THE STRONGMAN TEMPTATION

It is unseemly if not downright impious (in Lent) for me to take such joy in George Will's explosion of bitterness and anger at the fruit of the Republican Party's decades long project to win elections in the short term by crafting a base that has so little interest in facts or history that they can be so successfully taken by an evil clown with the complicity of a corporate media that has devolved from the news business to the entertainment business and, apparently, now the prostitution business.

One of my arch adversaries (and friends), Adam Graham, said - quite prophetically in my opinion -- something to the effect that politicians and the media are offering us bread and circuses, with Sanders promising the bread and Trump providing the circus.

The partisan liberal in me enjoys this very much (TOO much, to be honest), but the Christian and American part of me is joining with Will and rooting for Trump's downfall.

Even - and maybe especially - though the Republicans created this penultimate apocalypse for themselves and the nation (will talk about Democratic complicity another time), the Republican Party is - ideologically - too big to fail. :-)

And, given the choice between a revival of the coalition of social conservatism, small government, and commercial interests in the Republican Party and Trumism: I may never again vote Republican again but I prefer the devil I know (and occassionally even admire in a John McCain, a Lindsay Graham, a Charlie Dent, a Peter King, and the like) than the devil's pay toy to be the possessor of the nuclear football.

For, in my opinion, it is a better outcome for the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as the well-being of American democracy and a world that is watching us closely to have a functional party in opposition to the Democrats and have that party not be, in essence, a NEW party created by Trump characterized by an ultra-nationalism, an irresponsible populism, and a personality cult that promises to undo the dictum that America is a rule of law, not men.

Tagging another conservative friend, David Oatney, in the hope he'll not be too displeased.

#DumpTrumpInTheTrumpster

Donald Trump relishes wrecking the GOP (Washington Post)