"Right" by Accident

If there is anything I'd like Republicans to learn from this election, which I hope doesn't end with Donald Trump in the White House, its to quit being worried about currying favor with leftists. Lifelong Democrat and Pragmatist loose cannon Donald Trump accidentally provided a good example of what this might look like some time ago, when he turned down an "invitation" to appear before the NAACP:

Give Mr. Trump credit, however, for not doing something that too many Republican presidential candidates before him have done, only to have it blow up in their face. When the NAACP asked Mr. Trump to address its annual convention last month, he declined. Good for him. Giving speeches to civil-rights groups like the NAACP isn't effective black outreach. It's a setup. Blacks open to Republicanism aren't likely to be found at NAACP gatherings, which are thinly disguised Democratic political rallies. And younger blacks who might be interested in hearing out the GOP have little use for the NAACP. Republicans who try to reach black voters by going through the civil-rights establishment have nothing to gain, unless they like to watch footage of black people booing them on CNN. [bold added]

As erratic as Trump is, however, calling this a good move is dubious, for that would entail having something other than whim or a sort of animal-like cunning behind it. The Wall Street Journal provides good reasons, but even if they were directly quoting The Donald, ascribing those motives to him would be like ascribing knowledge to something a parrot said that happened to sound like a truth. So, perhaps I misspoke: In the future, I'd like Republicans to do what the Wall Street Journal was pretending Donald Trump did.

-- CAV