For some prominent Republicans, the Kzir Khan challenge was too much for them.
There’s an old saying that in politics there are no permanent victories—and no permanent defeats.
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But to say there are no permanent victories or defeats in politics doesn’t mean there is no permanent dishonor. Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, Alger Hiss, Joe McCarthy and Bull Connor are the foul names of America’s 20th century, and always will be. And those who supported and excused them will always be tainted by association.
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Mr. Trump...has, as Humayun’s father Khizr put it, a “black soul.” His problem isn’t a lack of normal propriety but the absence of basic human decency. He is morally unfit for any office, high or low.
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Nor are we likely done with new disclosures about Mr. Trump’s business practices and associations. Conservative die-hards may try to hold fast to the excuse that Hillary Clinton was, is, and always will be “worse,” but the argument can’t be sustained indefinitely. Mrs. Clinton is not the apotheosis of evil. She may be a corner-cutter and a liar, and she’ll almost surely appoint liberals to the Supreme Court. But at least she’s not a sociopath.
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Mr. Ryan and other Go-Along Republicans should treat the Khan episode as their last best hope to preserve political reputations they have worked so hard to build.
(Bret Stephens writes “Global View,” the Wall Street Journal’s foreign-affairs column, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2013. He is the paper’s deputy editorial page editor, responsible for the international opinion pages of the Journal, and a member of the paper’s editorial board. He is also a regular panelist on the Journal Editorial Report, a weekly political talk show broadcast on Fox News Channel.)
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"There's only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honor and respect," tweeted Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who skipped the GOP convention in his state and has declined to endorse Trump. "Capt. Khan is a hero. Together, we should pray for his family."
Kasich's top strategist in his failed 2016 presidential campaign, John Weaver, tweeted a scathing attack on Trump's handling of the Khan controversy, saying: "Trump's slur against Captain Khan's mother is, even for him, beyond the pale. He has NO redeeming qualities."
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...Republican strategist Stuart Stevens, a top aide to Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, said insulting a Gold Star family is a bridge too far.
"To defend Trump attacking the Khans is to be cloaked in shame. It's a Joe McCarthy moment & you're failing. Have you no sense of decency?" Stevens said on Twitter.
I have nothing to add and only praise for these Republicans who have, with evident pain, but overarching morality, rejected Trump. I point out only one thing, one very important matter: a racist, mentally ill candidate can only go as far as voters support him. No one, NO ONE with Donald Trump's mental defects has ever captured a major party in the U.S. in the modern era. And Trump captured the GOP, not with legerdemain, but by winning vastly more votes than any of his rivals. He seized power democratically. None of those in the rogue's gallery above, not the Kingfisher, not Father Coughlin, not Joe McCarthy, Strom Thurmond or George Wallace, ever captured a major party or came close. Trump has, and has a chance to capture the presidency. He will not, but is in that position and it is uncharted. He is in this position, coming around to my point now and trying to fracture the nail head with the most direct and forceful blow, because of the ~40%+ of the American
people who support him.
While Trump will be ruined politically, professionally and personally by this election, "there is a sickness in the country" as Hillary Clinton said and it is a sickness in the American people. The American people who gave their voices and their votes, their violence and their Nazi salutes, their anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish journalists, they are the cause of Trump. Our politics must be disinfected of these political virus carriers and spreaders. It is the ordinary Americans whose creation Trump is, who must be identified, stalked, and hunted, as Simon Wiesenthal did German Nazis, and subjected to personal, political, and economic ruin.
There’s an old saying that in politics there are no permanent victories—and no permanent defeats.
...
But to say there are no permanent victories or defeats in politics doesn’t mean there is no permanent dishonor. Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, Alger Hiss, Joe McCarthy and Bull Connor are the foul names of America’s 20th century, and always will be. And those who supported and excused them will always be tainted by association.
...
Mr. Trump...has, as Humayun’s father Khizr put it, a “black soul.” His problem isn’t a lack of normal propriety but the absence of basic human decency. He is morally unfit for any office, high or low.
...
Nor are we likely done with new disclosures about Mr. Trump’s business practices and associations. Conservative die-hards may try to hold fast to the excuse that Hillary Clinton was, is, and always will be “worse,” but the argument can’t be sustained indefinitely. Mrs. Clinton is not the apotheosis of evil. She may be a corner-cutter and a liar, and she’ll almost surely appoint liberals to the Supreme Court. But at least she’s not a sociopath.
...
Mr. Ryan and other Go-Along Republicans should treat the Khan episode as their last best hope to preserve political reputations they have worked so hard to build.
(Bret Stephens writes “Global View,” the Wall Street Journal’s foreign-affairs column, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2013. He is the paper’s deputy editorial page editor, responsible for the international opinion pages of the Journal, and a member of the paper’s editorial board. He is also a regular panelist on the Journal Editorial Report, a weekly political talk show broadcast on Fox News Channel.)
...
"There's only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honor and respect," tweeted Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who skipped the GOP convention in his state and has declined to endorse Trump. "Capt. Khan is a hero. Together, we should pray for his family."
Kasich's top strategist in his failed 2016 presidential campaign, John Weaver, tweeted a scathing attack on Trump's handling of the Khan controversy, saying: "Trump's slur against Captain Khan's mother is, even for him, beyond the pale. He has NO redeeming qualities."
...
...Republican strategist Stuart Stevens, a top aide to Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, said insulting a Gold Star family is a bridge too far.
"To defend Trump attacking the Khans is to be cloaked in shame. It's a Joe McCarthy moment & you're failing. Have you no sense of decency?" Stevens said on Twitter.
I have nothing to add and only praise for these Republicans who have, with evident pain, but overarching morality, rejected Trump. I point out only one thing, one very important matter: a racist, mentally ill candidate can only go as far as voters support him. No one, NO ONE with Donald Trump's mental defects has ever captured a major party in the U.S. in the modern era. And Trump captured the GOP, not with legerdemain, but by winning vastly more votes than any of his rivals. He seized power democratically. None of those in the rogue's gallery above, not the Kingfisher, not Father Coughlin, not Joe McCarthy, Strom Thurmond or George Wallace, ever captured a major party or came close. Trump has, and has a chance to capture the presidency. He will not, but is in that position and it is uncharted. He is in this position, coming around to my point now and trying to fracture the nail head with the most direct and forceful blow, because of the ~40%+ of the American
people who support him.
While Trump will be ruined politically, professionally and personally by this election, "there is a sickness in the country" as Hillary Clinton said and it is a sickness in the American people. The American people who gave their voices and their votes, their violence and their Nazi salutes, their anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish journalists, they are the cause of Trump. Our politics must be disinfected of these political virus carriers and spreaders. It is the ordinary Americans whose creation Trump is, who must be identified, stalked, and hunted, as Simon Wiesenthal did German Nazis, and subjected to personal, political, and economic ruin.
