Toxic

As a historian, Victor Davis Hansen has the ability to examine the broad scope of events and boil them down to their essential meaning. In a sweeping article on the virulent hatred of Donald Trump that has overtaken Democrats, their legions of media (and entertainment) allies, the #NeverTrump GOP, and far too many deep state operatives (the four constituencies), Hansen considers Trump's many foibles as well as his successes (read the whole thing). At the conclusion of the piece, he writes:

Trump senses that the more he offends them [the four constituencies], and the more so they pronounce him a dunce, a nut, a boor, a criminal, an ogre, then all the more they reveal what many had suspected about them but had no hard evidence to substantiate those suspicions. Trump believes his checkered social life is now transparent and serves as a sort of armor when he jousts with the sober and judicious whose pretense of civility is ripped away leaving them hypocritical when they foam, swear, and damn the current president.

Media bias? The hatred for Trump manifests itself in 90 percent negative coverage, according to reputable media watchdogs.

Trump’s war with the Colin Kaepernick take-a-knee fad and the NBA-China nexus reminds us that hypocritical multimillionaires who grow rich throwing, catching, and bouncing balls are not by that fact to be looked up to as either moral or wise, but mostly remain clueless and hypocritical.

The bipartisan Washington establishment? If an outsider Manhattan wheeler-dealer without military or political experience can at last call an appeased China to account, can avoid a Libyan fiasco, can acknowledge that America is tired of a 18-year slog in Afghanistan when others would not, or believes ISIS thrived as a result of prior arcane restrictive U.S. rules of engagement—and he is proven largely right—then what does that say about the credentialed experts who dreamed up the bipartisan conventional wisdom that with a few more concessions China would eventually become Palo Alto or that Libya would bloom at the heart of the Arab Spring?

The Left detests Trump for a lot of reasons besides winning the 2016 election and aborting the progressive project. But mostly they hate his guts because he is trying and often succeeding to restore a conservative America at a time when his opponents thought that the mere idea was not just impossible but unhinged.

And that is absolutely unforgivable.

For the past 40 years, the left has effectively controlled the narrative, even when the GOP has won elections and controlled one or both branches on congress. As a consequence, they have become more and more extreme, less and less open to negotiation or compromise, and increasingly strident in their view of those who have differing opinions. This has occurred because control of the narrative means that there are no checks and balances—crazy ideas reign supreme. Any one who questions them (e.g., the argument that our borders should be open to everyone, without restriction or controls) is demonized as a "racist" or worse.

Love him or hate him or anything in between, you have to admit that Donald Trump gleefully questions the Leftist narrative, often using language that is intended to infuriate his opponents. Unlike past presidents, he uses social media to circumvent the main stream media, frustrating their attempts to control his message and therefore continue to control the narrative.

At the end of the day, Trump's style is probably not good for America, but by unmasking the four constituencies and demonstrating that in their own way, they are really no better than he is, Donald Trump has demonstrated that their style is equally toxic.