From The Washington Post, what’s happening in America? David Maraniss and Robert Samuels on the great unsettling. Michael Horton on the theology of Donald Trump: Four words that reveal what his followers really believe. Donald Trump is mainstreaming bigoted ideas — that’s what makes him so terrifying. We should just call it what it is: Donald Trump is the leader of the White Lives Matter movement — “So where the 2008 election seemed like shocking proof of how non-racist we were, the pendulum has now swung back hard and 2016 is shocking proof of how racist some of us still are”. Part of the reason we have Trump today is that Obama set the table by dividing the country so completely; maneuvering so as to pit Americans against one another. Chaos in the family, chaos in the state: Kevin Williamson on the white working class’s dysfunction. Paul Krugman on the Republican elite’s reign of disdain.
Can we please retire the notion that Donald Trump is hijacking the Republican Party? There was no establishment after all. Republican voters are spoiling Paul Ryan’s dream of a grand triumph for conservatism. Hans Noel on why some conservatives want to stop Donald Trump at all costs: Saving their party might be worth letting Hillary Clinton win the presidency. Don’t expect Trump to break up the GOP: Why Republicans aren’t going to risk destroying a party that’s on the verge of complete political domination because a billionaire is exposing the white identity politics that have been so successful in subtler forms for the Right. The electoral college could still stop Trump, even if he wins the popular vote: Maybe — just this once — state legislators should use their constitutional authority and change how we elect the president.