Last week, Hugh Hewitt was saying that he wanted the delegates to the RNC to rewrite the rules to deny Trump the nomination. I’m not sure I really support that myself, because I’m of the opinion that the Republican party should have to sleep in the bed that it’s made. But it was a bold position for Hewitt and it certainly made news.
Well, as of today, not only has Hugh changed his mind, but he’s decided to outright support Trump. His reasoning is a little mind-boggling:
What changed his mind? Trump’s speeches on Friday and Monday, addressing religious liberty at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference and responding to Orlando, Florida, attack, respectively. Hewitt wrote that Trump “has returned to a winning message and walled off the assorted ‘never Trump’ holdouts trying to upend his nomination.”
In the first place, Trump’s response to Orlando was awful. Only 25% of Americans approved of it which means a majority of Republicans and right-leaning independents hated it as well. In the second place, the idea that Trump really has any sort of meaningful core that respects religious liberty is kind of ludicrous, regardless of what he said when someone put it on a teleprompter in front of him. In the third place, most #NeverTrump people aren’t trying to upend Trump’s nomination – they’re just refusing to vote for him in the general. That said, Hugh’s entitled to his opinion on his points and if he thinks Trump is capable of doing something about them, more power to him. I always enjoy a good hopeless optimist.
But here’s where the wheels really came off:
“Trump’s task now is clear: It’s time to abandon his off-the-cuff remarks, disengage from his battles with the media and methodically prosecute the case that throughout her career, [Hillary] Clinton has consistently displayed a disqualifying lack of judgment,” Hewitt continued. “He needs to develop this argument, detail it and drive it home.”
This is basically echoing Peter King and a billion other people from the last week. What these people are asking Trump to do is to be something that he’s not. If he were capable of abandoning off-the-cuff remarks, disengaging from stupid battles with the media and methodically prosecuting any sort of case at all, he would not be Trump and many more people would be supporting him.
In other words, Hewitt and the rest still do not get it. Trump is what he is. He will never be what you want him to be. This hope that he’s capable of becoming a respectable candidate is a fantasy that people are clinging to in spite of an increasing mountain of evidence that it will not happen and it’s just not capable of happening.
Trump is more likely to turn into a literal pony than he is to turn into the person that Hugh Hewitt, Peter King et al want him to be. So while we are wishing for things that will never happen, why not wish for Trump to grow hooves and a tail so that we can all ride him around like a pony because that’s a lot more likely to happen than what Hewitt is advocating for now.
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