A Republican Party of emotions, not ideas

To translate, in order: 1) Win, 2) Permanently incarcerate without due process, 3) Erase restrictions on killing, 4) Talk tougher and back it up, 5) Lead, and 6) Use different words. These aren’t policies, they’re authoritarian slogans (with a little editing aspiration thrown in). And in many cases, they were the closest thing to constructive suggestions given through the whole speech.

This collection should give many people pause, starting with a thing that exists (at least as a LewRockwell.com headline) called “Libertarians for Trump.” I know those people don’t take advice from the likes of me, but one would hope seeing their new political crush flanked by Rudy Giuliani and the Great Neoconservative Hope might talk them out of the fantasy that the belligerent foreign-policy naif is “the peace candidate.”

Beyond those margins tonight’s performance was a near-perfect illustration of—and maybe even test case for—Business Insider Senior Editor Josh Barro’s perceptive tweet in February that, “Most voters don’t have opinions about policies. They have feelings about issues.” What mattered most in Quicken Arena tonight was not solutions about anything much at all, but rather that President Barack Obama is “a weak, spineless president who is more concerned about issuing apologies than in protecting Americans” (Mike Flynn), that he’s guilty of “leading from behind” (most everyone else), and even that he might have his fingerprints on some Malevolent Design, at least according to Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas)…