignation. W. B. Yeats’ famous line about the best lacking all conviction captures part of this, but only part. What really goes missing isn’t conviction itself but the capacity to act on it — to adapt swiftly, resist effectively, or both. Instead the tendency is to freeze...-Ross Douthat, "Profiles in Paralysis," the New York Times, on the Republican Party's response to Donald Trump.
I don't know Yeats' but the GOP today reminds me of nothing so much as the aging military leaders of France before and during Hitler's invasion. But...Always "but" comments like this. Hitler couldn't have done it without Germans.
