To Measure Trump's Soul, Find It First

Better yet, save your time.

George Will -- having had trouble finding a column topic -- must have experienced greatly circumscribed and temporary relief upon recalling the meanness and busy-ness of the new Administration: He quickly filled his column with vignettes like the following:

Elon Musk, who, like Trump, confuses hyperactivity with achievement, is, like Trump, incapable of imagining how his incessant spouting off is making him smaller. When, last week, an X lunatic ("I know Barack Obama is a Kenyan") said, "It's time to leave NATO," Musk had time and inclination to respond: "I agree." Even while busily trying to erase mistakes made by the Constitution's framers (e.g., creating Congress and the separation of powers), Musk has time and inclination to notice and opine about everything, including the need to end history's most successful collective security organization.

Protectionism is another manifestation of Trump's courage. He has plucked from the air a number -- 25 percent seems to entrance him -- as a properly muscular way to (in Rubioese) "stand up for" America with tariffs against two of its economic tormentors. MAGA means protecting America (2024 GDP: $29.16 trillion) from Canada ($2.21 trillion) and Mexico ($1.84 trillion).

You get the same from any member of Trump's personality cult you encounter, in the form of being alerted (often obnoxiously) to his pronouncements -- or at unpredictable moments finding on your person a regurgitated mixture of those pronouncements and whatever after-the-fact "rationale" some obsequious conservative has fashioned as an "argument" in its favor.

But at the end of the day, it all boils down to Uhhh. Whatever Trump says. It's brain-dead, and I wonder why these people even try to communicate at all, since they obviously aren't able to (sometimes even to imagine) offering reasons based on the facts of reality as a means of helping anyone else get on board.

The piece starts with "Little" Marco Rubio and returns to him a few times. I once, ages ago, respected Rubio and wished he'd run for President. He was (or seemed to be) generally free-market and generally had a pro-American foreign policy.

On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump destroyed him with the nickname above, and he has more than earned it since. I have never been so shocked at how small a person has become (or turned out to be) since first encountering that person, and he frankly seems more and more by the day to be representative of the conservative movement overall.

Rubio's complete capitulation to Trump's anti-American foreign policy has still been shocking. Someone said, after an image of Rubio that seemed like it was of a man disgusted with himself captioned the image, "This is what a man who has sold his soul looks like." Robert Zubrin (if I recall correctly) improved upon this: "No, he gave it away for free."

The new Administration's blitzkrieg of horrible policies, petty behavior, and uncertainty have been somewhat disorienting, but the effect pales in comparison to the similar nonstop parade of disappointing sub-humanity that has come with it.

From the yes-men and hucksters Trump has surrounded himself with to the cowards -- Senator Cassidy, "M.D.", I always think of you, first -- who now form almost the entirety of the rest of the Republican Party, it has been a rude shock, but it is one those of us who value liberty must absorb as we adjust our aims and strategies.

(There are a few rare exceptions, but I am increasingly dubious of their prospects of doing much good.)

If the GOP ever was a friend to liberty, that friend is lingering at death's door.

-- CAV