This week, the National Review published a statement to Catholics opposing Donald Trumpâ??s campaign for president. Authored by right-wing eminences George Weigel and Robert George, and cosigned by an impressive list of Catholic intellectuals and leaders, the document joins a body of anti-Trump literature that is coming into its own stentorian rhetorical conventions. The celebrity candidate is â??manifestly unfitâ? to be president, the authors say, especially when there are Republican candidates â??who do not exhibit his vulgarity, oafishness, shocking ignorance, andâ??we do not hesitate to use the wordâ??demagoguery.â?
Itâ??s an honorable effort, however doomed to irrelevance. The writerly war paint of demagoguery accusations and the spears of em-dashed unhesitancy did not reach Michigan voters in time or force to prevent the vulgar oaf from claiming a comfortable plurality in that stateâ??s primary. Whatever their effect or lack thereof, however, the Republican-aligned Christian intellectuals who are publicly opposing Trump are revealing a great deal in the arguments they choose to make.
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