When This Blows Over

• On most domestic issues, he is an empty vessel who has no
political experience or intellectual skills to guide the nation
forward.
•
• On social issues, he has the rare capacity to inflame racial
tensions without cause, and to engage in gratuitous sexual
slurs that further outrage public opinion.
•
• On foreign affairs, his oft-expressed disdain for treaties could
usher in pandemonium on the most central military and
economic issues.
** What makes the current situation still more
distressing is the polarizing impact that this campaign
has had on the American electorate. It takes no
sociological wizard to realize the deep antipathy that
ardent Trump supporters have for Clinton, whom they
think represents the bicoastal liberal elites and their
favored minority groups. Clinton supporters return the
favor by denouncing everyone who supports Trump as
racists, homophobes, and kooks.
Harsh talk like this has tended to abate during previous
presidential elections. Traditionally, Democratic
candidates tacked left while Republican candidates tacked
right during the primaries to secure the nomination—only
to both inch back to the middle in the general election in
order to appeal to the median voter, on whom the outcome
of elections was thought to hinge.