Clown Prince Donald

     My favorite newspaper, The Washington Post, says the rise of Donald Trump is "the most repugnant political phenomenon in recent American history."  The folks at The Post have been in high dudgeon over Trump for a while now. Along with other commentators, they are suffering an acute case of chagrin. According to political rules they  thought they knew, this Trump thing wasn't supposed to happen.
    By standards in the media world, The Post is reasonably good about maintaining arm's length from the people and events it covers. Still, we are all shaped by our environment. The Washington environment is full of political careerists, and political journalists who've reached a professional mecca. Together they make a caste whose members have more in common with each other than with the voters and readers they supposedly serve. Nowadays, these seasoned pros have a particular thing in common: A duplicitous buffoon has put egg on their faces.
     And how, in fact, did this happen?  The first parts of the answer are: Voter apathy, and vagaries of arithmetic in a Rube Goldberg primary system.  Trump gained momentum by running well in a splintered field of crackpots, opportunists and has-beens. Through March, a steady majority -- about 65 percent -- voted against him. That is, he "won" primaries with about 35 percent of the votes cast. And 80 percent of those eligible to vote didn't bother.
     Even most recently in Indiana, where his majority passed 50 percent, nearly half those who went to the polls voted against him. (And about three percent voted for candidates who had long since dropped out of the race.  When Chris Christie is finally through in New Jersey, maybe he can get work as a county official in Kokomo.)  Turnout data won't be available until May 17, when county election boards have filed their official reports.
     Still, results are results. The party of Lincoln is close to nominating a man who exhausts our vocabulary for comprehensive dishonesty.  A Trump presidency is extraordinarily unlikely.  But we already know that a Trump candidacy is a shame in every sense.  If he is the nominee, what follows won't be a proper and useful election campaign.  America will be betting national policy on the outcome of a knife fight.
     Expert commentators, ever game, say that Trump is destroying the Republican Party. I would say that the party was already well along toward destroying itself, with far-right bigotry and reckless indifference to the principled obligations of high office.  In any case, Trump may become clown prince of a political graveyard.
     Before the late 1960s, party conventions were the mainstay of candidate selection. But shenanigans discredited the Democratic National Convention of 1968.  The climate of attitude turned against decisions made in "smoke filled rooms."  Primary elections gained favor as a more democratic means of choosing nominees.
     In this year's menagerie of Republican hopefuls, several set out to exploit an inherent weakness in the primary system. They aimed to succeed by inflaming a cohesive faction. They didn't fear their cynicism would hurt them, because they knew that a whopping majority of voters were not paying attention. With his swindler's ethics, Trump proved to be the best exploiter.
     He and the likes of Ted Cruz did not invent the manipulative style of politics, alas. Years of partisan bickering in Congress have held up a vivid model. In it, voters need not be led if only they can be swayed.
     Perhaps coming to the brink with this profoundly corrupt man will move leaders and voters toward paying better attention to each other.