Charles C. W. Cooke
NR
Does Donald Trump believe in anything but himself? Do his supporters care?
When asked by their detractors whether they might deign to explain themselves, it is fashionable for supporters of Donald Trump’s presidential bid to characterize their charge’s rise as an inevitable reaction to the impotence of the Republican party. The GOP, it is proposed, has for almost three decades now failed to effect meaningful conservative reform, and it is therefore time for a change. Trump, they insist, is the man to bring it about.
Insofar as it presumes that dissatisfaction with the established political class has created a vacuum into which a would-be savior might try to step, there is a kernel of truth within this diagnosis. But as a justification for the ascent of Trump per se, it is wholly insufficient. The modern-day Hippocratic Oath features as its central tenet a deeply conservative injunction: Primum, non nocere, or “First, do no harm.” As anybody who has made this commitment comprehends well, sometimes the medicine is worse than the disease. Does the Republican party have problems? Certainly. Are there any circumstances in which Donald Trump could be considered the best antidote to them? Not on your life. To suggest that Trump is the best remedy for what ails the GOP is as if to suggest that an axe to the chest is the best remedy for what ails a man with bronchitis.
Read more at:
https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/422794/candidate-narcissus
