Hillary Clinton is really unpopular. People distrust her. So it means a lot when polls say that she beats Donald Trump by significant numbers, which should shake up those Republicans who seem to believe they can come to terms with their peculiar, unstable, unbalanced front-runner.
Trump’s assault on Heidi Cruz should make them think twice, thrice, and four times over about backing a man who seems to think that showing an unflattering shot of a good-looking woman next to a doctored years-old glamour shot of a professional model, who probably has had thousands of dollars of “work” done already, is the way to the hearts, minds and ballots of Middle America. He is not electable, he can never be normalized as he will never be normal, and he becomes more unhinged as the process continues. It makes you wonder if they’ve thought this thing through.
It makes you wonder if they’ve thought enough about his penchant for, encouragement of, and cultivation of violence, and the very real possibility that at any moment from now through July (and if we are very unlucky, from now till November), a truly serious and terrible incident can upend or shut down his campaign.
The candidate thinks a sucker punch is the proper response to a harmless hand gesture; the campaign manager is much too hands-on in his ways of crowd management; the campaign is a magnet for thugs of all colors, and the principal thinks his supporters might riot if he were not made the winner, in spite of not having acquired the settled-on number of votes.
Defenders say that since some acts are provoked this builds sympathy for him, but when bad things happen around a campaign people blame the campaign for it, and just want it over. This is heading in a direction that doesn’t look hopeful, and someone should think this thing through.
Someone should also think over the rather strange optics of running a candidate to be head of the country whom nobody wants to support. It’s clear already that the congressional leadership is planning to sever its campaign from the top of the ticket if Trump is the leader, one of the reasons for the movement to put a third line on the ballot, so people can vote for their members of Congress in a more-or-less sanitized manner, or without being forced to throw up.
It’s no coincidence that Trump’s supporters are from ultra-safe districts — i.e., Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. — or retired, washed-up, or with their futures behind them, like Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, (who may now regret this) and Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor may have been pushed off her rocker by her brutal reception, and seems to have made a wrong turn.
If Trump secures the nomination before the convention, look for people with futures to find things to do that coincide with the festivities, or at least those scheduled once the nominee hits the city. If he gets it at the convention, look for them to leave in a hurry as the last votes are cast. If there is a balloon drop, it will be the least-crowded podium ever, populated mainly by family members. (We know Chris Christie will take up half of the stage there, but still…) In the campaign itself, look for sitting governors and members of Congress to be called away suddenly when Trump hits their venues: In South Carolina, for instance, the governor and both senators are likely to not be at home. Just things to consider when wondering whether or not to throw in with the Trumpster. Someone should think these things through.
Noemie Emery, a Washington Examiner columnist, is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and author of “Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families.”
