A Mexican standoff is a confrontation between two or more parties in which no participant can proceed or retreat without being exposed to danger. As a result, all participants need to maintain the strategic tension, which remains unresolved until some outside event makes it possible to resolve it. – Wikipedia
Who wins if Donald Trump loses?
President Donald Trump faces the fight of his professional life mere weeks into his administration. The Left hopes, in the way a child wishes for a pony for her birthday, that the conclusion to the matter of The Donald will be a Trump impeachment and, hopefully, banishment to somewhere far away as vengeance for having the temerity to win against Her Royal Highness Hillary Clinton.
That Trump’s political opposition hate him and fight against him is one thing. George W. Bush wasn’t a legitimate president either, remember? The Supreme Court stole the election from Al Gore. It was years of Bush McHitler.
This time it’s different and worse. The President offends not only the political opposition but the professional political class on his own side. (They’d say that he’s not their side. He’s no conservative or Republican.) He is an affront to all that’s good and decent.
Therefore, President Trump must lose. Who wins, though?
If one asks Ross Douthat or David Frum, America wins. America escapes the ravenous maws of a crazy man who could lead America to its doom. This isn’t politics. This is principle. This is existential.
To save America, 66 million votes may need to be nullified. For the greater good.
The elites, sure of their position, are opening up about their superiority. Here’s David Frum being spiteful:
Everyone who joined this voyage of the damned knew exactly who and what they had volunteered to serve https://t.co/IHkktXgvJf
— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 18, 2017
The piece de resistance comes from Ross Douthat, a writer whose work I normally admire. The other day, though, he revealed the essence of the argument: Who is allowed to wield political power? (Hint: It’s not an outsider. It’s certainly not the voter.)
7. But what, in the end, are elites for? What justifies their existence? Some sort of wisdom that the vox populi can lack.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) May 17, 2017
20. But it harnesses a central *use* of an elite – their ability to respond swiftly to a situation the public as a whole can’t reckon with.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) May 17, 2017
25. So perhaps elites should act like elites, and then set about rectifying through appropriate policy means the failures that led to Trump.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) May 17, 2017
These three tweets are a highlight and a response to Charles Cooke’s criticism of Douthat’s piece Monday that recommended using the 25th Amendment to oust Donald Trump. That this idea is threatens the foundation of the Republic – that voters, the electoral college, and the system they legally used can be subverted by Elites Who Know Better™ – is lost on Douthat and the power brokers.
By Douthat’s own definition, the elites should know better. That they don’t proves Trump voters right. The elites know lots and perform horribly, something that Douthat admits. Yet despite the elites’ myriad failures, Douthat asserts, more power should be vested in them.
Douthat is finding agreement in strange places — conservative places.
Social conservatives like Erick Erickson are defending White House leakers. Erick portrays the leaker as motivated by a need to get President Trump’s attention because he won’t listen behind closed doors. This person must save the Republic by leaking the very dangerous information that Trump supposedly told the Russian Ambassador. Again, this person did more damage to national security, the office of the President, and America than Trump did. But it was for our good, trust him.
Jay Cost asked why anyone on the Right would defend President Trump at this point. It’s all downside.
Except that the controversy surrounding President Trump isn’t just about him. Unless and until he breaks the law and is convicted, the hearsay and innuendo are political tools to bring down a duly elected President. He won fair and square. As much as many might hate him, he is still the president. Undoing the will of 66 million voters will have consequences.
A prosecutor has been called to investigate the Russia business. “Former FBI Chief Mueller is respected.” “He’ll get to the bottom of it.” The problem is, a prosecutor never should have been called. This is another damaging blow to the Republic and no one seems to see or understand why.
What started as a fever-swamp fantasy is turning into elitist tyranny.
Who loses if President Trump loses the Mexican standoff? Everyone.