The fact that Trump installs a pseudo-intellectual chauvinist like Steve Bannon onto the National Security Council is an assault on common sense, norms, and decency. But Trump also has James Mattis, Mike Pompeo, and other apparently competent cabinet picks that align well with prevailing Republican worldviews. Most cabinet members have nothing to do with Trumpism, yet Democrats act as if every selection is a fanatic. Take Trump’s education secretary, who believes parents should have some measure of choice rather than condemning their kids to a failed public school system. This is something that’s invigorating for a lot of movement conservatives and evangelicals. Why should they pick Chuck Schumer over Donald Trump?
Despite the views of Congress and most of his cabinet, Trump says waterboarding isn’t torture. This is troubling. Yet the Trump administration also makes a point to participate in the March for Life. If pro-lifers had to choose between Trump (a person they might find crass or offputting) and the Democratic Party, which now supports unlimited abortion on demand until the moment of birth, who will they choose?
Trump will blatantly lie about crowd sizes to ease his petulant ego, and it sounds insane. Trump promises to gut the Environmental Protection Agency, and signed an executive order requiring two regulations be revoked for every new one issued, which sounds fantastic. These things happen simultaneously.
From my perspective, Trump is neither presidential, competent, nor ideologically (or otherwise) coherent most of the time. The alternative doesn’t sound that great, either.
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