Seth Masket argues persuasively that we should judge parties by who they nominate, not by who runs. After all, anyone can run, even a carnival barker cretin like Donald Trump. I basically agree, but I also think Jonathan Bernstein makes a good point:
Seth Masket at Mischiefs of Faction is correct: Parties define themselves through their nominations, including the part where they reject some candidates. But it’s also true that Republicans have been teaching their voters for at least 40 years to respond to what Donald Trump is selling.
Yep. The party elders may not like Trump, but he’s the price they pay for the devil’s bargain they made years ago to aggressively go after the angry white guy vote. Eventually the perfect AWG candidate was going to come along, and it was never likely to be pretty when it happened. And it isn’t.
