American conservatism has as many clear, resolute devotees of constitutional democracy as any other stream of ideologyor it once seemed to. For, in truth, those of us Cassandras who predicted a slow collapse of respectable Republicans in the face of Trumps ascension turned out to be, well, too conservative. The collapse has been almost total, and shockingly uncritical. A few resisters asidein the press, the names Jennifer Rubin, Max Boot, and David Frum come to mindeven those who know better, or did, have allowed the ancient habits of hatred to overwhelm their normal sense of right and wrong. Republican legislators who, a year ago, would have been aghast at any politician who praised the brutal dictator Vladimir Putin now have little trouble swallowing their tongues when Trump insists that Putins good opinion, however earned, is an asset. Those who made a fuss about pursuing any possible conflict of interest among Obamas appointees now meekly allow the most conflict-ridden and least vetted of candidates for high office to walk through largely unmolested. And the insistence of the leader that he has no obligation to release any record of his financial entanglements, with the bold repeated lie that an auditwhose existence cant be confirmed and wouldnt matter anywayprevents him from doing so, is simply and mutely accepted. The collapsemotivated for some by opportunism, for others by the intimidation of the mobis complete.
ounds.