There is a strain of thought among so-called never-Trumpers that there is a thing called Trumpism, and there is the Republican Party, and that they are two separate and distinct entities. The thinking, apparently, is that deep in the soul of the Republican Party there is a core of people who are not racists, not religious bigots, not fascists.
Former Massachusetts governor William Weld is now putting that notion to the acid test. A few days ago he addressed the NAACP convention and said this:
Donald Trump is a raging racist, Okay? He’s a complete and thoroughgoing racist. And he made that choice, a choice a long time ago, when he was engaged in the housing business in New York with his father,” Weld said, speaking at the NAACP convention in Detroit on Wednesday.
He added: “The national Republican Party, has a choice. And a lot of them like to think that it’s a political choice. But it’s not a political choice. It’s a moral choice.”
Weld is casting his campaign as the last chance for the Republican Party to turn away from the racism (I don’t know if he is concerned about the drift toward fascism) about which Trump is so open. Those of us who’ve been watching know that the dog whistles began blowing in 1968, but let’s put that aside for the moment.
It strikes me that Weld is right. He’s offering Republican voters a choice between “Trumpism” and the mythical Republicanism of fantasists like David Brooks.
I would hazard a prediction that Weld won’t get more than 10% of the vote in any state, even Massachusetts, even if Trump’s crimes have been fully exposed by the time the primaries roll around. If he gets that high, it will be because most Republicans won’t bother to vote in the primaries simply because there’s no real threat to Trump, so his theoretical 10% would actually represent perhaps 5% of Republicans.
So, that brings us to the ultimate question. Will the punditry finally acknowledge that there is no distinction between Trumpism and Republicanism, once Weld finishes the primary season without a single convention delegate? Or will the mythical Republican Party live on in the mindless drivel penned by people like Brooks?
I really wish there were someone stupid enough to bet that the punditry will change its tune. I could make a lot of money betting against that person.
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