Tom Nichols, in case you don’t know him, is a professor at the Naval War College and the Harvard Extension School and the author of The Death of Expertise. Last year, Tom fired off a snappy little piece in The Federalist titled “I’ll Take Hillary Clinton Over Donald Trump.
As Tom tells it, that was not an easy decision:
“I think Hillary Clinton is one of the worst human beings in American politics. She has few principles that I can discern, other than her firm conviction that she deserves the Oval Office for enabling and then defending her sexually neurotic husband. She lies as easily as the rest of us breathe. She has compromised national security through sheer laziness at best, and corrupt intent at worst. If elected, she will enrich Wall Street and raid the public coffers while preaching hateful doctrines of identity politics to distract America’s poor and working classes.
“But Trump will be worse. Morally unmoored, emotionally unstable, a crony capitalist of the worst kind, Trump will be every bit as liberal as Hillary—perhaps more so, given his statements over the years. He is by reflex and instinct a New York Democrat whose formal party affiliation is negotiable, as is everything about him. He has little commitment to anything but himself and his “deals,” none of which will work in favor of conservatives or their priorities.
“His judicial appointments will likely be liberal friends from New York. His Great Wall of Mexico will never be built, and employers will go right on hiring cheap labor and outsourcing jobs, just as Trump does with his made-in-Mexico suits. His China Smoot-Hawley Tariff will never be implemented. His administration, led by a vulgar, aging man-child who is firmly pro-abortion, who jokes about having sex with his daughter, and brags about his wealth, will hurt the poorest and most vulnerable among us—including the unborn.”
Well, that was then. Now Tom sounds a little different, in a piece he wrote for the WashPost titled “Chill, America. Not every Trump outrage is outrageous”, that, among other things, catches Rachel Maddow (#notmyfavoriteliberalscold) in the act of being Rachel Maddow, on the way to arguing that we should, well, “chill”. Donald hasn’t been perfect, Tom admits, but his wrap-up is reasonably upbeat:
“Trump is, without doubt, the most unusual chief executive in American history. He has promised to do many things, some of which are almost certainly impossible and a few of which are probably unconstitutional. In the meantime, he won his election fairly — as determined by the electoral college and certified by Congress — and he is thus mandated to staff and run a superpower.
“Whether he will do so wisely or constitutionally remains to be seen, but the legitimate concerns of the president’s critics are not well served by attacking the normal functions of the executive branch merely because those powers are being exercised by someone they oppose.”
Got that, folks? He is “mandated to staff and run a superpower”. And maybe, just maybe, he could give old Tom a job.
Afterwords
I confess that I know nothing about Steve Bannon and all those other bad boys ripping it up in the Oval Office these days, but something tells me that they’re not the forgiving kind. Good luck to Tom, and special thanks to Fred Hiatt for giving old Tom’s career prospects, faint as they are, a boost!
