Trump’s Mum Supporters As long as you don’t admit voting for him, a Donald presidency might be OK. By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. See note please

Posted By on July 20th, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-mum-supporters-1468968306

Pauline Kael after Nixon’s landslide win in 1972:

‘I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.’”

None of us will ever cast a vote that decides a presidential race, whereas we all bear immediate social cost and risk by saying whom we’re voting for. That’s the reality of incentives. Lots of prominent Republicans and conservative pundits have good reason for not sullying their carefully cultivated brands with Donald Trump’s by saying they’ll vote for him. This is understandable. In fact, it’s a no-brainer.

Of course, how you vote and what you say about your vote can be two different things. Kennedy won the 1960 election in a landslide according to polls taken after his assassination.

So let’s say it: As long as you don’t have to pay a social price for it, a Trump presidency might not be so bad. A Trump victory would be inconceivable without his bringing a GOP Congress along. His business friends would steer him away from wild actions. Mr. Trump himself has said he has no intention of destabilizing the economy.

We might get some real reform out of a Paul Ryan-led Congress. This would be Mr. Trump’s easiest path to the victories (“we’re winning again!”) he craves, and the reason some prominent conservatives like Larry Kudlow have risked their good names by lending them to Mr. Trump.

The stock market has been straight up since Brexit, and since polls started showing Mr. Trump competitive with Hillary Clinton. Some credit central banks or turn up their hands, but a Trump reflation-with-tax-cuts, if the alternative is a Clinton reflation with a blowout expansion of entitlements, probably sounds OK to many investors.

What about the character question? It’s hard to believe voters would have elected Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon or Bill Clinton based on what they know now. Voters know a great deal about Mr. Trump. He might be the biggest sleaze they ever knowingly vote for, but not the biggest to hold the office.CONTINUE AT SITE

Categorized under: NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION.
Tagged with: no tags.

Comments are closed.