No Guardrails Foretold Today s Breakdown 30 Years Ago – WSJ
Mr. Henninger identified August 1968, when the Democratic National Convention found itself sharing Chicago with the street fighters of the anti-Vietnam War movement, as the moment when America began to tip off the emotional tracks. For those of us whose memories aren t that long, there are other contenders the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, the Clinton impeachment, Bush v. Gore. Donald Trump s 2015 trip down the escalator will cast a long shadow in the American political mind.
In 2012, after the Sandy Hook school massacre, Mr. Henninger revisited No Guardrails. He wrote that it wasn t a plea for retrieving a mythical past but an argument that we would be better off if our intellectual, political and cultural elites rediscovered and publicly revered the protective virtues of self-control and self-restraint. Maybe that seemed possible in 2012.
To Trump Republicans, guardrails sounds like Make America Boring Again. They love to cheer their champion as he lays waste to political convention and common decency. If we re one election away from losing the country, who cares about manners? He fights, they say.
Even before Mr. Trump s rise, Democrats had similarly convinced themselves that they were democracy s guardians and every low stratagem was justified. Remember Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid s 2012 assertion that Mitt Romney hadn t paid taxes for 10 years? Four years later, Reid justified this lie: Romney didn t win, did he?
The prospect of a Trump restoration gives both sides an excuse for all manner of unscrupulous tactics. The 2016 election cycle will look like a garden party compared with what s coming. I make a point to read No Guardrails from beginning to end every few months. I do it in part because I still can t believe I get to work alongside Dan Henninger but mostly as a reminder that, amid all the allegations and fire drills, none of this has come suddenly. The guardrails have been gone for a while.
via www.wsj.com
Matthew Hennessey.