Bret Stephens: If Trump Loses, Elites Can Pretend He Never Happened
Our elites should have responded to Trump's election with repentance. Instead, they preen over how much better they are than that crude sinner in the White House and the voters who put him there.
By Nathanael Blake
October 8, 2020
President Donald Trump is recovering from COVID-19, a.k.a. the China plague. Some of his opponents took the high road and wished him a swift recovery, while others took the low road, gloating over his illness, hoping for his suffering and death, and spinning conspiracy theories. A few managed to do both, with their supposed well-wishes revealing more than they meant to.
For example, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote a preening article on why Trump’s opponents should wish the president well. Stephens is a conservative of the socially liberal sort that mostly conserves the profit margins of the Fortune 500. Although he is not popular with his paper’s readership (much of which affects to despise the grubby business of business, even as they browse a paper stuffed with advertisements from luxury brands), he shares their disdain for Trump.
Even his effort at wishing the president well was a mix of political calculation and moral self-congratulation that inadvertently illuminated Stephens’s blind spots. For instance, he argued that among the reasons he hoped for the president’s recovery is that our nation, and the world, needs a clear electoral, not medical, repudiation of Trump and right-wing populism.
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https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/08/bret-stephens-if-trump-loses-elites-can-pretend-he-never-happened/
