What if, Knowing What They Know Now, Republicans Don’t Vote for Donald Trump?
By The New York Times Editorial Board has vomited forth 1748 words pondering this question.
I say, good for them, because I can’t even imagine what it means. It is the editorial formerly known as
Before He Faces A Jury, Trump Must Answer To Republican Voters
I won’t try to unscramble what this means, beyond that Maggie Haberman’s supporters can’t imagine how it all turned out this way.
Taken together, these four indictments — which include more than 90 federal and state criminal charges implicating his official conduct during his term and acts afterward, as well as in his personal and business life — offer a road map of the trauma and drama Mr. Trump has put this nation through. They raise questions about his fitness for office that go beyond ideology or temperament, focusing instead on his disdain for American democracy.
But still, the Times Editorial Board hopes that Republican voters will see the light.
Time and again, Mr. Trump has demanded that Republicans choose him over the party, and he has exposed and exploited some genuine rifts in the G.O.P., refashioning the party to suit his own agenda. The party will have to deal with those fault lines and may have to reconfigure itself and its platform. But if Republicans surrender to his demands, they may find themselves led by a candidate whose second term in office would be even more damaging to America and to the party than his first.
The editorial bounces around, clearly written by committee, and poses the challenge:
Mr. Trump has repeatedly offered Republicans a false choice: Stick by me, or the enemy wins. But a healthy political party does not belong to or depend on one man, particularly one who has repeatedly put himself over his party and his country. A healthy democracy needs at least two functioning parties to challenge each other’s honesty and direction. Republican voters are key to restoring that health and balance.
Put another way, what if Trump goes to prison and Republicans and the New York Times have to deal with that?