The basis of Trump’s campaign is not “conservatism,” it is the principle that you have to stand up for yourself. That’s what his whole campaign is about, I think: you have to stand up for yourself. Our politicians have to stand up for us. I don’t believe anyone has ever run a presidential campaign before based on this principle, and what Trump has done is to demonstrate exactly how powerful this is as an organizing principle for a political campaign…

Trump is implicitly saying that we have lost touch with certain values that used to characterize America, and that is absolutely true. It is always true; every generation loses touch with certain virtues from the past, then re-discovers those virtues only after the consequence of losing them becomes visible.

We have lost touch with the virtue of toughness. We despise toughness, not as individuals but as a collective, and we sympathize with whiners when we should ignore them. The consequences of this are becoming visible, and they will become more visible until we realize that toughness is a real thing, a real virtue, and that we need more of it.

The responsibility of our elected officials is to stand up for America, and we have had many failings in this regard. It is the responsibility of IBM officials to do what is best for IBM, and not to worry about how the people who run Microsoft feel about this. It is the responsibility of the NFL to do what is best for the NFL, and not to worry about what the NCAA thinks about this. It is the responsibility of the New York Yankees to do what is best for the New York Yankees, and not to worry about whether the Boston Red Sox fans are annoyed by this.