Deranged liberal critics give Trump a boost

London Times ^ | 10/11/2018 | Gerard Baker

[iowamark]

The Kavanaugh controversy has united Republicans as never before behind a president once viewed with deep suspicion.

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad, we are told by the ancients. Donald Trump is no one’s idea of a god but his ability to reduce his opponents to wailing, gibbering husks, like demented characters in a Greek tragedy, seems increasingly Olympian in its reach. Last weekend, as Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s Supreme Court nominee, was finally being confirmed in the Senate, the Furies were unleashed and the Republicans’ foes took flight from the asylum...

The past few weeks have marked a turning point in US politics in a number of ways. It’s become commonplace to say that the formal and informal institutions of public life have been profoundly damaged...

For Mr Trump, though, it’s been perhaps the most successful phase of his presidency. For the first time since he swaggered onto the political stage and crashed the Republican Party, he has succeeded in uniting it behind him. The lingering doubts among Republicans about his probity, competence, conservative credentials and the risks he poses to the norms of liberal democracy and public discourse have been eclipsed by what they see as the exigencies of the fight against an opponent whose anger and loathing rises by the day.

Republicans are galvanised in a way they haven’t been since Mr Trump came to office. The midterm elections are just a few weeks away and it still looks as though Democrats will make gains. If they do, the pressure on Mr Trump is sure to intensify. But after a September to remember he seems certain to have more Republicans willing to back him, come what may.

[SunkenCiv]

No wonder he had to leave the country.