RUTHFULLY YOURS

Doomsayers who warn “the end is nigh” if so-and-so politician is elected become deeply depressed if the so-and-so is elected and horrible things do not occur.

From a conservative perspective, Trump has not caused horrible things to occur. Quite the opposite, in fact. Yet the nominally-conservative #NeverTrumpers are growing more depressed, they’re making ever more dire prophesies, and now, with the end yet to appear nigh, dammit, they’re doing everything in their power to make it so.

George Will originally predicted that “Trump would be the most unpopular nominee ever… (he) would create down-ballot carnage sufficient to end even Republican control of the House… and guarantee a Supreme Court with a liberal cast for a generation.” After Trump was elected and the Republicans held Congress, did Will announce he’d been mistaken? He did not. Instead he announced his resignation from the Republican Party.

Trump has confounded Will’s nightmare predictions ever since. He’s guaranteed a conservative cast to the Supreme Court for a generation, and Republican fortunes for the midterm elections are rising. You might think this would make Will happy, but Will isn’t the happy sort. Besides, his opposition was never about the Supreme Court or losing the Congress. It was only about hating Trump. Will is now calling for Republicans to vote for Democratic candidates in 2018, figuring, probably, that a Democratic takeover of Congress will produce the disaster he has so often and wistfully predicted.

Former conservative Max Boot has joined Will in calling for Republicans to abandon their party. His Fourth of July column explains: “Like postwar Germany and Japan, the Republican Party must be destroyed before it can be rebuilt.” Why is such drastic action necessary? Because Trump’s Republican Party, according to Boot, “doesn’t even know what it stands for, and… in fact may stand for positions that I find repugnant.” Exactly like Hitler’s Germany and Tojo’s Japan.

Boot comes up with only one really repugnant position: eating babies. Citing Trump’s policy of separating children from parents who have illegally entered the country (a policy started by Obama and which Trump is addressing), Boot darkly warns: “If Trump announced he were going to spit-roast immigrant kids and eat them on national TV (apologies to Jonathan Swift), most Republicans would probably approve of that, too.” (Jonathan Swift wrote a satirical essay “A Modest Proposal” [1729] that suggested his fellow Irish could alleviate their poverty by selling their plump babies for the dinner tables of rich Englishmen.) Boot is trying to be satirical, but he lacks the Swiftian touch. His venom seems to ooze from his heart rather than his head.

A few weeks ago, Bill Maher suggested: “One way to get rid of Donald Trump is a crashing economy, so please bring on a recession. Sorry if that hurts people…” After fans went “apeshit,” (his word) the multi-millionaire explained, “A recession is a survivable event. What Trump is doing to this country is not.” Trump’s economy is booming, he admitted, but he compared it to hot sex with a girl you can’t stand. Again, it’s all about hating Trump.

Hatred destroys your soul. It also destroys your ability to think rationally, or write clearly, or laugh. And when your hatred so consumes you that you start praying for your fellow citizens to suffer, while pretending to be concerned for their welfare, you’re going to spark outrage.

That’s when you have to remind everyone that you’re just a comedian or a satirist, unless you’re George Will.