Without rhyme or reason

If a hip-hop artist had even fawned over Barack Obama by spouting some drivel about “dragon energy,” right-wing culture cops would’ve ridiculed him relentlessly as another vacuous celebrity who should shut up and rap. When Kanye West drools over President Trump, Republicans raise the roof and all but proclaim the dawn of a new era.

West has every right to back whomever he pleases, as does any celebrity or any American. The Democratic Party isn’t owed black votes.

But we ought to judge political endorsements on Twitter not by the color or fame of their avatar, but by the content of their characters.

And to date, West has done nothing but show off photos of a signed Make America Great Again hat while muttering a few things about “moving in love.”

“I love everyone,” he wrote, which suggests he might enthusiastically support anyone.

The West-Trump flirtation should surprise no one; the two are vainglorious mirror images. West always has something to sell. He’s speculated about running for President. He’s married into America’s biggest reality-show family. But why should other Republicans lap this up? West became an enemy of the right during a Hurricane Katrina telethon, declaring, “George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

Bush’s ineptitude in the handling of the storm aside, it was a viciously unfair and divisive assertion at which Republicans rightly bristled.

Their rush to hug him now is as shallow as it is transparently opportunistic.