Post editorial:
Not a week goes by when Donald Trump doesn’t demonstrate he is unfit to be president.
Is the Republican Party facing a crackup if Donald Trump secures the nomination? It sure looks like a possibility given recent statements from some prominent party members and office- holders.
And yet Trump has moved a step closer to his goal with his victories on Super Tuesday.
At the very least Trump will end up leading a fractured party in which a number of well- known leaders repudiate their supposed standard- bearer.
Well, good for them. They will be putting their self- respect ahead of partisan impulses.
After all, not a week goes by when Trump doesn’t demonstrate he is unfit to be president because of his character, temperament and lack of knowledge— never mind his often lurid, simplistic policy positions. His weekend gaffe in refusing to repudiate David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper— and then blaming it on a “bad earpiece”— is only the latest in a staggering line of pratfalls that would have ruined any other candidate.
Just last week he pledged to “open up libel laws and we’re going to have people sue you [ the press] like you’ve never got sued before.” Has there ever been a candidate who so openly pledged to retaliate against critics? Trump makes Richard Nixon seem like a model of meek forgiveness.
But why should anyone be surprised? From denying that John McCain is a war hero, to praising Vladimir Putin, to his vulgar mocking of Megyn Kelly and Hillary Clinton ( on multiple occasions), to citing inflammatory and false crime statistics regarding blacks and immigrants, as well as ludicrously high unemployment figures, to embracing torture and bogus stories from the past ( see Black Jack Pershing, among others), to his falsehoods regarding 9/ 11 and the run- up to the Iraq war, Trump is an unending font of misinformation and clownishness.
And as the prospect of his nomination grows, some principled Republicans are saying count me out, or at least refusing to say they’ll support the nominee. The most eloquent is the conservative Sen. Ben Sasse, R- Neb., who in an open letter to Trump supporters said he could not support the businessman because, among other things, of his “relentless focus is on dividing Americans, and on tearing down rather than building back up this glorious nation.” Sasse noted Trump’s authoritarian streak and how he “displays essentially no understanding of the fact that, in the American system, we have a constitutional system of checks and balances.”
Among others who are balking are former Sens. Mel Martinez, R- Fla., and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Trump “simply lacks the character, skills and policy knowledge to turn his grandiose promises into reality,” Coburn said.
The sooner other Republicans repulsed by Trump make similar statements, the greater the chance he might still be stopped, despite lengthening odds.
Last year Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner called Trump a “buffoon,” and Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican from Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, said Trump “should withdraw from the presidential race. He is a fraud.” Surely they wouldn’t support a buffoon or fraud if he’s nominated. If not, they should say so now.
The U. S. political system is remarkably stable, with the same two political parties dominant since the mid- 19th century. And the two- party system is likely to survive the temporary debasement of a GOP nomination of Donald Trump. But it would be better for all concerned if events don’t lead the nation there.