Republican Party

In Orthodox Christianity, a “holy fool” is a type of saint, someone who appears to be absurd, but who embeds the truth in his or her own apparent madness. Is Donald Trump a political version of this? Eric Levitt points out that if Trump weren’t saying true things — things that Republicans aren’t supposed to say — he wouldn’t have gotten this far in the GOP primary. Excerpts listing what Levitt, who derides the candidate as a “narcissistic reality star,” says are Trump’s “truth bombs”:

New poll out from CNN shows that 41 percent of Republicans nationwide favor Trump — a new high for him. Says CNN:

That more than doubles the support of his nearest competitor, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who notches 19% support in the poll. No other candidate hit double-digits. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio landed at 8%, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 6%, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 5%, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 4%, and the rest at 3% or less.

David Brooks predicted a Rubio victory yesterday:

"It's gonna be Rubio. I'm telling you, it's gonna be Rubio." – David Brooks on the GOP nominee. #MTP

— Meet the Press (@meetthepress) January 24, 2016

National Review’s barrage against Donald Trump won’t make much difference in the race, but clarifies nonetheless. In an editorial and 22 signed contributions, the magazine urges conservatives to reject Trump. Ninety percent of those likely to be influenced by National Review (a small, but not negligible number in a GOP primary) would have come to that conclusion without any help: Trump is not and never has been an establishment conservative, and other perfectly capable candidates are filling that niche.

Two views of Trump and his supporters, from conservatives who hate Trumpism:

1. From Martin Cothran, the view that Trump and his followers are anti-intellectual morons who are destroying intellectually serious conservatism:

What can you say about a movement of people that stands and applauds the incoherent babbling of Sarah Palin in her endorsement of Donald Trump and then blindly dismisses the serious and reasoned arguments of twenty-two veteran conservative thinkers writing in the flagship conservative magazine without even addressing what they said?