But in his career and public presentation Cruz is a stranger to most of what would generally be considered the Christian virtues: humility, mercy, compassion and grace. Cruz’s behavior in the Haley case is almost the dictionary definition of pharisaism: an overzealous application of the letter of the law in a way that violates the spirit of the law, as well as fairness and mercy.
.. But Cruz’s speeches are marked by what you might call pagan brutalism. There is not a hint of compassion, gentleness and mercy. Instead, his speeches are marked by a long list of enemies, and vows to crush, shred, destroy, bomb them.
.. The best conservatism balances support for free markets with a Judeo-Christian spirit of charity, compassion and solidarity. Cruz replaces this spirit with Spartan belligerence. He sows bitterness, influences his followers to lose all sense of proportion and teaches them to answer hate with hate. This Trump-Cruz conservatism looks more like tribal, blood and soil European conservatism than the pluralistic American kind.
.. It became clear then, why right-wing conservative Republicans felt the need to explicitly add the adjective to their name – it certainly is not inherent in it. In fact, the phrase is oxymoronic. Imagine having to say “compassionate liberalism” – redundant.
.. Republicans are going to be faced with a choice—do they want their party’s message carried by a member of the Vengeance-is-Mine wing? It could win, in an election where angry sells and people may be looking for change, and therefore might be willing to throw the dice. But, I don’t think even most of the party, much less the rest of the country, would be especially happy with the results. You can only rule with that type of an approach, you can’t govern. The American people will not like rulers.
.. I keep thinking of Wiesel’s concentration camp character’s statement in Night that Hitler is the only one he trusts, because he is the only one who didn’t lie to the Jews.
.. And that platform is built exclusively on appeals to the very basest of human instincts: greed, selfishness, fear, prejudice, resentment, bigotry, ignorance, and aggression. Cruz and Trump merely express in plainer language what all the GOP candidates for president espouse as policy positions.
.. In advertising, the basic wisdom used to be: “sex sells.” Among conservatives, the basic wisdom is: “fear sells.”
Fearful people do not practice compassion and mercy.
.. As an evangelical, I am appalled by how most evangelicals act politically. Our faith never calls for us to use the force of government to impose our faith on others. We are to do it by example and win people over. We are to be the salt of the earth, not the gunpowder. We are to be a light unto the world, not a nuclear blast.
Leftward, Ho!
Beinart argues that on race, for example, even the Republicans are accepting at least some of the left-wing critique:
Most interesting—because he is the Republican candidate with the keenest sense of how to appeal to the general electorate—has been the approach of Senator Marco Rubio. In August, a Fox News anchor asked him about Black Lives Matter. Instead of condemning the movement, Rubio told the story of an African American friend of his whom police had stopped eight or nine times over the previous 18 months even though he had never broken the law. “This is a problem our nation has to confront,” Rubio declared. Then he talked about young African Americans who get arrested for nonviolent offenses and pushed into plea deals by overworked public defenders. The government, he said, must “look for ways to divert people” from going to jail “so that you don’t get people stigmatized early in life.”
Conservative Republicans didn’t talk this way in the ’90s. They didn’t talk this way even in the early Obama years. The fact that Rubio does so now is more evidence that today, unlike in the mid-’60s, the debate about race and justice isn’t moving to the right. It’s moving further left.
For the record, I think it’s a good thing if we work to fight police brutality and harassment of black motorists. Conservatives ought to care about those things, as matters of justice! My main objection is to the sense you get among activists that these are the worst problems facing black America, and the viewpoint that seems to remove all moral agency from African-Americans. The crazy demands by black activists on campuses make it harder for conservatives to take seriously legitimate complaints about racial injustice.
Donald Trump Can’t Say ‘No’ — Is That What We Want in a President?
In truth, this isn’t quite right; speaking to NBC last night, he did seem to suggest affirmatively that Muslims would be required to sign into his hypothetical database or face consequences. Either way, I’m struggling to see how this defense can be acceptable to his admirers. Trump, recall, is supposed to be courageous. He’s supposed to be steadfast. He’s supposed to be a no-holds-barred badass who will make great deals and stare down enemies and Make America Great Again. How, one wonders, does a chronic inability to say “no” fit into that mien?
If there is one quality we need in a president, it is the ability decisively to say “no” — especially, I would venture, if that president hopes to advance conservative goals. When a sane person is asked whether he would institute a tracking database for Muslims or force one religious group to carry special ID cards, he says, “Of course I wouldn’t.” If Trump is unable to manage even this, how would he rein in spending or limit illegal immigration?
.. Donald Trump’s only visible constitutional opinion is that someone strong ought to make sure the trams run on time. There’s a word for men like that, and it sure as heck isn’t “conservative.”
Donald Trump Has One Credential, and It Appears to Be Soft
I have spent considerable time with friends and sometime allies in the Tea Party. Surprisingly, they have no illusions that Trump is a conservative. None. Don’t bother to hector them about single-payer health insurance or abortion or even growth-killing tax hikes. There’s no deal breaker there. The tea partiers concede that Trump is a demagogue and suspect that he is a caesarist. But, as they would put it, usually at machine-gun pace . . . He’s rich. He’s his own man. He can’t be bought. He’s a great negotiator. He will clean up Washington. He will restore American greatness. He makes great deals. . . . Trumpsters, as you will have noticed, tend to talk fast.
.. In the most recent phase of his career, Donald Trump has edged even further away from the real-estate business and, with typical gusto, has jumped into the business of being . . . Donald Trump. He has hawked Trump chocolates (no question, the best in the world). And Trump cologne (you should have your own series of leggy wives). And Trump dress shirts and cufflinks (c’mon, the least you can do is look rich). And Trump steaks (fantastic, and they’re huge). And Trump bottled water (fabulous, makes Perrier taste like horse water). It goes without saying, but perhaps it shouldn’t, that all of these products are made by somebody other than Donald Trump. He has become omnipresent in the marketing world, in some markets eclipsing the Mouse himself, and well on his way to becoming — what? — the Kim Kardashian of business?
.. Is he a Kim Kardashian–type success, a businessperson who earns an enormous income for being Kim Kardashian? Or is he more a Steve Jobs–type success, a man who has earned enormous wealth by providing a valuable product to the free marketplace? To put it more directly: Did Trump build assets of lasting value, the hallmark of a successful businessperson, or does he earn a big living for being famous — the hallmark of a celebrity?
.. If you open your books, I will hire a reputable accounting firm to determine, in constant dollars, a) Fred’s net worth the day he died and b) your net worth today. If we find that b) is greater than a), I and my associates will donate $100,000 to your favorite charity (excepting only Planned Parenthood, which I could not bring myself to support). Or if we find that a) is greater than b), you will donate $100,000 to my favorite charity, which I designate hereby as the National Review Institute. Do we have a deal?