It seems like every day—because it is every day—that Donald Trump will say something so gross and offensive that one wants to say—and should say—“if a Democratic president had said that, the conservative media would have exploded in outrage and disbelief, following which they would have immediately demanded impeachment.” Of course, no one wants to sound like a broken thumb drive, and, anyway, such postings don’t garner traffic (believe me).
Which is all prelude to praising one conservative, Jay Nordlinger at the National Review, whose conscience hasn’t gotten numbed, corroded, and corrupted by convenience, the passage of time, and the fear of, well, sounding like a broken thumb drive.
When Reagan met with Gorbachev, he always handed the Soviet leader lists — lists of prisoners he was interested in. “Too many lists,” Gorbachev once complained. (To read Vladimir Kara-Murza on this subject, go here). If Trump handed Putin a list, it might include the names of Oleg Sentsov, Alexei Pichugin, Yuri Dmitriev, Alexander Shpakov, and Oyub Titiev.
Yesterday, President Trump called Putin “a great guy,” “a good person,” and “a terrific person.” I disagree (except in the long-ago meaning of “terrific”). I think he is a dictator who invades foreign countries, sows chaos in democracies, and kills his critics, both on Russian soil and on foreign soil.
Trump has called Kim Jong-un “a great leader,” “very talented,” “very honorable,” etc. He has called Xi Jinping “a great guy,” “a terrific guy,” etc. (Xi, remember, presides over a gulag of his own, and the stories grow more horrifying by the day. In the future, no one will be able to say, credibly, “Oh, we didn’t know!”)
Only a few years ago, the conservative movement would have been repulsed by comments such as these. I am of that movement. It is possible to engage in necessary diplomacy with tyrants without showering them with praise. Without demoralizing their victims. Conservatives were repulsed by President Obama when he did “the wave” with Raúl Castro at a baseball game. That seems a thousand years ago.
Every day, I’m told that I am a dinosaur, a nostalgist, a relic. I am told this by the Trump-Orbán Right and by segments of the Left, and they are probably right. But, as a conservative, I’m not necessarily fazed by these charges. I don’t have the feeling that tomorrow belongs to me.
Over at Slate, Fred Kaplan has some shrewd comments on Trump’s limitless vanity and his obvious wish that he could gratify it as openly as his best buds do. Fred notes in particular Trump’s habit of including daughter Ivanka in official meetings of heads of state and government as though he were Louis XIV. Jared Kushner in 2024, anyone?
