Trump’s victory would be something else altogether. In part because a Trump victory would, by definition, involve the defeat of nearly every certainty in America’s political culture. That, I might enjoy. The status quo deserves a major upset. But I would be very nervous…

Trump’s great political advantages are his shamelessness, his ignorance, his touchy ego, and his complete freedom from the norms of our political culture. These traits made him dangerous to other Republicans when Trump was just one candidate among many. And they would make him dangerous to his countrymen if he were invested with the awesome powers of the presidency. Without the constraints of party orthodoxy, without the restraint of personal shame, we would be electing a man with a hyper-sensitive personality and little working knowledge of government to lead the most important nation on Earth.

I’m still the sort of conservative who thinks it wrong to knowingly elect people of low and base character to high offices. But the most important reason I’ll be nervous if Trump wins is this: His victory will invite foreign rivals to challenge the United States, and I simply don’t want the man who goes to DEFCON 1 on TV rivals like Rosie O’Donnell to be the person who actually gets to command our armed forces to go to DEFCON 1.