On Trump’s Befuddling Hold on the GOP and the Fizzling of the ‘Never Trump’ Movement

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Feb 19, 2024

French shifted to the world of punditry from what he describes as a “conservative Christian law firm” with credentials so solid that he was recruited by conservative editor William Kristol to run against Trump in 2016, but later dropped out.

I was disappointed because, even though he’s more conservative than I am, I share his desire to see both parties offer candidates with his level of thoughtful ideas and concern for such old-fashioned, time-tested qualities as character.

Understandably outraged by what he saw as the scandal-plagued presidency of Bill Clinton, he wanted to see a return to the values promoted by former President Ronald Reagan.

I was gratified by his realization that he and his fellow Republicans did not understand their own party because I so often have said the same about Democrats.

If David French and I have lost touch with what’s going on with the rank and file in our parties, Donald Trump appears to have the keen grasp of a master salesman. He gives the people what they want — or at least what they think they want after he sells it to them.

Barack Obama offered us “the audacity of hope,” as he titled his autobiography. Trump offers us the audacity of a pitchman, with the entertainment value of a traveling medicine show mixed in.

Viewed that way, one begins to understand why he has been able to brush off the indictments and other scandals that would have crippled more conventional campaigners. By recasting his own narrative as that of an earnest advocate for ordinary folks against the rich and politically connected, he bestows a new feeling of importance to his adherents: “When you see them coming after me, you know they’re coming after you.”

Frankly, I think it’s quite a stretch to view his indictments and lawsuits alleging fraud, sexual assault and insurrection, among other charges, as akin to coming after me — or anybody other than him. But, as I said, he’s a heck of a salesman.

And that’s what the current presidential campaign is becoming: a grand drama of dueling versions of reality, with us, the voters, sitting in the jury box, hoping to witness some semblance of justice.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)