I am obliged to confess I should sooner live
in a society governed by the first two thousand
names in the Boston telephone directory
than in a society governed by the two thousand
faculty members of Harvard University.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
If Donald Trump may be said to have achieved anything this dismal campaign season, it surely is this: He has killed that sentimental con about the ‘wisdom of the people.’
An awful lot of the people, ladies and gentlemen, are vicious, amoral, short-sighted idiots who want only to jab a thumb in their betters’ eyes (evangelicals fall overwhelmingly into this group) — no matter the cost. Thus Trump, who has offered only insults — and not yet even one serious policy proposal.
America has been here before. Recall H.L. Mencken’s magisterial dismissal of William Jennings Bryan.
He was born with a roaring voice, and it had the trick of inflaming half-wits. His whole career was devoted to raising those half-wits against their betters, that he himself might shine.
And that, really, is everything that needs to be said about Trump.