The e-mail The Washington Post sends out from its opinion page came with a screaming headline: “Saturday’s Opinions: Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy.” Post critics on Twitter have suggested this is the kind of language often reserved for national-security threats, like terrorists. This came a day after the staff editorial headlined "Donald Trump: The candidate of the apocalyse." [Image by Rachel Orr for WaPo]
Their editorial began: “DONALD J. TRUMP, until now a Republican problem, this week became a challenge the nation must confront and overcome.” His politics are a “politics of denigration and division,” and his “contempt for constitutional norms” could clearly fit President Obama. This is the nut graf:
Any one of these characteristics would be disqualifying; together, they make Mr. Trump a peril. We recognize that this is not the usual moment to make such a statement. In an ordinary election year, we would acknowledge the Republican nominee, move on to the Democratic convention and spend the following months, like other voters, evaluating the candidates’ performance in debates, on the stump and in position papers. This year we will follow the campaign as always, offering honest views on all the candidates. But we cannot salute the Republican nominee or pretend that we might endorse him this fall. A Trump presidency would be dangerous for the nation and the world.
You have to giggle at the passage “we cannot pretend that we might endorse him in the fall” in the same breath as how they will “as always” be “honest” in their evaluations. The Post hasn’t endorsed a Republican for president since 1976....when they began making regular endorsements.
This screed concluded:
The [Republican] party’s failure of judgment leaves the nation’s future where it belongs, in the hands of voters. Many Americans do not like either candidate this year . We have criticized the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, in the past and will do so again when warranted. But we do not believe that she (or the Libertarian and Green party candidates, for that matter) represents a threat to the Constitution. Mr. Trump is a unique and present danger.
You don’t have to be a fan of Trump [I'm not] to make fun of the Post hyperbole here. Just days ago, these same editorials had a fit over “unprecedented” convention-floor shouts of “Lock her up.” But the Post seems to entertain the wildest hyperbole about Trump. A few weeks ago, the Outlook section earnestly explored how he compared to the dictators in literature.
Democrats have a funny tendency to say, directly and indirectly, that voting for Democrats is voting for Democracy. Voting for Republicans is voting for autocracy.
This “unique threat to democracy” editorial was posted Friday afternoon, but is not in Saturday’s paper. So let’s guess it’s Sunday’s lead editorial. Saturday’s lead editorial is a gush about how Sen. Tim Kaine is “just so damn likeable.” But the Post isn’t a Democratic rag at all, right?
Trump is such a “unique threat to democracy” that there’s doesn’t seem to be a democracy at all when it comes to opinion about Trump. The “Saturday’s Opinions” e-mail was entirely unanimous that Trump was awful (and Pence was “pliable”), while Clinton-Kaine is nifty and well-situated for victory. It has all the "democracy" of a state-run newspaper. Check out this list of headlines:
Editorial Board
Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy
He is unfit for the presidency and cannot be endorsed.
Larry J. Sabato
Why Tim Kaine can be enormously valuable for Hillary Clinton
His place on the ticket could lock up Virginia — and that’s just the start.
George F. Will
Pence the pliable
The Indiana governor bows to Trump, policy differences be damned.
Colbert I. King
The route to D.C. statehood doesn’t go through Cleveland
Mayor Bowser’s handing out M&M-filled snack bags to Trump supporters leaves a bad taste.
Kathleen Parker
Trump is following in the path of despots
The reasons for the comparisons between tyrants and Trump transcend mere politics.
Ruth Marcus
Donald Trump just set the table for Clinton
Now all she has to do is lay out an appetizing agenda.
Michael Gerson
Trump is cultivating a state of panic
It is necessary to confront his unmasked contempt for American institutions.
Dana Milbank
In acceptance speech, Trump’s America is a dark and desperate place
The GOP presidential nominee delivers the darkest piece of rhetoric spoken by a major political figure in modern U.S. history.
The Post’s View
Hillary Clinton picks a strong running mate in Tim Kaine
The Virginia senator is not only supremely capable of serving but also fully prepared — from day one — to be president.
