Erudite conservative syndicated columnist George Will criticized Donald Trump when he ran for president for his “comprehensive disdain for conservative essentials,” calling on Republicans to keep him out of the White House.
Now, Will has taken his disgust with Trump and the “Vichy” Republicans who support him to the next step in the wake of the Alabama Senatorial election debacle, declaring Trump the “worst president” in American history – taking that title away from the 17th President, Andrew Johnson, who after succeeding Abraham Lincoln survived an attempt by the House of Representatives to impeach him by a single vote.
When Will calls those who go along with whatever Trump wants “Vichy” Republicans, he is referring to the hated government in France during World War II that collaborated with the Nazis during their murderous occupation.
Will compares Republicans who support Trump, and like the president embraced the accused child molester Roy Moore as the Republican candidate for the Senate, to those Nazi collaborators who abandoned not just morality and the law but also the values that conservatives have preached in years prior to last January.
“Moore has been useful as a scythe slicing through some tall stalks of pretentiousness,” Will writes in an opinion article for The Washington Post.
“The self-described ‘values voters’ and ‘evangelicals’ of pious vanity who have embraced Trump and his Alabama echo have some repenting to do before trying to reclaim their role as arbiters of Republican, and American, righteousness.”
“We have, alas, not heard the last form them,” adds Will, “but henceforth the first reaction to their ‘witness’ should be resounding guffaws.”
In the wake of Moore’s loss to Democrat Doug Jones, Will says that “Elation is in order because a gross national embarrassment has been narrowly avoided.”
He follows that with a warning that echoes his decision to leave the Republican party and become a libertarian.
“Curb your enthusiasm because nationally, as in Alabama, most Republicans still support the president who supported the credibly accused child molester,” write Will.
“Alabama, however, has perhaps initiated the inevitable sorting of Republicans who retain a capacity for disgust from the Vichy Republicans who have none.”
“After the president’s full-throated support of the grotesque,” declares Will, “he should be icily shunned by all but his diehard collaborators.”
Among the collaborators who Will cites is Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen Bannon, now the head of the alt-right news site Breitbart once again. Bannon made frequent trips to Alabama first to help Moore win a tough primary fight and then to help in the election.
Will says that by joining Bannon’s “buffoonery on Moore’s behalf, the 45th president planted an exclamation point punctuating a year of hitherto unplumed presidential depths.”
Will never mentions any disagreement with Trump on his policies or bizarre claims like his refusal to accept the Russians interfered in the 2016 election, his regressive views on the environment and energy policy, or his destruction of the social safety network that since FDR has provided protection for the poor, the elderly, children and others in need.
The columnist’s disagreement with Trump seems to be about his values, and his abandonment of what once were rock solid Republican values like fighting for lower taxes, battling any rise in the national debt and his foreign policies which have turned American from a world leader that values human rights into a global laughing stock.
Will does note how quickly Trump has disrupted the government while shaping failed policies (that Will does not list) such as “trickle-down economics,” self-interest and protection and promotion of loyal courtiers whose only motivation is their own greed.
“He completed his remarkably swift – it has taken less than 11 months – rescue of the 17th, Andrew Johnson,” concludes Will, “from the ignominy of ranking as the nation’s worst president.”
We can share Will’s disgust with Trump, and his belief that the orange haired serial liar is worse at the job than any of his 44 predecessors, but we still can’t agree with Will’s views on the conservative policies that continue to promote the interests of business at the expense of people.
Conservative George Will On Why Pence Is A “Sycophantic Poodle” | The Be… https://t.co/S5DPxYfuQ8 via @YouTube
— Raul E. Blanco Lugo (@RaulEBlancoLug1) December 11, 2017
