'I was saved by luck or God,' Trump says

Aaron, RE the bloodbath comment. I encourage you to do a bit more research before quoting your “trusted media sources”. The full context of that comment is about the auto industry.

Speaking of context, in the context of my point, the question was whether progressive’s rhetoric about Trump can be blamed for the attempt on his life—terms like ‘would-be tyrant,’ and ‘literally Hitler’ and the like.

My point was that characterizations of a person are not the same as calls for or threats of consequences. Nor do they contain actual violent terms. They are qualitatively different.

I did say Trump’s uses were metaphorical. It doesn’t change my point in the least, which is this: If we’re going to blame ordinary political rhetoric for actions of murderers (I think we should not), Trump’s language is at least as guilty as anyone else’s.

These are not ‘made up’ things.

Sure, many have exaggerated and distorted them into something far more serious than they are. My point is that Trump’s language cannot possibly be less serious than terms like fascist, tyrant, threat to democracy, etc. (which are perfectly ordinary political discourse).

The Axios article isn’t a great list. I’ve personally seen a lot worse from him on Twitter and in rally speech recordings. I just haven’t made anything like a collection.

Why bother? His supporters are not interested, and his opponents already see his disqualifications as obvious.

Long before Trump arrived at the political stage, there were kinds of men I would never vote for. I didn’t invent these disqualifiers when he arrived, out of ‘not liking’ him. On my short list of disqualifying character traits—any one of which is a vote preventer—Trump checks multiple boxes. It’s not even close.

Admittedly, some of the traits on that list are personal. I wouldn’t say everybody should have them on their ‘no vote’ character flaws list. There are just certain behaviors in a leader that make me viscerally incapable of trusting them in any way.

In the aggregate, though, I think his flaws should be compelling to any conservative. He never should have been nominated in 2016 and now we’re still living with the consequences of that—and probably will for another four years. Or maybe not. It’s possible that even before the end a 2nd Trump term, the very mixed bag that is the new right will rediscover that conservatism includes convictions about character (arguably, is built on them)—and we should return to valuing that.