By Jonah Goldberg
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
‘You can do anything. Grab them by the [genitals]. You
can do anything.”
That was Donald Trump explaining to Billy Bush of Access Hollywood what it’s like “when
you’re a star” in the now-infamous hot-mic incident eleven years ago. The
remarks have been somewhat misunderstood by Trump critics and defenders alike.
The defenders want to claim this was mere “locker-room
talk,” as Trump insisted on the debate stage Sunday night. Well, I can report
with confidence that men in locker rooms typically don’t confess to sexually
assaulting married women — and striking out!
Meanwhile, critics want to focus, understandably, on the
assault part. But what I think is more revealing is what Trump needs to brag
about. Again, he’s not boasting about a successful conquest; he’s preening
about what a star he is — because that’s what matters most to Trump: being a
star.
And considering how he’s treated the GOP, he just might
be right about what a star can get away with.
Trump entered Republican politics the way a celebrity
enters a nightclub: He skipped the line. He never put in the time, effort, or
thought required to be a presidential candidate. And rather than tell him to
hit the bricks, the bouncers lifted the red rope and said, “Have a good time,
Mr. Trump,” because he was a star.
More than that, he was a star of what some call the
“entertainment wing” of the conservative movement, a wing that has grown so
steroidal in recent years that it’s become an oversized deformity, forcing the
movement to fly in circles.
Indeed, despite his near-constant (occasionally accurate)
whining about how he’s been treated unfairly, Trump has mostly benefited from a
slew of double standards. His thumbless grasp of public policy, conservative
philosophy, religious teachings, English, and basic manners would have
prevented a normal person from considering a run. Even his biggest fans concede
that he says things that would disqualify a typical candidate. As the cliché
goes, he defies the laws of political gravity. Well, that’s because stars don’t
bend to our gravity, we bend to theirs.
All of this was obvious over a year ago. But few in the
GOP were willing to take on Trump, the entertainers and their combined
audiences, until it was too late. Trump’s popularity on the right increased,
and with it the need to accommodate the star’s demands. The process became
catalytic. With every fresh outrage, the need to make allowances became more
acute.
“A man may take to drink because he feels himself a
failure,” George Orwell noted, “but then fail all the more completely because
he drinks.”
So, too, with political parties. The GOP took to Trump
because of its failures and failed all the more because it took to Trump. In
August, I wrote: “Republican candidates at this stage have no excuses to offer
if they decide to repudiate Trump other than naked self-interest.” It turns out
I was wrong. The “grab them” tape was shocking enough that many discovered
their integrity, insisting that this transgression was so much worse than all
the others.
But others waited. Governor Mike Pence went into hiding,
searching for bits of his soul like lost change in the couch cushions. If Trump
imploded on the debate stage or Hillary Clinton delivered the fatal blow, the
decision would have been made for them. Neither happened. He gave a strong
performance (albeit while lying relentlessly and vowing that under a President
Trump, Clinton would be in jail).
Trump’s base loved it, oblivious to the fact that he
needs more than his base to win. And once again, conservatives who’ve made a
career thumping their chests or their Bibles about the importance of character
and morality found themselves making excuses for a man who personifies everything
they claimed to oppose. It seems the moral arc of many Republicans is short and
bends toward celebrity. Such is the gravitational pull of a star.
“If you’ve got ’em by the balls, their heart and mind
will follow,” LBJ famously observed. It turns out he was right, even if in this
case the anatomical analogy is slightly off.
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