I don’t hear much introspection from Dennis Prager about how he totally missed the rise of Donald Trump, how he never expected Trump to dominate the race. This column doesn’t get it. Trump’s stand is on nationalism, protecting America from unfair trade and from illegal immigrants. Ill advised tweets are not that important.
Dark Enlightenment tweets: “The late great @LawrenceAuster called Prager “the silliest man in America”, he continues to live up to that moniker.”
Dennis Prager writes March 31, 2016:
I have said from the outset that I would vote for Donald Trump if he is the Republican candidate. I am contemptuous of much of what he does, I don’t trust what he says, and I have no reason to believe he holds conservative values, but . . .
The “but” is that if he is the Republican nominee, he will be the only alternative to the Left’s further ruining America for another four years — and really for much more than four years, because with two or three more left-wing Supreme Court justices, the Left won’t need to win the presidency or Congress in order to “fundamentally transform the United States of America,” as candidate Barack Obama promised in 2008. With a left-wing Supreme Court, the Court will transform America by simply legislating from the bench; leftist jurists regard their role as promoting “social justice,” not judging according to the rules of justice and within the constraints of the Constitution. As far as domestic policy is concerned, with a left-wing Supreme Court, the presidency and the Congress will become irrelevant. Because I can chew gum and walk at the same time, I can vote for Donald Trump in the general election while at the same finding much of what he does and says unacceptable. As I explain to all those who ask, between a Republican I don’t want and a Democrat I don’t want, I will vote for the Republican I don’t want…
Having said that, whenever I begin to hope that Trump, even if he continues to act indecently, will at least begin to act intelligently as the possibility of his being nominated approaches reality, he does something so stupid that my heart sinks again.
His latest outrage was a tweet with a photo of his wife looking like the beautiful model she is next to an unflattering photo of Ted Cruz’s wife (who, as it happens, in a similarly professionally posed photo, would look very attractive) with the caption (in caps): “THE IMAGES ARE WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.” Yes, I know Trump did this in reaction to an utterly objectionable Facebook ad by a pro-Cruz PAC targeting Utah voters featuring a nude GQ model photo of Melania Trump from 16 years ago (five years before she married Trump).
Nevertheless, any man who feels compelled to announce to the world that his wife is more beautiful than another man’s wife combines meanness, immaturity, and insecurity. But it is a lack of intelligence — or, if you will, intelligent judgment — that may actually most stand out in his sending out that tweet to humiliate Heidi Cruz. Does he give any thought at all to winning the general election? It would seem that he doesn’t. Because if he did, he would understand what everyone except his most fervent supporters understands — that such a tweet repulses most Americans, both male and female.
How would Trump respond if an aide asked him, “Donald, do you think that tweet will help convince an undecided voter to vote for you?” The answer is that Trump apparently has few or no aides who would ask such a question. In fact, at least with regard to foreign policy, Trump has boasted about consulting with himself. As Politico reported: “Asked on MSNBC’s Morning Joe who he [Trump] talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded, ‘I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.’”
In addition to meanness, immaturity, and personal insecurity, the my-wife-is-more-beautiful-than-your-wife tweet revealed that Trump either is not very intelligent or lacks intelligent judgment. And the latter is actually more disconcerting than the former. The argument that only a very bright man could have been such a successful businessman only reveals the understandable fact that few Americans have ever interacted with billionaires. Very bright billionaires exist, but they are no more common than very bright professors or plumbers or doctors. I don’t know what Ted Cruz’s chances are of winning the general election. But he won’t come close to losing 50 states. With more tweets like this, Donald Trump could. Proving that intelligence without intelligent judgment is worthless.
