The Clowns Are Firmly In Charge

Michael Gerson: “Apart from the ethics of the matter, there is a political case to be made for the firm repudiation of dangerous crackpots. As a rule, such people are easy to motivate and organize because they are, well, dangerous crackpots. But American political movements — conservatives in the 1950s and ’60s, liberals in the ’60s and ’70s — suffered from public identification of their cause with radicalism. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton succeeded, in part, by getting beyond scary ideological caricatures of their parties. Does McCarthy really want to fight his campaign for the suburbs with Greene as the face of the GOP?”

“It was beyond good luck that Republicans, after the Capitol assault, were given some dramatic ways to break with violent, anti-democratic radicalism. They had the opportunity to strongly repudiate Greene. And they could convict Trump of inciting an uprising. Now it seems likely that Republicans will throw these chances away. The clowns, it appears, are firmly in charge.”