Prelude to a Sellout
Trump is a man who is constitutionally incapable of taking responsibility for his own defects and errors, and as such requires an enemy.
.. One of the arguments for Trump — the argument heard most often on talk radio and on the dopier of the cable-news programs — was this: Even where Republicans enjoy theoretical political superiority in Washington, they do not get very much done, because the Establishment, which is made up of moderates who are too eager to compromise with Democrats, subverts the actual conservatives in the Republican caucus. This was, we were told, the great sin of John Boehner and of Paul Ryan — but with a fire-breathing, earth-shaking President Trump on the case, Republicans would rediscover their spines and arise to victory and splendor. What is falling into place in Washington right now is something close to the opposite of that.
.. Trump is teeing up the same shot that his most enthusiastic supporters associate with the hated Establishment: Lining up Republican moderates and Democrats in a bipartisan coalition against conservatives.
.. After the health-care debacle, he is proceeding as though he believes that conservatives are his enemies, and he is ready to recruit Democrats
.. He was never a conservative to begin with, and it is impossible to betray principles that one does not in fact hold.