So long as Donald Trump demonstrates that he is incapable of controlling his mouth he will incur defection among the Republican elites and, ultimately, among Republican rank and file voters. Worse, he will be undermining conservatism in America with every foolish utterance.
Politicians are businessmen they are in the business of politics and, like all businessmen, they are intent on protecting their brand. There is nothing in politics today more toxic than to be labeled a racist. No Republican, no intelligent conservative, associates himself or even tolerates any gratuitous remark which can legitimately be described as racist.
No one has been more adamant on these threads than I have that phony claims of racism are the stuff of Democratic Party politics and must be opposed where ever encountered. That argument can be seen in my decade-old about page. It is a contributing reason why I use the name and avatar which I use. I repeatedly advance Nathan Bedford's first maxim of American politics:
All politics in America is not local but ultimately racial.
The problem here is that Trump's remarks were not merely gratuitous, the problem is not that they were stupid-which they indisputably were-but that they were ultimately selfish because they placed Donald Trump's personal interest above the cause which is campaign represents. In other words, Trump's reaction was ego driven because he was willing to court a charge of racism in order to combat charges that he committed fraud. In resorting to this defense, or at least in resorting to it in such a clumsy manner, his ego ran over common sense. The damage down ticket to conservatives running for inferior offices is potentially very great if Trump cannot get his ego and his mouth under control. These remarks are dispiriting to those of us who have committed to support Donald Trump in this election. We want him to win but he is needlessly making a very daunting task for any Republican candidate even more difficult for himself and for those of us who wish him well in this election.
