Almost a half-century ago, the great Donald Westlake published a comic mystery novel, God Save the Mark. It’s probably not one of Westlake’s very best efforts (though even a Westlake non-best-effort is awfully good). The “mark” of the title is a reasonably intelligent and likable young man who happens to have one great weakness: He’s a perpetual sucker, an easy target, a credulous victim in a world full of con men and their scams.
I’m not going to spoil your enjoyment of the book by explaining how Fred Fitch, the mark, is saved from himself, though you won’t be surprised that—the title of the novel notwithstanding—God does not intervene on his behalf. Indeed, help comes not from the heavens above but rather from a this-worldly tough woman with a heart of gold named Gertie Divine.
The Republican party can’t count on Divine intervention of either sort to save it from Donald Trump, the con man who is the party’s presumptive nominee. Republican leaders now know they’ve been played for marks. They’ve awakened to the con. They no longer believe Donald Trump’s boast that “I can be more presidential than anybody”—which, as Matt Bai puts it, is like marrying a compulsive philanderer and believing him when he says, “I can be a totally faithful husband. You wait.” But surely there’s no need to wait any longer. After all, Trump himself said last week, “You think I’m going to change? I’m not changing.”
So the question is whether Republicans who’ve been gullible marks will change their ways. Paul Ryan has been a politician of great integrity. Is he going to continue to deceive himself that integrity is consistent with supporting Trump? John McCain has always prided himself on putting country first. Is he going to continue to try to convince himself that the well-being of the country is consistent with his Trump endorsement? Marco Rubio has spoken movingly about the American dream. Is he going to continue to close his eyes to Donald Trump’s assault on American principles?
And what about all the other Republican leaders who’ve been accommodating and justifying and excusing Donald Trump? Republicans have defended the rule of law against President Obama’s executive overreach. Is it less endangered by Donald Trump’s demagogic assault on Judge Gonzalo Curiel? Conservatives have powerfully made the case against identity politics. What purer instance of identity politics have we seen than Trump’s attack on a judge solely because of his parents’ country of origin? Dan Coats, the retiring Republican senator from Indiana and a decent and principled man, stood up Wednesday at the Republican senators’ private lunch and delivered an eloquent denunciation of Trump for his remarks about Judge Curiel. Why not make the same set of remarks in public?
How to go about liberating the party from the con man? Perhaps the delegates at the GOP convention will decide the Party of Lincoln shouldn’t be the party of marks. Perhaps a leading Republican will decide to run as an independent candidate to allow the voters not to be played as marks. Both paths are worth exploring.
But either path requires moving from laments to deeds, from complaints to actions, from taking cover to taking responsibility.
The late Donald Westlake isn’t around to write a satisfying ending to the story. Either today’s Republicans go down in history as hapless marks in a sad tale. Or they rise to the occasion, taking as their guide John F. Kennedy’s statement, one I suspect Westlake would have endorsed, that “here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”
