R. R. Reno’s latest is quite right, as far as his point goes. One likes to think that these things can be negotiated on a more relative scale, though; Trump is the brazen quintessence of these evils, and should be obvious enough to be repudiated. What he signifies is that our people, our culture, is even more given to evil than our political class, at least as far as a strong plurality is concerned.
And that is uniquely disturbing, I find.
Trump is a creature of today’s political and cultural establishment. How could a master of comic mockery like Stephen Colbert object to Trump’s political style? Or Jon Stewart, who concludes his regular political rants with crude obscenity? I can’t think of any public figure on the Left who wouldn’t be flattered to share the stage with either man. Why should Donald Trump embarrass—other than the fact that his political positions aren’t liberal. Our side isn’t any different. Rush Limbaugh makes a living denouncing people on talk radio. He’s even derided Pope Francis as economically ignorant and called his ideas “pure Marxism.”