Damage of derangement

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote a column this week about the damage, as a “Never Trumper” sees it, wrought by the 45th president.

He began by telling of a secret meeting between a Never Trumper group of conservative writers and outgoing President Obama, and then admitted that all the wildly exaggerated worries they expressed about a Trump presidency were baseless.

Considering that none of the litany of “unjustified fears about the consequence of his governance” — including thermonuclear war as a “plausible outcome” of his election — ever happened has convinced some of his fellow Never Trumpers that “there’s more than a touch of derangement to those of us who oppose him,” he wrote.

Stephens listed the Never Trumper cabal’s other failed predictions — a stock market crash, Russian control through blackmail, loss of free press and Trump-appointed judges trampling the rule of law — and they all sound laughable now. In some instances, the opposite happened. To unblinded-with-Trump-hate conservatives, they were laughable then, too.

Stephens himself remains proudly unrepentant. Despite the Never Trumper Chicken Littles being absolutely wrong about all their unfounded, sky-is-falling forecasts with Trump in the White House, Stephens argued that the main damage Trump caused was invisible. Specifically, he said Trump corroded social trust.

What Stephens discounts and ignores is the worse corrosion of trust caused by Never Trumpers.

“Conservative Never Trumpers” was always an oxymoron. To prefer an ultra-liberal or -leftist over Trump was never anything but a blatant betrayal of conservative values. It elevated personal antipathy to the man occupying the office above principled protection and preservation of the office itself.

It was, as Stephens relayed, a professional dereliction that allowed irrational subjective hostility to prevail at a time when what the country needed most was rational determination to try and help Trump be a better president than anyone thought he could be.

Understandably, Never Trumpers downplay the damage they wrought. As if Trump’s blustery tendency to over-exaggerate (like many politicians) excused their declarations of absurd hyperbole in order to unjustly inflame public fears of him.

Voters didn’t have to like Trump to oppose Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. The “Never” designation applies naturally across ideology. Never Trump Democrats are normal, just as Never Obama Republicans were, just as Never Jefferson Federalists and Never Hamilton Democratic-Republicans were.

The supreme political treachery — defined as the truest and most deceitful betrayal of trust — was carried out by conservative Never Trump writers who put hatred of Trump ahead of love for and fidelity to conservative doctrine.

They abandoned truthful opposition as insufficient, and put their emotional distaste ahead of their objective obligation, which was not only a bad example to set, but also a shameful sabotage of trust. Once conservatives can no longer trust their leading writers as vocal loyalists to principle, that leads to the very destruction of social trust Stephens wants to blame on Trump.

Consorting with the political and ideological enemy will have consequences. Stephens disingenuously dismisses that Trump was “easily kept within the four corners of our constitutional system” as a valid reason for Never Trumpers to confess their derangement.

But Never Trumpers always knew a president does not enjoy unilateral powers; our Constitution’s checks and balances ensure that, for Trump and every other president. Stephens capably pointed out how Congress, the courts, the bureaucracy, the press and the electorate all mitigated expressed presidential goals in Trump’s case. That always happens, as less deranged conservative writers argued at the time.

The compromises necessitated by our check-and-balance system are the core strength of the republic. The deep harm caused by subversive conservatives in the shallow name of Never Trumpism goes to the root of integrity in that system. Their Trump blinders basically forced them to believe — and to try and convince all conservatives — that no ridiculous or irresponsible liberal idea could be worse than a Trump presidency.

We’ll soon find out about that.

Perhaps most dreadful of all, leading Never Trumper writers foisted the most vile form of ad hominem divisiveness upon their readership. Directing criticism solely against a person rather than the position or opinion being maintained invites descent into viciousness on all sides of any argument.

The anti-Trump vitriol might have died out from its own partisanship, as following previous elections, had Never Trumpers not poured gas on the fire. They didn’t merely allow the unprecedented, unfairly biased media treatment of a president, they encouraged it with glee.

Trump’s list of conservative achievements is substantial, like him personally or not. Conservatives should appreciate that Stephens is finally coming clean about how misleading Never Trumpers were with their harebrained hyperbole. But when you throw the game against your own team, public regret after the fact doesn’t undo the damage.

Conservative Never Trumpers who are not more innately ardent Never Bideners are political narcissists. Their self-absorbed, seismic distrust of conservative voters is a far greater destructive social breach than Trump’s, or anyone’s, individual unlikable traits.

It’s refreshing that some Never Trumpers have owned up to their derangement. But it’s the opposite of admirable that they gave in to it in the first place.

Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.