Trump’s win and his new challenge

He cannot mathematically clinch it for another month, but he knocked Ted Cruz out of the race with Tuesday night’s landslide. Only John Kasich is left, looking increasingly peculiar as he battles on, holding out long after everyone else recognized that he had no chance.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, responded quickly by calling on his party members to unite behind Trump. The leader of “the establishment,” if there is one, has thus accepted what has become inevitable.

So Trump has won an historic and astonishing victory, demolishing every other candidate after entering the race last summer with only 1-2 percent support and with most people assuming he would fade quickly and ignominiously.

We have repeatedly warned Republican voters that Trump lacks the temperament and judgment needed in the Oval Office, and that the most powerful job in the world is not one to confer upon a man who manifestly lacks self-restraint as badly as he does.

At the same time, Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has proven herself at least as unfit for the presidency as Trump. This judgment goes beyond the many substantive disagreements we have with her worldview. It is, rather, that she is pathologically dishonest. She has repeatedly and demonstrably lied not only during this campaign, but also during decades in public life.

She frames herself as a champion of women, despite having assassinated the character of respectable women who suffered from her husband’s sexual predations. She has deposited into her own personal bank account, and those of her foundation and her campaign, the fat checks of every pernicious special interest, both foreign and domestic. She thinks herself above the laws that govern everyone else, most recently those laws relating to government transparency and the protection of national secrets.

It would be a relief if Trump were to offer a better alternative, but he has presented precious little evidence that he is either willing or able to do that. And this isn’t about his deviations from conservatism on trade, abortion, gun rights, or any other specific issue, although these matter a lot. It’s his personal lack of impulse control and good judgment. Trump’s behavior gives serious pause to all people of good will.

Even on the eve of his nomination victory, Trump embraced yet another kooky conspiracy theory, this time about Cruz’s father being involved in the Kennedy assassination, of all things. He has spent much of this campaign season spreading ignorance to supporters over-eager to listen. He has taken naturally conservative voters and led them to stray from noble ideals.

We still want what is best for America. We love this country, and because we want America to succeed, we want its presidents to succeed. That doesn’t mean we want them to get all the items on their policy wish list, which frequently are folly (as President Obama has shown). What it means is we want the country properly led and respected, and believe Americans are owed the opportunity to choose a serious candidate.

So at the very least, Trump owes it to the country he boasts he will “make great again” to try to demonstrate some seriousness about the office he seeks. He owes this even to those who will never consider voting for him. He can start by swearing off grand displays of aggressive and apparently deliberate ignorance. This is not too much to ask, just as it is not too much to ask Clinton not to cash checks from shady Russian banks connected to Vladimir Putin.

These are difficult times. This great country of 320 million people will likely have to choose between two of the most deeply flawed and disliked candidates ever to present themselves for election. Clinton has proven herself unworthy of the office she seeks. And Trump has not proven himself remotely worthy. He owes Americans, including those who will not ultimately support him, his best effort to do so.