Because when Mr. Trump speaks about suspending Muslim immigration or “bombing the s—t” out of oil fields controlled by Islamic State, what supporters hear is this: I won’t let political correctness stand in the way of keeping America safe. And when Republicans respond by tut-tutting about how distasteful they find him—instead of showing why his argument is full of holes—they too come across as condescending, implicitly sharing the president’s belief that the knuckle-dragging American public just can’t handle the truth…

The point is, we do not need another lecture on tolerance from Las Vegas this Tuesday night. In the 14 years since hijackers shouting “Allahu akbar!” turned civilian aircraft into weapons of mass murder, the FBI statistics inform us that, notwithstanding some ugly incidents, we have had many more “hate crimes” against Jews than we have had against Muslims. So why no presidential lectures about America’s treatment of Jews?

In this terrible long war the real hallmark has been American decency: In San Bernardino, the colleagues whom Syed Farook gunned down had given him and his Muslim wife a baby shower a few months earlier. Not to mention the U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have given their lives defending Muslims from jihadists who seek to impose their sick rule on any Muslim who doesn’t share their understanding of Islam.

After seven years of a U.S. commander in chief who talks down to his fellow citizens, this nation is desperate for a president who has enough faith in the good sense of the American people to lay before them a strong foreign policy for fighting this war that sets out sensible objectives and doesn’t hide the costs.